🧅 Case Study: Enhancing Cold Storage Efficiency for Shallots with Locatematic

Overview

Client: Sunee Phungsub, Shallot Wholesaler

Location: Thailand

Facility: Private cold room warehouse

Storage Capacity: ~300–370 pallets of shallots (900–1,000 kg per pallet, totaling approx. 270,000–370,000 kg)

Shelf Life: 3 months

Challenge: Losses from expired stock, misplaced pallets, and inefficient manual processes.

Challenges

Sunee Phungsub, an experienced agricultural exporter and shallot wholesaler, operates a large cold storage facility where timely inventory rotation is critical. The business faced recurring issues:

• ❌ Stock Expiry Losses: Up to 75–100% of capital lost annually from unsold, expired shallots.

• 🔍 Lack of Visibility: Workers often couldn’t locate pallets, especially those close to expiration.

• 🚫 FIFO Breakdown: Newer stock frequently blocked older batches, disrupting proper inventory rotation.

• 📄 Manual Tracking Errors: Locations were recorded on paper, leading to delays and mistakes.

  
  

Solution

Locatematic’s Real-Time Location System (RTLS) was deployed using a combination of RFID-tagged pallets and UWB-enabled forklifts:

• 📡 Each pallet was tagged with an RFID tag, which integrates with the UWB system mounted on forklifts. This allows automatic identification of the pallet during every drop-in and drop-off.

• 📍 Forklifts equipped with UWB tags tracked all movements in real-time with 20 cm accuracy.

• 🧭 The system not only recorded exact location but also detected the vertical level at which a pallet was placed — critical in a warehouse that stacks pallets up to 3 levels high.

• 🧠 No manual input was required. The system automatically mapped and updated inventory positions as forklifts operated.

  
  

Results

• ✅ Reduced Inventory Losses: Over 80% of previously wasted stock was saved within the first product cycle.

• 🕐 Rapid Pallet Retrieval: Staff could locate the right pallet in under 1 minute.

• 🔄 FIFO Reinforced: The system guided workers to dispatch older pallets first using smart expiration alerts.

• 📊 Complete Real-Time Oversight: Sunee monitored every pallet’s position, height level, and status through an intuitive dashboard.

  
  
  
  

Testimonial

“Before Locatematic, I always feared missing stock before it expired. Now, every pallet is traceable — even on the top racks.”— Sunee Phungsub, Owner

Key Takeaways

• ❄️ Cold storage warehouses handling stacked goods benefit from precise 3D location tracking.

  
  

• 💡 The integration of RFID and UWB ensures full visibility without the need for a traditional WMS.

  
  

• 🚛 Locatematic enables small teams to manage large inventories with confidence, speed, and accuracy.