No, not Emerson Automation Solutions, it’s Emerson Commercial and Residential Solutions. It is automation, just not process. This is an example of the pervasiveness of automation, and how the Industrial Internet of Things can be applied to supply chain management, including preservation ing the cold chain.
This is more important than it sounds. Here’s a simple example. Years ago, Haagen Dazs ice cream wanted to extend distribution to the West Coast. The attempt almost failed. The ice cream tasted terrible when it got to LA and San Francisco. Finally, Ball Datatrace encapsulated temperature dataloggers were inserted directly into the ice cream containers. What was happening was that the truckers were turning off the reefers to save money on fuel. So the ice cream melted and re-froze. Yuk! Preserving the cold chain was critical to their business expansion.
From the article in the St. Louis Business Journal:
Emerson is acquiring Cooper-Atkins, a manufacturer of temperature management devices for the foodservice, healthcare and industrial markets.
Middlefield, Connecticut-based Cooper-Atkins makes automated temperature management and monitoring products for restaurants, supermarkets and other establishments that prepare and store food. The company’s offerings will complement Emerson’s existing global cold chain business, which includes its ProAct Services portfolio for supermarkets and Cargo Solutions business for tracking perishable cargo.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.