The pandemic has highlighted tremendous opportunities for technology to solve continuing challenges impacting consumer behavior in fresh, said Muntazir Mehdi, senior product manager for analytics and AI for Toronto-based Invafresh, whose technologies are currently being used in more than 25,000 grocery stores in 15 countries.
Highly perishables now make up 39% of grocery stores, and produce alone is nearly 24%. These items have a short lifespan and are ripe for waste if not purchased. And food waste is expensive: shrink costs retailers $52 billion annually.
The volatility currently facing the food industry is unlike anything experienced in modern times, according to Nextec, a specialist in production management and other technologies.
At a time of labor shortages and rapid, hard-to-predict inflationary pressures, it’s more important than ever for retail foodservice departments and other areas of the fresh perimeter to have reliable production management software solutions to maximize efficiency and minimize waste.
Brain Corp’s fleet of autonomous robots are now covering over 100 billion square feet, giving back approximately 6.8 million hours to employees and operations managers.