The drive for increased productivity and cost saving impacts all types of business. For manufacturers and distributors, taking a closer look at process flow and understanding how and where improvements can be made is key. 

The food sector is particularly vulnerable to these pressures. With low margins, driven down by the big retailers, there is rarely a significant investment in new production facilities. This means that premises built in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s are finding it difficult to cope with a much larger population as well as the modern consumer demand for speed and choice. 

The common issue is that these production and distribution sites are often limited in terms of space, with areas such as grass borders deemed unsuitable for any practical purpose. This can lead to poor productivity, resulting in a higher cost per unit and double or even triple handling of the product. As well as impacting the efficiency of the business, it could in the worst case mean stock is rejected due to poor quality.

In this scenario, an inflatable cold store offers an ideal solution. Flexible in terms of where they can be sited with fast installation and simple removal when needed, inflatables not only have beneficial product features but will aid a business in terms of improving its productivity. 

Inflatable cold stores use premium textiles to make them durable and are extremely secure thanks to the use of highly engineering anchoring systems. Easy to relocate and even join, Thermostore can be tailored to an individual site and its demands. This is valuable in many cases where cold store ‘boxes’ are too wide and difficult to move quickly.

Unloading chilled raw material deliveries into a Thermostore installed at ground level in a yard, quite possibly in a location that was previously deemed to be dead space, has the potential to deliver multiple benefits. There is an industry-wide problem of trucks queuing at loading docks to deliver or load, so this frees up busy loading bays thus improving efficiency and avoiding the cost of waiting time. 

Furthermore, feeding the production line directly from the Thermostore avoids double handling in and out of internal stores, especially when the stores are often closer to the end of the production line than the start. Why bother going back and forth between the loading dock and the store when the requirement is just-in-time? 

Let’s also consider the pressure that stems from the “just-in-time” deliveries. Turnaround time is crucial, you want the delivery vehicle on the road not in the yard awaiting replenishment – but that is severely comprised when the operator has restricted loading points. A Thermostore can become an additional collection point in the yard to store pending deliveries, thus improving turnaround productivity.

The scope for utilising inflatable chill stores is huge, particularly when you consider their potential for meeting peaks in seasonal demand. The challenge is often finding space within an existing facility where the temporary staff are crammed into a limited space, thus reducing their productivity or compromising the normal production process. A Thermostore can quickly increase capacity and house a dedicated packing team with the productivity gains far outweighing the cost of the inflatable solution. 

Furthermore, with the ban on the use of any refrigerant gas with a GWP above 2500 fast approaching in January 2020, it’s a good time for those using R404a (GWP 3922) to start considering either plant replacement or retrofitting now with Thermostores sited within existing temporarily decommissioned cold store thus maintaining the chill chain without any disruption reducing productivity. 

Market conditions continue to fluctuate, making speed and flexibility increasingly important. Through an inflatable cold store, improvements to process flow and gains to productivity can be made much more simply than many might first think.