We are pleased to announce that our reconditioning facility in Lille, France, has taken significant steps to innovate its customer logistics associated with IBC reconditioning services.
Traditionally, empty IBCs were picked up from and delivered to a single location for an individual customer. Now IBCs can be collected from locations anywhere along a customer’s supply chain, and the reconditioned IBCs can be delivered back to the customer, significantly simplifying logistics.
Additionally, we have been working on smart packaging technologies for our IBCs in our efforts to help customers enhance performance, reduce waste and conserve resources. Greif’s GCUBE Connect solution gives real time tracking information about a customer’s IBC through the application of an Internet of Things-based device. A customer-based dashboard displays in real time where an IBC is sited, the level of the filled product and the environmental temperature. This dashboard allows customers to plan in advance for deliveries of filled product and the arrival of new IBCS, as well as schedule collections of empty IBCs.
GCUBE Connect also supports better management of residue in the IBCs. Each IBC that enters the facility is automatically weighed to determine how much residue is in the container to determine how it will be treated.