AS/RS: A Key Link in the Cold Chain
Friday, August 27, 2010
The Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (AS/RS) Industry Group of Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA) has released it's Fall 2010 Quarterly Report titled AS/RS: A Key Link in the Cold Chain. The report asserts that quality control can be maintained closer to the point of consumption than ever before with today's AS/RS solutions.
An AS/RS, whether a vertical or horizontal carousel system or a fixed-aisle crane-based system, plays a key role in ensuring the quality and safety of consumer products. It does that by controlling the storage environment and maintaining a reliable data trail to document quality and ensure safety.
Although these systems are applied in many industries, two in particular call for critical strengths when it comes to environmental control in the cold chain: Pharmaceutical/medical supplies and food/grocery. Recent news stories about supply chain contamination and product recalls explain why.
“We need strict monitoring devices that both create a hard copy log and also communicate electronically to various facilities if something happens,” says Hanel Storage Systems’ Brian Cohen, chair of the Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA) Automated Storage/Retrieval Systems (AS/RS) Industry Group. “This can document that for whatever lot number or case number, temperature was maintained throughout a product’s entire stay in the system.”
State or Federal regulations often require such validation. But there are also times when supply chain stakeholders require documentation of who had access to these products and when. With bar coded personnel ID tags used as access keys, such accountability is established. In addition to temperature and access control, these systems can control humidity and ensure protection from contamination in clean room environments.
An AS/RS can serve as one of the cold chain’s strongest links by making up for variability in the weakest link. These points are when product spends time outside a temperature controlled space. The AS/RS owner’s goal is to minimize the effects of those times by getting products into the system as quickly as possible. That requires the ability to ensure system capacity at a moment’s notice while slotting those products by date, and sequencing them by customer.
With interfaces to supply chain execution and enterprise resource planning systems, an AS/RS can be a window to product flow and environmental data from the manufacturing line to the store shelf. As the needs for environmental control and accountability grow in many industries, AS/RS users in the pharma and food chains will show how it’s done.
View the complete report — AS/RS: A Key Link in the Cold Chain.
Quarterly Reports are an information source from several Industry Groups of MHIA. Each report will focus on trends in the use of material handling and logistics equipment, such as guided vehicles or automated storage, to solve challenges in the plant and warehouse ranging from sustainability to productivity in the new economy.
Members of MHIA Industry Groups are suppliers of material handling and logistics equipment and systems. These industry experts make it their business to evaluate operational challenges and solve them efficiently and cost effectively. That makes them authoritative sources for solutions to challenges that end users face on a daily basis.
AS/RS is an Industry Group of MHIA. AS/RS members are the Industry's leading suppliers of automated storage/retrieval systems. They supply systems worldwide and in virtually every major manufacturing and distribution sector.
MHIA is an international trade association that has represented this industry since 1945. MHIA members include material handling equipment and systems manufacturers, integrators, consultants, publishers, and third party logistics providers. Member companies come from all areas of material handling and various parts of the world, making MHIA a strong national and international representative for the material handling industry. Much of the work of the industry is done within its product-specific sections, councils and affiliates. The association also sponsors trade events, such as ProMat 2011 and MODEX 2012 to showcase the products and services of its member companies and to educate industry professionals on the productivity solutions provided through material handling and logistics.
Contact: For more information on MHIA activities and programming contact Carol Miller at 704-676-1190/800-345-1815.
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