Germany-based logistics software specialist AEB is entering the second half of the year with two major milestones—its expansion in the Philippines and building of a new team to handle local operations and new enhancements to its warehouse management system (WMS).

Seeing the growing cold chain market in the Philippines, AEB, which has 40 years of experience in global trade and supply chain, entered the country in 2016 to help boost the industry further and broaden its own market. Piggybacking on its global expertise from its strong presence in several countries such as Switzerland, Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands and Singapore, AEB has since been establishing solid relationships with clients and industry partners in the country toward building its foothold in the Philippines’ cold chain market. As part of nurturing industry collaboration, AEB has also been sharing its industry knowledge and expertise in warehouse automation and related cold chain technologies in Cold Chain Association of the Philippines Inc. (CCAP) events at the same time continuing to master cold chain processes to improve its WMS solutions.

AEB currently has a strong customer base with the major cold storage companies in the Philippines. Keen to make cold storage operations modern, seamless and efficient, AEB developed a smart, cloud-based and industry-standard Cold Chain Warehouse Management. This system has been tested and validated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics in Germany and is now being used by leading cold chain companies. It can cater to specific cold chain processes such as blast-freezer receiving to match client requirements.

With shifting consumer preferences pushing up demand for chilled and frozen products and the 24/7 economy requiring the availability of a variety of foods to meet demand in the BPO sector and 24-hour stores, AEB expects the cold chain market to continue on its upward trajectory and recognized the importance of continued innovations to stand out. To better serve the market and further bolster its local presence, AEB is creating a new team in the Philippines composed of both international and local experts who can directly work with clients and bring the company’s services even closer to the Filipino cold chain community. AEB announced its new team in the country during CCAP’s 20th anniversary celebration held last June 24 at the Makati Sports Club.

Growing AEB presence in the Philippines

Recognizing the importance of investing in employees in countries where it operates, AEB is steadfast to grow its Philippine team not only to foster diversity in the company culture but also to better serve its customers, potential or existing. The company’s project management and sales teams are committed to supporting the growing cold chain sector by providing industry-leading solutions and strong support models for project success.

AEB’s Philippine team will oversee and manage the company’s project management and sales in the country. The team will consist of project managers, solution consultants, business development managers and pre-sales consultants. They will be led by Frans Kok, the Asia Pacific general manager of AEB.

The lead project manager for all of AEB’s WMS project implementations in the Philippines is Brandon Boen. Backed by five years of experience in the supply chain, Boen will be responsible for providing strategic cold chain industry-standard solutions for AEB’s existing, new and potential customers. He is also AEB’s WMS solution product expert in the Asia Pacific.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Laddaran will be AEB PH’s business development manager, overseeing commercial operations and business development for the Philippine market. To help AEB’s clients gain a competitive advantage, Laddaran will equip them with the right technologies to streamline warehouse processes and bring better revenue growth.

Forging the future of smarter cold chains

From receiving fresh and frozen foods to allocating storage locations through picking and dispatch, AEB Cold Chain Warehouse Management supports end-to-end supply chain management to ensure the highest quality and safety of perishable products. This ready-to-integrate solution features a flexible, customizable and developer-friendly business intelligence platform for greater business visibility.

As a software provider, AEB constantly develops innovative and modern features to upgrade its WMS and guarantee safe, seamless and cost-efficient operations. The latest features in AEB Cold Chain Warehouse Management include blast freezer or bundle receiving, returnable packaging management and product recall functionality management, all of which are critical to ensuring reliable cold chain management.

The blast freezer or bundle receiving feature helps users automatically bundle frozen goods while the returnable packaging management allows businesses to monitor their customers’ packaging materials and provide an updated inventory of materials received and dispatched by the warehouse. Product recall functionality management enables high-degree product tractability during an internal product recall within the warehouse or an external product recall from a customer. In addition to these new functions, AEB has developed a set of new picking strategies to better manage frozen product storage, delivery and expiration date.

AEB has also integrated a ready-to-integrate business intelligence tool that can be deployed in a short amount of time and can be used with Cold Chain Warehouse Management. Easy to configure, maintain and future-proof, this business intelligence tool can enhance the standard package with more content and data sources and can be easily adapted for customers’ context without the need for additional standard implementation developments. Users can also easily create and design their own reports and dashboards using standard visualizations.

Committed towards the growing cold chain industry

As a Cold Chain WMS expert with a new and dedicated local team, AEB has also included value-added services in time for its Philippine operations. These services include an interactive and secure support portal, local support, standard support, hypercare and extended support for infrastructure and technical consultation.

All of these innovative solutions enable AEB to deliver efficient cold chain management, with reliable logistics services from pickup to storage and delivery with the ability to track and monitor products across the process. These solutions also guarantee safe product handling, ensuring all items, whether fresh, frozen and temperature-sensitive goods, remain in good quality throughout the entire process to meet client needs toward growing the cold chain industry in the country.