MaxiaNET Seeks Total Cold-Chain Control for Brewery Customer in Mexico

The supply chain design and management firm adopts a monitoring system in support of a “freshness fanatic” brewery, from production to consumption.

MaxiaNET is a supply chain design and management firm, overseeing a network of more than 80 partners across some 25 markets. It connects and manages brand owners, distribution partners, logistics providers, communications consultants and retail partners. Working together, they create aligned and resilient supply chains, from production to consumption.

A MaxiaNET “freshness fanatic” brewery customer asked for help with a Mexican brand launch, under one condition: 100% temperature control, from production to consumption. MaxiaNET needed a flexible system for monitoring complex, high-risk distribution from California to central Mexico, in order to protect the beer from temperature damage and collect key insights for continuous improvement.

MaxiaNET partnered with Controlant to monitor 10 truck lanes with reusable internet of things (loT) loggers reporting live load temperature, location,and tampering to a collaborative online portal. MaxiaNET received additional support and consultation throughout the pilot around the following areas: 

• Proactive leadership, for cold-chain monitoring of best practices from pharmaceutical and food industry leaders, including setup, communication, analysis and optimization.
• Change management, with maxiaNET training and incentivizing stakeholders to comply with its forward-thinking operating procedures, including Controlant logger handling.
• Continuous collaboration, whereby Controlant and maxiaNET performed a "hands-on" final review of shipment data to align qualitative insights from the field with quantitative insights from Controlant's system. 

Controlant's monitoring tool revealed flaws in maxiaNET's third-party logistics providers’ compliance with temperature controls and service-level agreements (SLA). One provider put the beer into a freezer for more than 12 hours, causing a serious quality risk.

With its newfound ability to “trust but verify” supply chain partner performance with Controlant, maxiaNET revamped its sales and service model to create incentives for all stakeholders responsible for ensuring beer quality. Armed with farm-to-fork insights, maxiaNET could now ensure that:

• Beer was being stored and distributed within temperature range;
• Beer orders were arriving on time and in full, and
• SLA’s were being monitored and managed.

MaxiaNET's enagement with Controlant proved essential to its ability to control quality and processes throughout Mexico. Insights gained from use of the Controlant system showed maxiaNET where to make the best distribution modifications. 

"Trust is the right word when it comes to picking a technology partner,” says Eric Gomez, chief executive officer of maxiaNet. “A brand owner's ability to protect brand integrity is measured by the consistency of the consumer experience. The biggest threat to product uniformity is the last mile, so that’s where we're the most vigilant and invested.”

According to maxiaNET, Controlant helps with: 

• Data-driven decision making. Insights gathered by the system allowed maxiaNET to strategically optimize lanes, staffing, packaging types, SLAs, operational procedures and communications.
• Better planning. Improved commitment, flexibility and customer service determined the ability of logistics partners to meet the highest performance standards.
• Saving time. Reporting revealed excessive back-and-forth between distribution partners, so maxiaNET established better lanes and processes to minimize the need for continuous coordination and transfers.
• Better use of resources and funds. Focusing the sales structure proved to be a more straightforward and cost-effective plan.
• Long-term consistency. Introducing tailored incentives for customer and consumer-facing staff improved work performance and increased enthusiasm.
• More efficient and consistent markets. Retail proved more manageable for the customer's launch because of management's ability to make incremental supply chain improvements.

“I'm often asked, 'How do you get a new business partner to trust you in the first meeting?'” says Gomez. “The answer: overshare. How can we best overshare supply chain insights? The answer: Controlant."