Arcadia Cold

冷链储存和运输是复杂的活动。然而，作为物流服务领域的新晋竞争者，Arcadia Cold 具备一项后发优势：能够基于领先的可扩展数字技术与流程从头构建运营体系，从而简化复杂的操作。

‘ArcadiaOne’：基于 Snowflake AI 数据云构建的 Web 门户

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.

先进的人工智能和机器学习技术可实现实时可见性和响应能力

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. 

仓库劳动力生产率提高了 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!’

供应链优化有助于推动可持续发展工作 

除成本和服务成果外，Arcadia Cold 还 将可持续性视为关键战略优先事项。通过优化 运输路线、降低能耗以及提升空间 利用率，Arcadia Cold 不仅能提供行业领先的服务 水平、有效控制成本，更成为积极践行环保 责任的企业典范。

“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.