Improving Visibility in the Cold Storage Warehouse with RFID

1. Improving Visibility in the Cold
Storage Warehouse with RFID
Karen Reece, Vice President, Eskimo Cold Storage
Anthony J Dublino, Dir. Commercial Business, N America - Jamison RFID

2. Who is Eskimo ?
• Eskimo Cold Storage handles all types of frozen foods ranging
from poultry to seafood- with the ability to blast freeze
products and have ready for shipment the next day.
• Our focus is on customer service made evident by 24/7
availability, Eskimo Cold Storage also offers exporting and real
time inventory tracking.
• A company built on decades of experience and a love for the
industry, Eskimo Cold Storage employs the latest technology
to deliver the highest quality service.
• We have 10.9 Million Cubic Feet of space with 32,000 pallet
positions- which are 7 levels high.

3. Eskimo Technology Overview…
• Eskimo Cold Storage originally used a WMS
bar-code tracking solution to manage our
inventory…
• By installing an RFID inventory tracking
solution, we then further:
– Improved our inventory visibility
– Decreased search time for lost pallets
– Increased productivity operations over 50%.

4. Warehouse Layout…

5. Receiving Area…
64 Receiving / Shipping Docks

6. Inside the operation…
10.9 Million
Cubic Feet
High Bay
Warehouse
Running
2 Shifts
X 6 days per
week.

7. How Cold is it ? 0 to -25 degrees
Smurfette  Michael Myers 

8. The Problem…
• Mis-handled Pallets (at Put away) =
• Lost Pallets (at Picking)
• $25,000 per year in Chargebacks
– Vendors (Lost, Late or Missed Shipment)
– Demurrage
– Freight
• Customer “TRUST” becomes an issue…

9. Eskimo Data…1
• 20 Trucks per day
• 24 Pallets per Truck
• 480 Pallets per Day
• 290 work days per year =
• 139,200 Pallets Processed per YEAR
• 3% or 4176 Pallets per year are mishandled
• 32,000 Pallet Positions - Total
• 600 Pallet Positions per Aisle

10. Eskimo Data…2
• Lost Pallets (at Picking)
– Pallets handled per year = 139,200
– 3% pallets misplaced = 4176
– $ per hour per worker $12.50 (includes benefits)
– Picking Cost per “Normal” pallet (avg.) = $3.13
– Time to find misplaced pallet = 4 hours (Average)
– Picking Cost per LOST pallet (avg.) = $50
– LOST Dollars per year = $50 x 4176 = $208,800
– Chargebacks per year = $ 25,000

11. The Solution…1
• RFID at Pallet Level

12. The Solution…2
• RFID System located at the end of each aisle.

13. The Solution…3
• Time to find ANY Lost Pallets is <10 minutes

14. The Solution…ROI
• RFID Tracking at the end of each aisle gave a
“Confirmation” of which aisle was used for
pallet storage.
– Cost of the RFID Solution = $100,000
– Chargeback Savings = $ 25,000 (year)
– Misplaced Pallet Savings = $208,000 (year)
– TOTAL Savings = $233,000 (year)
– ROI for the RFID Solution 4.3 Months

15. Karen is HAPPY 

16. Anthony J Dublino
Jamison RFID
(a division of Jamison Door)
Adublino@jamisondoor.com
240-313-7944
Questions are cool!
Karen R. Reece
Vice President
Eskimo Cold Storage
kreece@eskimocold.com
770-535-3008 ext 223