A new alliance between transportation platform provider C.H. Robinson and Microsoft has the potential to 'digitally transform fresh produce supply chains in the UK and address the logistics challenges that the sector faces', according to the two sides.
The partnership brings together C.H.Robinson’s AI-driven Navisphere platform, which supports some 119,000 customers globally including UK-based fresh produce suppliers, and Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform and Internet of Things (IOT)) to takeefficiencies, real-time insights and visibility to new levels in the sector.
C.H Robinson said it willcreate a logistics solution that supports the need for enhanced real-time insights and visibility during the pandemic by incorporating machine learning and artificial intelligence to support predictive analytics, IOT device monitoring for greater intelligence on products whilst in transit, premier data security and increased application speed.
David Fraas, director of information technology at C.H. Robinson, explained: “The coming together of our technologieswill tackle head on the issues facing fresh produce supply chains includingproduct traceability,end-to-end collaboration and improvedsupply chainresponsiveness. Increasingly, longer and more complicated supply chains present significant challenges for the UK fresh produce sector.
“Together we are aiming to deliver new levels of visibility and resilience to fresh produce supply chains across the UK, which have become even more critical in the wake of coronavirus with the exponential growth in demand for foodstuffs.”
The partnership will provide IoT device monitoring, which will enable fresh produce producers to monitor factors such as temperature, shock, tilt, humidity light and pressure in shipments to give their customers an even more detailed level of intelligence about goods as they move through the supply chain.
