Keeping track of temperatures in more than 900 Iceland stores
The client – one of Britain’s most established and well-regarded supermarket chains
A well-known high-street brand, Iceland celebrate their 50th birthday in 2020. The company’s primary product lines are frozen foods, including prepared meals and vegetables, and chilled produce, making it particularly important for them to ensure consistently low, safe storage temperatures. Iceland Foods has relied on the Monika monitoring system for over twenty years to keep track of product temperatures in its 900+ stores.
The need – an efficient, reliable system for monitoring equipment temperatures
Iceland had previously been using paper-based temperature records, which are labour-intensive and time-consuming for staff and do not make life easy for managers or auditors either. The company wanted a more efficient, reliable monitoring system that would ensure continuity and compliance across their rapidly growing number of stores.
“Moving from a paper-based process to the automated MONIKA system brought us benefits at all levels. Remotely, we are now able to monitor temperatures and gather data as required. This helps us identify recurring issues and to provide instant historical data when needed.”
The Solution – continually monitored refrigeration that protects food and frees up staff time
Monika’s wireless temperature monitoring system automatically and continuously monitors product temperatures in Iceland’s thousands of chillers, both in point-of-sale positions and back-of-house storage areas. We also monitor refrigeration in a growing number of Iceland outlets within The Range and are progressively upgrading Iceland’s estate to ensure they benefit from the latest Monika technology.
The system relies on discreet sensors which are placed inside each refrigeration unit and are calibrated with a bespoke safe range to protect food from freeze damage or overheating. If any of the units are running outside their approved range, nearby staff will hear an alarm and e-mail/text alerts can be automatically sent to key personnel.
Janine commented: “At store level, our teams are alerted to temperature irregularities, so they can take immediate, necessary action to protect the product accordingly. Previously, less efficient routine manual checks needed to be carried out to ensure all temperatures were in range.
The MONIKA system makes sure the store team know if there’s a problem, and frees up time to deliver customer service.”
The Monika system uses robust, self-healing ZigBee wireless connections, specifically designed for harsh environments, to transmit real-time data from chillers and cold rooms in each Iceland store back to a central server, providing detailed insights for managers and business-wide visibility from Head Office.
The outcome – assured product safety
Management staff can see up-to-the-minute records of temperature and other critical data on Monika’s Enterprise Management software, allowing them to identify potential problems and act fast to save stock if needed. Records can be printed off or converted to PDF format for easy emailing.
Iceland can focus on what it does best, safe in the knowledge that its Monika system is ensuring nationwide product safety, consistency and compliance. Staff who use Monika are confident that the system will alert them to any problems and can therefore focus on other important duties rather than conducting laborious temperature checks. Having an automated system also reduces staff movement and the potential for touching virus-contaminated surfaces.