3PL management system from Headwater Technology Solutions to accommodate growth for refrigerated warehousing provider
Sioux City, IA — March 14, 2006 — Cloverleaf Cold Storage Inc., a resource for the meat and poultry industries, said it has purchased Headwater Technology Solutions Inc.'s SmartEnterprise third-party logistics (3PL) management system and is currently completing implementation of the solution in its network of 13 refrigerated warehouses in four Midwestern states.
The tenth-largest cold storage company in North America and a long-time innovator in the field of refrigerated warehousing, Cloverleaf Cold Storage operates USDA- and Chicago Mercantile Exchange-approved warehouses in Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri and Ohio. The company provides freezer, cooler and dry storage as well as a full range of close-to-market meat fabrication and packaging services through its Farmers Produce division, among them boxing, boning, trimming, packaging, scaling and pre-pricing, vacuum packaging, water and air defrost, and market protection programs.
It also operates a fleet of short-haul refrigerated trucks that operate out of the Sioux City terminal and provide just-in-time and short-notice material delivery from warehouses, packing plants and from Farmers Produce.
Cloverleaf is in a continuing growth mode, and SmartEnterprise provides us with the open, flexible environment we need to accommodate that growth, said Daniel Kaplan, president of Cloverleaf. Previously, we had a closed system, and when we needed changes — enhancements, pulling data for new reports and so on — we had to go back to the developer to get them. SmartEnterprise comes with plenty of power and flexibility, and its intuitive mode of operation and fast, easy data mining capability makes it simple to locate the information we and our customers need and to generate it using electronic document templates rather than labor intensive preprinted forms.
The SmartEnterprise 2 suite includes the Enterprise Foundation, an integration layer; the RF Voice Foundation; WarehouseLogic logistics management software; the Active Desktop GUI-based single point access and control module; the d'Amigo alert management and reporting tool; and the e-Vista Web-based visibility tool, which enables customers to track the movement and status of their inventory in real-time.
Cloverleaf has also implemented the EZConnect EDI-XML data translation and connectivity solution for automated computer-to-computer information exchange with its customers.
The company's SmartEnterprise solution runs under the Linux operating system on a Dell server with an Oracle database. According to Kaplan, the new software simplifies and centralizes management of all of the company's warehouses at the Sioux City headquarters location.
Additional Articles of Interest
- — For more information on the latest trends in the logistics space, see the article "The Analyst Corner: Fulfillment & Logistics" in the October/November 2004 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive.
