On the shelves of the frozen food sector in supermarkets or in small personalized freezers in bakeries, bars and restaurants, ice cream and popsicles have always attracted the attention and taste of adults and children, especially in the summer heat. But have you ever stopped to think about all the logistical effort required to make these products available in the expected consistency for consumption at points of sale?
Figure 1 – Ice cream freezer in a supermarket
Source: Disclosure
To start the list of difficulties in managing the ice cream chain, we are talking about a product that defrosts at -17°C. This means that from the moment it was produced until the moment it is consumed, its temperature must not drop to -20°C so as not to impair its quality. Some cold storage rooms are designed to operate at -30°C or even -40°C, with an antechamber for order picking and shipping operating between 0°C and -10°C, where the product should not stay for more than 15 minutes. That is, the speed of shipment is a fundamental point in this operation.
Another important impact of this temperature restriction is the work of storage personnel. Cold room operators need to be equipped with equipment that makes it possible to work in these extreme conditions, such as face shields and gloves, in addition obviously to appropriate thermal clothing. And even so, the work routine usually requires that for every 1 hour of work inside the chambers, the operator rests for 30 minutes in a heated room as a way of readapting to the ambient temperature.
Another key point for ice cream operations are the freezers. All sales are limited to the small storage capacity of the freezers, unlike non-frozen food products, which can be stored in any POS back office area. This restriction considerably limits the volume of orders, which in turn creates an additional challenge for route operators, who at the same time must seek to optimize truck occupancy and maintain the level of service.
As if all these challenges were not enough, we are still talking about an extremely seasonal product. The low consumption in the winter months causes many operations to be idle. At these times, agreements with unions, collective vacations and preventive maintenance of its own fleet come into play, all in the sense of trying to rationalize fixed costs in a period of low sales.
After understanding all the complexities of managing these operations, I hope you can enjoy ice cream even more at your next opportunity!
