Lineage, Inc., the world’s largest global temperature-controlled warehouse REIT, today announced the issuance of its 100th patent, a significant milestone that highlights the company’s achievements in innovation. Lineage’s patent portfolio underscores the company’s commitment to leading-edge solutions in the food supply chain, harnessing technology to enhance efficient, safe operations and deliver value to customers.
“Our patent philosophy is rooted in a relentless pursuit of innovation and excellence,” said Sudarsan Thattai, Chief Information and Transformation Officer at Lineage. “Lineage’s 100 patents are remarkable achievements that highlight the solution-oriented mindset and dedication our team exhibits every day. Our commitment to innovation drives us to continually develop technologies that not only enhance efficiency but advance our ability to reduce the environmental impact of our supply chain operations.”
Lineage’s 100th patent features a proprietary solution for optimizing pick pallet build operations and sequencing. Known as “Lego”, this innovation solves the problem of which outbound order line lands on which pallet and in which order. Existing warehouse management systems can make these decisions but are often inefficient – warehouse workers drive more than needed to put a certain amount of product on more pallets than necessary.
Lego helps save labor, energy and time. Essentially, it can identify the shortest route to collect outbound goods for orders being built by human operators or robots to minimize unnecessary travel distances. Lego also determines the ideal placement of items on multi-SKU outbound pallets, increasing the average number of cases per pallet. Think of it like a game of Tetris happening in the real world and on a much larger scale. This prize in this game is efficiency. Fitting the same quantity of goods on fewer pallets reduces the overall number of pallets needed, resulting in fewer trucks on the road. It’s a win for customers and the environment.
Lego works with Lineage’s other technology and innovations to streamline operations. The algorithm is being deployed at select sites and is part of the LinOS system, which receives customer and carrier information in real time to prioritize and coordinate the thousands of tasks Lineage handles each day.
Each of Lineage’s patents like Lego represents a solution to unique, complex problems within the cold chain . From advanced automation to cutting-edge algorithms , these innovations enhance the efficiency of Lineage’s operations, underscore the company’s pledge toward achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 and are transforming the food supply chain to help feed the world.
