Cold Chain keynote: Lineage Logistics Focused On Automation, Supply Chain Visibility

This keynote interview is part of FreightWaves' Cold Chain Summit virtual event

The COVID-19 pandemic thrust the food logistics industry into the spotlight as millions of consumers turned to e-commerce platforms to order most of their household essentials, including groceries, amid labor and transportation challenges.

Keynoting FreightWaves' Cold Chain Summit, Sudarsan Thattai, CIO of Lineage Logistics, says his company is well-positioned to address supply chain challenges going forward through technology investments and key partnerships.

"The explosion in e-commerce growth has put tremendous focus on our supply chain," Thattai told George Abernathy, president of FreightWaves, on Wednesday. 

Headquartered in Novi, Michigan, the global cold chain leader moves approximately 40% of the temperature-controlled food in the U.S. and nearly 10% worldwide. 

In mid-July, Lineage Logistics and venture capital firm 8VC announced a strategic alliance "to invest in promising technology startups that drive the transportation and logistics industry forward."

"We realized how much in common our missions were, and our focus was using technology for the greater good," Thattai said of the alliance with 8VC.

He said Lineage has made significant investments to tackle visibility throughout the supply chain. The company has invested in its fully integrated platform called Lineage Link and is partnering with logistics software provider Turvo to launch its platform.

"We're trying to unlock visibility for every single participant in the supply chain, not just for our customers, but for our customers' customers," Thattai said.

Improving warehouse efficiency through automation is also a key area Lineage plans to focus on through its partnership with 8VC, Thattai said.

"We have a lot of good ideas but we don't have a monopoly on all the great ideas," he said. "What we can offer is that industrial-scale when a startup wants to go to market with a great idea. Immediately, not only can we offer a proof of concept to try the idea, but also the scale. That's why this partnership makes a lot of sense."