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Getting there from here
By Doug Haddon, Contributing Editor
A vendor's roadmap to technology implementation, part 1.
T
echnology has become a go-to
strategy to drive proftability.
Just-in-time inventory offine via
SKU-level tracking at the machine
level and online via telemetry are
used to increase profts and increase
effciencies in vending operations.
As more and more vendors investigate its implementation, telemetry
emerges as an important tool for
required data collection. Because
telemetry enables operators to wirelessly collect real-time data from each
machine on product movement, cash
inventory and the machine's physical
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Automatic Merchandiser
condition, operators are able to make
adjustments in SKUs and inventory
and respond to machine malfunctions
far more quickly than with manual
data collection methods.
However, telemetry is not a "one
size fts all" proposition. It should be
used only where it makes the most
economic sense. This proper targeting of telemetry became obvious to
Coca-Cola Bottling Company United
(CCBCU) during its recent implementation phase. CCBCU, with 30,000 plus
machines over 120 routes spread across
Mississippi, South Carolina, Alabama,
VendingMarketWatch.com
August 2013
Georgia, Louisiana and Tennessee,
has deployed telemetry in three of its
ten markets, totaling 8,600 machines.
Despite what CCBCU describes as huge
productivity improvements in terms of
cases per fll, stops per day and cases
per day for the driver, in its Chattanooga, Tenn., test market, David Sours,
director of commercial leadership, discovered that his machines doing less
than 50 cases annually were providing a negative return when the cost of
the telemetry equipment and monthly
charges were considered. As a result,
the plan to convert all machines to