This is a Case Study on contamination prevention in the food distribution industry.

Killarney Metals is proud of our ability to innovate and solve problems for our customers. Recently we had the opportunity to work with a large food distributor to solve a food storage contamination project in a vertical high bay refrigerated warehouse. The customer had an issue with storing their vegetables in their rack system. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the products they were dealing with, contamination between the storage pallets was occurring. One pallet of produce dripped onto the lower pallets, polluting their produce products. Let's take a look at the key aspects of this situation:

The Industry

Material Handling is the movement of raw goods from their original site to the point of use in manufacturing and the transfer of the finished products from factories and storage warehouses to distribution to retailers, wholesalers and customers. This is a task many forget about, but crucially important, and oftentimes tricky.

With the rise of healthy eating and the popularity of "farm to table produce", food handling is something that many people overlook. Sure, everyone knows they can go to their local grocery store and get fresh produce, but the process between farm to grocery is much more complex than a simple delivery. Once the farmer harvests their fruit or vegetables, there is still the issue of getting it to the grocers and onto your table just as fresh as if you harvested the produce from your own backyard. Storage in transport and in holding facilities is a large task with fresh produce. The humidity, especially in leafy greens, can lead to distribution challenges, and that's where our job began.

Problem Discovery

Killarney was up to the task. Our sales team was contacted in search of a solution. Through the effort many parts of our team, we were able to find a solution that WORKED. We met with the customer to further understand their situation and needs and create the best solution possible. After gaining a better understanding of the pallet rack drip pan that our customer needed, our in-house engineer got to work designing a custom pan that would work perfectly for the industrial warehouse application. 

Throughout the design process, Killarney Metals engineers worked closely with the production team to create the perfect solution for the application, reduce process complexity and optimize design for cost savings. After the design was finalized, prototypes were sent to the customer to assure the solution worked before finalizing the custom industrial drain pan.

Implementation

After confirmation of the solution, Killarney Metals put in a large order production to satisfy the large quantity of industrial pans the customer needed.  Our solution saved significant manual labor per day while eliminating the use of expensive plastic bags and most importantly eliminating contamination, improving human consumption safety of the produce distributed from our customer's facility.

- Nelson Wills, General Manager

Summary

Thanks to quick thinking, a collaborative process and in-house capabilities, the partnership yielded a design on time and on budget. In addition, the amazing customer service and drive to please our customer makes Killarney Metals the go-to partner for future custom spill containment systems.

Killarney Metals offers the latest metal fabrication and production technology available, complemented by in-house engineering expertise and supply chain services for an end-to-end solution.  

Killarney Metals, and its parent company, Short Run Pro, is excited to continue to thrive and provide quality, American Made solutions across all aspects for both home and commercial applications with 650,000+ products manufactured to date and growing. Are you a Logistics Coordinator, Inventory Control Manager, Operations Supervisor, Operations Manager, Materials Manager, Distribution Manager, Supply Chain Manager, Transportation Manager, or Warehouse Manager? We want to help you with your next material handling project! To contact us, please use the form HERE or give us a call at (704) 755- 8002.