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Technology has proven an important tool for Blue Sky Supply, a Tulsa, Okla.-base refreshment services company that has expanded rapidly in the past decade. While the
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Matt Bingham says pick-to-light has improved efficiency. |
number of routes has increased, the sales per route has roughly doubled, thanks in part to warehouse pre-kitting supported by pick-to-light technology.
While Blue Sky Supply has invested in a host of vending technologies over the years - card readers, mobile payments, customer loyalty rewards, guaranteed product delivery and micro markets - warehouse pre-kitting supported by pick-to-light technology has allowed the company to serve more customers with greater efficiency.
Prior to investing in pre-kitting in 2011, the company's route drivers picked products from cases in the warehouse. "Everything was pulled by the driver," said Matt Bingham, the company's general manager. The company operated between eight and 10 routes at the time.
The company was growing, and as it grew, management wanted to make the warehouse operation more efficient.
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| LED lights guide the picker to the correct bin and display the precise amount ordered. |
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The Le Bread Express can deliver warm baguettes in 10 seconds. Two units are already on location in San Francisco. |
Le Bread Xpress, an automatic micro-bakery, cooks, stores and delivers fresh hot baguettes on demand. Two machines have already been installed in San Francisco, Calif., and three more are in process, according to the company. The machine can deliver warm baguettes in 10 seconds, and can store up to 120 baguettes.
The machine, seven feet and three inches high by three feet and eight inches wide and eight feet and one inch deep, has been designed for specialty stores, grocery stores, corporate sites, transportation hubs and health care facilities.
The unit cones with
an oven and has an information screen that shows the number of baguettes available and the number in process. There is also an LCD screen for advertising or information, and an automatic dispenser with a paper bag. It accepts cashless payment.
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Coca-Cola To Release Artificial Intelligence Powered App For Its Vending Machines
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Coca Cola Co. will soon introduce a new app that will allow customers to order beverages for two people at one time from vending machines. Greg Chambers, the company's global director of innovation, announced the app at MobileBeat 2017 in San Francisco, according to VentureBeat.
New circuitry powers the way the hardware works with the app, Chambers said. He said the app will be introduced at U.S. universities and sites in Australia and New Zealand.
Chambers said artificial intelligence will power the next generation of vending machines, and that chatbots, besides being fun to use, can provide a lot of back-end data.
Lauren Kunze, CEO of Pandorabots, a web service for building and deploying chatbots that worked on the app with Coca Cola, said personalization is a key feature in the vending machine bot.
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Azkoyen USA and Southeastern Vending Services, both based in Charlotte, N.C., have partnered for machine and parts distribution, as well as technical services, spanning Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and eastern Tennessee.
Southeastern Vending Services repairs mechanical components of vending and OCS equipment, including companies such as USI, Crane, Newco and MEI. The partnership with Azkoyen USA allows Southeastern Vending Services to maintain its core base of business while expanding into the emerging bean-to-cup trend in the OCS channel.
Azkoyen USA is the newest addition to the Azkoyen Group, a provider in the OCS and foodservice channels for automatic espresso and coffee machines.
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