Thought of opening your venture in the bakery and pastry sector but could not make it because of lack of proper storage at a particular temperature. If your company is leading company in the bakery and pastry sector and has various production and retail shop, a fleet of over 20 vehicles that perform around 40 deliveries every day then you have dabbled over the right partner.
Biz4intellia, an end-to-end Industrial IoT solution provides a cold chain monitoring and smart tracking system that works from storing the stuff at a proper temperature to reach the destination in peak condition. You need not to worry if you want to deliver your stuff in the morning and want to reach out your customer early at the point of sale. To control the temperature and make delivery more proficient, Biz4intellia has its own Smart Tracking solution which uses sensors and gateways.
The route optimization feature of Smart Tracking maps out the optimized routes for the fleet drivers so that the deliveries of cakes, pastries, and fresh bread products to the retail outlets can reach within the given time. With the sensor system, the temperature and location of each fleet can be known in real-time and hence alerts can be received through a smartphone/tablet/pc and basic internet connection.
The below image tells about the present status of a particular vehicle like the temperature of the refrigerator, weight it is carrying, latitude, longitude, speed, and battery. Alerts are sent if a driver crosses the threshold of the speed or the refrigerator is not at a correct temperature.
Role of Sensor and wireless gateway:
During transportation of the food items, maintaining an optimal temperature was a critical task to prevent the costly spoilage. The Cold Chain Logistics solution provides a consistent and inexpensive way to ensure that your coolers and freezers are working properly, possibly saving thousands of dollars from unnecessary damage.
Biz4intellia IoT solution eradicated all the challenges and developed the Cold Chain Monitoring solution consisting of a temperature sensor, 3G antenna, wireless gateway, GPS antenna, and a charger.
The temperature sensor used cost near about $49 with a frequency of 900MHz.To accurately measure the temperature, a thermistor is used. These small-sized sensors are perfect for monitoring ambient temperatures around the physical location of the sensors. Customized sensors allow the user to set the frequency of readings and the threshold value so that alerts via SMS or email can be sent. The sensor works accurately up to a temperature of +/-1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) with the actual range varying according to the environment. With the sensor reporting frequency and other variables, you can also determine the battery life.
Out of the box features:
- Alerts if a door is left open:
During the course of taking the food from one place to another or during loading/unloading, if the door remains open then an alert is sent for the same. Also, if pilferage occurs during the same, notification via SMS or e-mail is sent.
- Geofencing:
The Geofencing feature captures the location of the vehicle with the coordinates of a particular area. Sends alerts when a driver deviates from the prescribed path as it can bring delay in delivery time and can cause accidental loss.
- Reduce Spoilage and Waste:
If a temperature is not within the range then it spoils the food and hence it becomes a waste. Therefore, a real-time alert is sent if a cooler’s temperature is outside of its nominal range.
- Save time and resources:
The automated system tracks temperatures so that a manual checking is not required. Hence it saves the time and resources to track the temperature and location of the vehicle.
- Predictive Maintenance:
Improved scheduled maintenance can be attained by the sensors and then the devices calculate the expected lifetime of machines well before their threshold comes.
- Maintain regulatory compliance:
Sensors help businesses to achieve regulatory compliance by giving 100% accurate data.
- Monitor from anywhere:
In a world of the digital era, accessing your smartphones/tablets/pc let you monitor the vehicle from anywhere around the globe.
How does it work?
The Biz4intellia solution monitors the temperature in the vehicle refrigeration chamber and sends the data to the gateway with the help of the 3G network. The real-time location of the vehicle is obtained with the help of the GPS antenna and is sent with the help of 3G network only. The battery has a capacity of 6600mAh and sends data even when the vehicle is off. In the absence of 3G coverage like in remote locations, data values are stored in memory and are then sent as soon as the vehicle comes in the coverage area.
Real-time data analysis-
With the recent digital technologies, transmission of data has become very easy. Mobile technology enables the transmission of data which gets accessed by the gateway. Also, it tells about the temperature along with the position of the vehicle in real-time. The solution can be used for any transport or logistics company that needs instant temperature and position monitoring of the fleet. As cakes are one of the most delicate goods to be transported, tracking their real-time location and refrigerator temperature was always a necessity.
The cold chain logistics is a catalyst in the supply chain thereby supplying better nutrition and improving global food security. Temperature controlled logistics and monitoring system plays an important role in the modern day business. With the ever-increasing population residing in the present developing or emerging countries, there are huge business opportunities in emerging markets. Companies are taking advantage of these modern technologies thus providing more benefits to the people. The reliability and the efficiency of the cold chain logistics solution have reached to a point where the food and beverage industry can make the best use of it.
As the technology made its footprints into the market companies as McDonald switched from frozen to fresh beef patties for its core burger product which could not have been possible without the coming up of the cold chain logistics.
