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Despite the disparate levels of sophistication between cold chains in developed markets versus those in emerging ones, the common goals are generally the same: maintain food safety standards and protect brand reputation, reduce operating costs, and keep pace with changing consumer demands, which includes online grocery shopping and home delivery.

The cold storage sector is tasked with meeting all of these requirements, which is driving significant changes across the board.

Taking a Global View

Emergent Cold, a newer cold storage provider that was founded by industry veterans, operates facilities in both developed markets, such as Australia and New Zealand, as well as emerging ones like Vietnam. This gives the company a unique view into the global cold chain.

In emerging markets, the lack of infrastructure is one of the biggest challenges for the food industry, says chief operations officer West Hutchison.

“There are a lot of markets around the world that have no temperature-controlled infrastructure at all,” he says, or they are “mom-and-pop companies that maybe don’t have some of the design experience and security systems in place from a physical facility perspective or IT perspective.”

While the construction of the physical infrastructure is underway, Emergent is working with enVista, a global consulting and software solutions firm, to build an overall IT suite that ensures it will be able to track-and-trace products that are in its care custody and control.

While regulations in the United States require the capture of “one up and one down traceability,” so that if there’s a request for that data, the appropriate party can respond, in New Zealand, the regulations are even more stringent, notes Hutchison. In particular, the data must be “pushed” to regulators.

These variances in both the physical infrastructure and country-specific regulations make it a necessity to implement a robust and comprehensive IT solution that can be applied globally. It also provides a foundation for continued growth across multiple global regions.

Different Markets, Different Labor Issues

Mike Rader, managing partner at enVista, notes that labor issues are also different in emerging markets like Vietnam compared to developed markets.

For example, the adoption of technology lags, in part, because it’s simply cheaper to hire people and maintain paper-intensive processes.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how receptive they are as we roll out technology solutions in emerging markets, especially Vietnam,” he says.

In many developed markets, though, labor availability is tight, and attracting workers to the cold storage sector can be even tougher, given the generally harsh environment.

According to Hutchison, Emergent’s philosophy is “to have fewer, but more highly compensated associates, through a blend of automation and performance-based pay packages.

“As we look at our facilities, there are a lot of opportunities for automation. AS/RS facilities have been around forever, but they are getting a lot more capable of performing lower-level tasks such as layer picking and case picking,” he says, adding that even the use of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) can have a positive impact in a tight labor market

When Luxottica Group S.p.A. decided to build a new 713,000-square-foot distribution center in McDonough, Ga., the Italian manufacturer and retailer of eyewear, accessories and fashion had three primary goals, according to Massimo Sapone, the senior vice president of logistics and planning for North America.

The first was to consolidate locations in Georgia, Ohio and California into one North American hub that handled all of Luxottica’s brands and provided one face to the customer. But, it wasn’t just a consolidation of Luxottica’s order fulfillment operations.

Take an inside look into Luxottica’s new fulfillment center

In addition to the distribution hub, the McDonough campus features four buildings totaling 1.1 million square feet, including a 50,000-square-foot aftersales distribution center for processing returns and a center for sourcing and planning. In all, 2,000 employees support the logistics and ophthalmic manufacturing operations.

The second was to improve speed to market. “The idea is that we want to be simpler and faster, and we can do that through consolidation of our facilities and the simplification of our processes,” Sapone says.

Third, they put in one place manufacturing and distribution processes, a move that would position Luxottica as the industry leader in customer service. “Our ambition is to gain the No. 1 operation in our industry, and I believe we are already pulling away from our competitors,” Sapone notes.

It is a unique facility, essentially three 238,000-square-foot facilities with 12-foot ceilings stacked on top of one another. The three levels—unusual in North America but more common in Europe—connect with a high-speed elevator and conveyor for lighter weight loads and two heavy-duty freight elevators for heavier pallet loads. Putaway, replenishment and picking operations are directed by a warehouse management system (WMS), RF scanning and lights, depending on the process. The facility also features an extensive conveyor and sortation system, a put wall area and automated packaging for small and medium-sized orders. As part of this project, Luxottica also implemented SAP in McDonough—its global enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform.

At the moment, the ground floor handles receiving and shipping along with order fulfillment processes for a common pool of frames for Luxottica’s wholesale and e-commerce eyewear businesses. The second floor is the manufacturing lab, where prescription lenses are created and married with frames that are stored there to support the lens business. The third floor is reserved for Oakley branded apparel, footwear and accessories—Luxottica and Oakley eyewear are on the first floor.

A facility with 12-foot ceilings might seem unusual in an era when most DCs are more than 30 feet tall or higher. But Vince Pusateri, the senior director of engineering and network strategy for North America, notes that given the size of the products handled in the eyewear business, the ability to efficiently store and pick about 55,000 SKUs in the facility is more important than ceiling height.

“This was a giant project that we launched in 2016, building the campus from scratch,” adds Sapone. “But we now have a distribution facility that enables our business model and allows us to service almost 6,000 stores from one location.”

Made in Luxottica
Luxottica is a leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of fashion, luxury and sports eyewear. According to the company, its portfolio includes proprietary brands such as Ray-Ban, Oakley, Vogue Eyewear, Persol, Oliver Peoples and Alain Mikli. It also licenses brands, including Giorgio Armani, Burberry, Bulgari, Chanel, Coach, Dolce&Gabbana, Ferrari, Michael Kors, Prada, Ralph Lauren, Tiffany & Co., Valentino and Versace.

The group’s global wholesale distribution network covers more than 150 countries and is complemented by a global retail network of approximately 9,000 stores, with LensCrafters and Pearle Vision in North America; OPSM and LensCrafters in Asia-Pacific; GMO and Óticas Carol in Latin America; Salmoiraghi & Viganò in Italy; and Sunglass Hut worldwide. In 2017, with approximately 85,000 employees, Luxottica posted net sales of more than $10.4 billion.