Aranet Case Study – Wireless temperature monitoring in Latvia’s largest supermarket chain, Rimi Baltic
If a refrigeration unit in your supermarket breaks down you don’t have to worry about spoiled products. Provided that you have the Aranet smart sensor system installed, as Rimi Baltic has… Rimi Baltic is a major retail operator in the Baltic states based in Riga, Latvia. It is a subsidiary of the Swedish group ICA. Rimi Baltic operates 83 retail stores in Estonia, 56 in Lithuania and 125 stores in Latvia. They also operate supply-chain distribution centers in each of these countries.
When Aranet representatives first started to investigate supermarkets, it was a surprise for us how often data collection still depended on manual pen and paper recording. Measurements such as freezer temperatures were susceptible to human error and problems could only be detected after the fact.
In the summer of 2018 Rimi Latvia gave Aranet a chance to prove the quality of our wireless sensors for refrigeration unit temperature monitoring.
The superior quality of the Aranet system became apparent – where our competitors needed 3 base stations to cover a large supermarket, Aranet did it with only one. Because of the advanced performance of our technologies Aranet proved itself to be the best solution for Rimi’s needs.
Today 7 000 Aranet wireless sensors are installed in all 125 Rimi supermarkets in Latvia.
If something goes wrong with a refrigeration unit the Aranet system immediately alerts the food safety manager that temperatures are experiencing a variance outside of optimal range so that corrective actions can be taken.
Currently all of the Rimi stores in Latvia access the Aranet Cloud for centralized monitoring and data analytics. No more manual temperature data logging means greatly reducing losses associated with non-saleable products. Automated temperature monitoring and minute-by-minute notifications of variances greatly simplify compliance with the HACCP process.
Even in the largest Rimi supermarket, 8 800 m2 – about the size of a city block, the wireless signal of a single Aranet base station can cover the whole store.
After implementing the Aranet sensor system additional benefits are becoming apparent. Rimi Baltic outsources the operation and maintenance of refrigeration units. With the data provided by Aranet, stores can save on the energy costs of operating the refrigeration equipment by keeping the units running at the optimal temperature range. In accordance with food safety guidelines Rimi must maintain their frozen food inventory at -20°C. By using the Aranet system Rimi learned that the outsourced maintenance company was keeping some of the freezers at temperatures as low as -30°C. The ambient temperature at Rimi supermarkets is usually kept around 20°C. This means that the temperature difference between the freezer and the store temperature was 32°C, when it should have been 22°C. Aranet data analytics identified substantial savings of 20% by reducing energy costs associated with operating these units.
The Aranet system is a plug-and-play solution that allows a supermarket to protect itself from unnecessary food spoilage and potential food safety violations. As an added benefit it allows for an easy record keeping for reporting and traceability.
You can only improve what you measure. Time to choose Aranet!
