AMERICOLD FACILITIES AT A GLANCE

Americold owns and operates 179 sites in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Argentina.  See our locations here.

Warehouse Management Systems manage common operations such as inventory control, customer orders, and auditing whereas Warehouse Execution Systems are typical in facilities with moderate-to-heavy levels of automation. The WES generally interfaces with the WMS to organize and optimize the flow of work required to assemble and ship orders. In addition, the WES interfaces with the automation controls to execute the work – it’s the WES that controls the robots!

Americold strives to deploy only the most appropriate types and amounts of automation given the circumstances – we don’t automate for automation’s sake. Because of this philosophy, we have a number of different technologies in use today and in our plans for the future. Semi-automated systems, such as pallet shuttles operating in deep storage racking and forklift-attached layer pickers, are used in addition to highly automated systems such as pallet load Automatic Storage and Retrieval Systems, robotic layer pickers, pallet mono-rails, and case buffer/sequencing technologies with robotic palletization. All are designed to the specifications we require and, of course, to operate in our temperature-controlled environments.

Americold’s IT infrastructure is second to none – we work with top-tier providers who specialize in supply chain systems to ensure we’re at the forefront of what’s available.

Our WMSs are the brains behind inventory management, planning, and electronically building order instructions for our Associates and systems to fulfill. You’re able to customize pallet builds so orders are loaded sequentially for ease of use at the destination, be it a distribution center or an aisle in a grocery store.

We can even support your pallet management program within our systems if you have one.

Our WMSs work through Warehouse Execution Systems to control multiple solutions, such as Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems, Automated Guided Vehicles, pallet moles, pallet transportation systems, lifts, and pallet wrapping and labeling equipment.

With our linked facility network, we’re able to provide visibility to all of your inventory, no matter where it is across our network. And we’ve streamlined our truck appointment process by introducing Online Appointment Scheduling through i-3PL.

Americold’s Warehouse Management Systems are fully integrated, meaning that you have complete control of you supply chain and inventory through our i-3PL system. Access it on any computer, tablet, or smart phone. Reach out to us if you’d like to know more information and a system demonstration.

Absolutely – Americold is happy to share food safety audit results with its customers. Please contact your Americold facility’s General Manager.