Kraft upgrades container management

Kraft Foods has upgraded its container management in the US using a solution provided by assets management provider, TrenStar.

Kraft said that it opted for TrenStar's Global Container Management (GCM) unit in an effort to acquire additional Intermediate Bulk Containers (IBCs) and provide an upgraded container management solution at the North Lawrence, New York facility.

Kraft has now extended an original three-year contract signed with TrenStar by another four years and Kraft for implementation at the North Lawrence facility of TrenStar's container management solution, TrenStarCM. As part of the extended contract TrenStar will supplement existing bar codes with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to track 800-litre stainless steel IBCs in use by Kraft suppliers.

"RFID technology gives Kraft a level of flexibility and reliability that bar coding alone cannot provide. The introduction of hands-off, 'invisible' scanning means no human intervention and 100 percent scanning compliance and accuracy,"​ said TrenStar's manager of Food Solutions Jim Krigbaum. "Food manufacturers can benefit immensely when RFID is used to capture data on location, dwell times and turn frequency on the IBC, thereby providing the necessary data to allow for improvement in production and inventory management within their supply chains."​

Trenstar claims that its solution provides a precise level of data on each container and is fully Web-enabled to allow Kraft and its suppliers to view data that was previously uncollected and unanalysed. Its container unit handles the retrieval at North Lawrence of empty IBCs and delivers them to contracted Kraft fruit preparation suppliers. Kraft's North Lawrence facility produces Breyers and the new Crème Savers yoghurt product lines.

Based in the US, TrenStar​ offers mobile asset management solutions on a global basis to companies invested in containers that move raw materials, work-in-progress and finished goods through the supply chain.