Mission Foods Boosts Asset Control, Increases Inventory Traceability With RFID Technology

As one of the world’s leading tortilla producers, Texas-based Mission Foods is an industry innovator in manufacturing quality tortillas, chips, salsa, taco shells, and more for consumers throughout the country and around the world. Their daily operations in three Texas warehouses require accuracy and proficiency as they process and prepare nearly 20,000 containers of product on a daily basis for a vast network of independent distributors.

As part of the distribution process, Mission Foods places all of their packaged products in returnable plastic containers (RPCs), which independent distributors then load onto their trucks. Such independent distributors then return these RPCs after their sales are complete. However – Mission Foods found that after the RPCs left the warehouse for deliveries, they were likely never seen again. With a paper-based tracking process that wasn’t streamlined across their various warehouses and distribution centers, they had no way to track if RPCs were returned to a different facility, or if they were ever returned at all. Because of this, Mission Foods lacked basic asset tracking – and the results were staggering. Nearly 100 percent of their RPCs were being replaced each year.

The company sought an asset control solution that would prevent this drastic loss of RPCs, which resulted in millions of dollars in lost revenue each year. The solution: RFID technology, utilizing Intermec IF61 readers, antennas, labels and PM4i printers.