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forefront in ours, you can tell the industry is exploring important shifts from traditional ways of doing business,” says Swart. “Another domain that’s rapidly advancing is analytics.  e produce industry is eager to harness the power of data not only to streamline buyer-seller communications, but also to integrate infor- mation from other activities along the supply chain to help in uence procurement decisions such as traceability, inspection data and more.”
Although scanners and propriety hardware are still widely used, the industry is seeing more solutions to transition to mobile appli- cations on standard smartphone platforms that support scanning and many other capa- bilities, says Minos Athanassiadis, a Harvest- Mark-Trimble director.
“We are seeing technology being adopted by distributors beyond just the classic ware- house management and inventory systems they have used for decades,” he says. “ is includes the utilization of software platforms such as HarvestMark Insights to digitize, standardize and increase e ciency of their [quality-control] processes and utilization of the aggregated data for improved sourcing and partner management.  e same is true in other areas such as food safety and compliance,
“ e produce industry is eager to harness the power of data not only to streamline buyer- seller communications, but also to integrate information from other activities along the supply chain to help in uence procurement decisions such as traceability, inspection data and more.”
— Alex Swart, iTrade Network
where technology and software services are replacing what has traditionally been managed manually with paper-based processes.”
WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT
Proper warehouse management is crucial, says Produce Pro Software’s Hat eld. “Ware- house management system adoptions are on the rise,” he notes. “Warehouse management is the key to good inventory. Distributors are
realizing that this is the key to their success. Many of our customers are adopting this tech- nology, not only for traceability purposes, but also to have visibility into real-time inventory.”
Park City’s scan-based or vendor-managed inventory allows each level’s inventory to be managed by the level below. “We are seeing more interest from retailers in having produce vendors manage the inventory in their stores or distribution centers,” says Fields. “ ey’re seeing some interest at the distribution-center level, so why not have our produce vendors manage that for them?”
Such systems are critical as home delivery changes shipping and shoppers become more disappointed when products they seek aren’t available. “We are seeing an increasing shift,” says Fields. “ e shift is people increasingly sensitive to out-of-stocks more than they use to be.  ere use to be more concern about shrink.”
As Amazon doesn’t hide inventory, super- markets should also list inventories. People going on Instacart would want to know if a store is out of a particular item, like organic celery. “If it helps customers, they will put pressure on retailers, who in turn will put pressure on their suppliers all the way down the chain,” says Fields. “It will take time, but
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