October 1st, 2019
By Jeff Adair, Editor

Is a warehouse picking system necessary? At what point in the growth of a vending business does it make sense to invest in one?

Vending operators are recognizing the importance of investing in technology, but they often find it difficult to know how to begin the journey. To address this challenge, a panel of speakers at this year’s National Automatic Merchandising Association show in Las Vegas offered insight into how operators can address this challenge.

Panelist Mike Ferguson, the owner of VMAC Solutions , a vending consultancy and an authorized LightSpeed Automation representative, cited deploying a warehouse picking solution as one of the four main steps to leveraging technology for a better return on investment. Those four steps are: 1) Choosing the right vending management software, 2) Installing credit card readers with telemetry, 3) Prekitting the routes, and 4) Deploying a warehouse picking solution for picking orders.

Fans at Citi Field, home of the New York Mets, will be able to buy refreshments at a self-checkout kiosk that allows them to scan multiple items at once.

The Walk Thru Bru operated by Aramark uses artificial intelligence technology provided by Mashgin and biometric identification technology provided by Clear .

Customers place their purchases on the Mashgin kiosk where the items are scanned and charged to their credit card.

The automated Walk Thru Bru located behind Section 130 is available to Clear members for the remaining home games this season. Clear “ambassadors” will be onsite to help non-members enroll and begin making purchases immediately.

Costa Coffee , a provider of premium coffee, has teamed with Eseye , a U.K.-based industrial IoT connectivity specialist, to deploy IoT-enabled Costa Express vending machines around the world.

Eseye’s IoT technology will help the company to achieve its vision to transform the future of coffee retailing across the globe, through real-time data collection and an end-to-end IoT service that enables Costa Express to better monitor its machines and thus reduce downtime and create a competitive advantage.

Costa Coffee has equipped its Express coffee machines with the Eseye AnyNet Secure multi-IMSI SIM, which connects to any available mobile network instantly, enabling cellular data access anywhere and communication to the back-end systems as soon as one of the 10,000 plus machines are powered on.

KICTeam , a cleaning solutions provider for vending machines, ATMs and kiosks, has been awarded method and design patents for its “Autoclean” technology, which enables cleaning in a fraction of the time of traditional methods.

The custom-designed cleaning cards lock inside the device and enable rollers and belts to scrub themselves clean against the card while the motor is running.

The cards can allow service technicians to perform a thorough cleaning that once took nearly an hour, in a matter of minutes.

“This is a proud milestone in our company’s development,” said Ian McCormick, CEO. “These latest patents are our ninth and tenth, demonstrating our leadership position.”

Jeff Adair
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