arcadia cold

冷鏈儲存和運輸是複雜的活動。然而，作為該 LSP 領域的新競爭者，Arcadia Cold 擁有一個優勢：它可以基於領先的、可擴展的數位技術和簡化複雜性的流程從頭開始建立其營運。

「ArcadiaOne」—基於 Snowflake 人工智慧資料雲建構的網路入口

Blue Yonder and Argano helped Arcadia deploy the Blue Yonder Platform, which utilizes the Snowflake AI Data Cloud as its central intelligence hub for its operations. Linking all Blue Yonder applications and its ERP system, this serves as the backbone to the ‘Arcadia One’ web portal. The portal provides real-time, comprehensive visibility and orchestration of end-to-end operations, whilst facilitating appointment scheduling, billing, and electronic messaging for customers. The portal provides a single source of truth.

先進的 AI 與 ML 技術可實現即時可見性與回應能力

Blue Yonder’s warehouse management, warehouse labor management, and transportation management solutions helped Arcadia Cold launch five new warehouses — in Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Georgia and Pennsylvania — in a record-setting 18 months between 2023 and 2024. The company also gained a competitive edge by providing customers with real-time visibility into their processes, inventory and shipments. The result? Arcadia Cold quickly became a force to reckon with in the U.S. temperature-controlled logistics market, onboarding new customers every day. 

Blue Yonder’s solutions provide a modern UI that helps Arcadia Cold maximize the accuracy and efficiency of ongoing processes such as receiving, picking, and scheduling employees, trucks, and other assets. Advanced AI and ML technology alerts Arcadia Cold to disruptions and exceptions in real time, creating a resilient supply chain that meets cost and service targets even as conditions change. It helps the company weigh complex trade-offs associated with third-party cold-chain logistics to make optimal decisions consistently. 

倉庫勞動力生產力提升9%   

By deploying Blue Yonder’s Labor Management solution, Arcadia Cold witnessed a 9% increase in labor productivity through optimized task allocation and real-time performance tracking. It also enhanced operational efficiency through streamlined processes and real-time insights. Faster and deeper insights into direct and indirect labor times improved resource management and accelerated operational adjustments to maximize productive work time. Lafaire summarizes this entire deployment as ‘a game-changer!’

供應鏈最佳化支持永續發展工作 

除了成本與服務成果之外，Arcadia Cold 還將永續性視為關鍵的策略性優先事項。透過優化 路線、降低能源消耗和提高空間 利用率，Arcadia Cold 可以提供產業領先的服務 水準、控制成本，並成為有責任心的環境 管理者。

“As a start-up company, we could embed sustainability from the start in our business processes and technology choices. Blue Yonder’s solutions gave us the ability to start digital. We do everything digital — from taking pictures of inbound trucks and showing our customers how we receive their products to how we ship their products. There’s no paper waste. Blue Yonder provides us and our customers with a single view of our data so we can see all their information in one place. Everything is documented in a system for ease of access and waste reduction,” explains Lafaire.

A Cognitive future

Over the last 2.5 years, Arcadia Cold has implemented Blue Yonder WMS at nine of its facilities (ranging from distribution hubs to port-side storage facilities that receive products  by ocean freight from Australia and Brazil). 

Over the years, several versions of the Blue Yonder WMS have been used, and Arcadia Cold is now planning to standardize on the latest Cognitive version. The LSP plans to take full advantage of the Blue Yonder Platform's most advanced integration capabilities and its embedded Agentic AI.

“We have been an early adopter of the cognitive version of WMS and have worked collaboratively with Blue Yonder to help make advancements. A huge advantage of the cognitive WMS is that it uses Snowflake as its single data source, ensuring our employees and the AI agents we are starting to deploy share a single source of truth. Multiple databases and data replication will soon become a problem of the past,” said Lafaire.

Arcadia Cold is currently implementing the new WMS at its first site before rolling out to the other eight sites.

Agentic AI

Arcadia Cold expects significant productivity improvements from AI agents native to the new cognitive solution. 

“There is a lot of talk about Agentic AI. I always start by defining the end game for any project. I’m expecting major advances in staff training. I believe only 30-40% of the information is retained when onboarding new associates; we’re going to change that with AI agents. These are being deployed to guide new associates not only during their introductions but also throughout their careers here at Arcadia Cold,” said Lafaire.

Additionally, Arcadia Cold is working with Blue Yonder to develop its Warehouse Ops Agent, which will utilize AI to facilitate supervisor changeovers. Agents will provide accurate insights into those pending priorities that need to be carried over from shift to shift to ensure continuity of service throughout the day. Agents will also be used to help balance staffing between Arcadia’s frozen and cold storage rooms. Staffing needs vary with demand and the number of people clocking in at each facility at the start of each shift, which means Arcadia Cold needs to be agile to rebalance demand and supply to meet multiple customer service level agreements. Rebalancing staffing and workloads will be based on clear recommendations from AI Agents to maximize the productivity of each work session.

Arcadia Cold is rapidly emerging as a disruptive force in cold chain logistics and plans to continue expanding in strategic locations across North America to have 26 facilities by 2036 — and Blue Yonder is proud to be an active partner on its ambitious journey.