The fresh approach to keeping deliveries like clockwork
21 December 2012 Last updated at 00:06 GMT
Source : By Ian Hardy BBC News, New York
Covered in colourful close up photos of mouth-watering fruit and vegetables, you can't miss the hundreds of Fresh Direct trucks that weave their way, one stop at a time, through countless New York neighbourhoods.
用豐富多彩令人垂涎的水果和蔬菜的特寫照片，你不能錯過的數百台Fresh Direct 的卡車，編織自己的方式，一次一站式，經過無數的紐約街區。
Even residents high up, without the energy or inclination to wander over to a window, know when a Fresh Direct vehicle is nearby.
即使居民高居，不需能量或意念漫步到窗口，也知道何時Fresh Direct車輛接近附近。
The slow purr of the refrigerator motor is a well known noise to New Yorkers, with the same recognition factor as taxi horns and automated bus announcements.
緩慢低沉的冰箱馬達呼嚕聲是紐約人眾所周知的噪音，就如同租車的喇叭和自動化公車公告使用相同的識別因素。
Started in 2003 when the dot-com crash was still a recent memory, it is an online only delivery service where customers can order fresh produce and groceries from a mobile app or desktop PC and see it at their doorstep the next day within a two hour window of their choice.
Founder and chief executive Jason Ackerman, part-foodie, part-logistics expert got his inspiration from Michael Dell who re-invented the way computers were made and shipped in record time.
從2003年開始在dot-com崩潰仍然在最近的記憶時，這是一個網路公司只提送貨服務，客戶可以從移動應用程序或桌面PC訂購一個新鮮農產品和食品雜貨，並在隔天看到在他們兩小時內選擇的窗口的貨品在自家門口。
創始人兼首席執行官賈森·阿克曼，是美食家，也是物流專家從邁克爾·戴爾（Michael Dell）這位重新發明製造計算機的方式，並紀錄的時間內裝運 - 得到了他的靈感。
Fresh Direct is similar - the food makes its way from the farm to the warehouse facility, stands still barely long enough to be put into a box and from there is driven to the customer's doorstep.
As a start-up the drivers and managers communicated with walkie-talkie radios. Now it's a lot different, says Mr Ackerman.
Fresh Direct是類似的 - 食物從農場到倉庫設施，得以用它的方式，勉強直立被放入一個盒子裡足夠長的時間，從那裡被運載到客戶家門口。
剛起步時司機和經裡的溝通，是用對講機，無線電設備。而現在是有很大的不同，阿克曼先生說。
"During our launch phase we were delivering to a whopping 20 customers.
"It was the world's largest bodega. So we had a huge facility and a tiny amount of orders. But now we deliver about 12,000-plus deliveries during one single day."
“在推出階段，我們的交付達到驚人的20家客戶。
“這是世界上最大的酒窖。因此，我們有個巨大的設施和一個小的訂單量，但現在我們一天提供約12,000次以上的交付。”
Human voice
人類之聲
Over the past 10 years the technology involved in keeping the supply chain moving has improved dramatically.
在過去的10年裡保持供應鏈移動所涉及的技術有顯著改善。
The distinctive vans of Fresh Direct are tracked by the latest technology
Fresh Direct獨特的貨車使用最新的技術追蹤
But perhaps surprisingly for such a complex operation which delivers about $6.5m (£4m) of food per day, no vehicle or driver is outfitted with GPS. They have found a better system.
When each team leaves the depot for an eight hour shift, they are clutching a printed itinerary and a handheld scanner.
但也許令人驚訝的是這樣一個複雜的操作，它每天提供了約650萬美元（400萬英鎊）的食物，沒有任何車輛或驅動程序配備GPS。他們已經找到了更好的系統。
當每個團隊離開車廠執行8個小時的班，他們手裡攥著一預定行程和手持式掃描儀。
As deliveries are made they are scanned. Any deviation of more than a few minutes sets off an alarm back at the operations desk, and a human voice calls up the driver wanting to know why there is a delay.
當運送完成時他們被掃描。任何偏離幾分鐘以上在作業台就會發出警報設置，和出現一個人的聲音，想知道為什麼延遲調用驅動程序。
Maybe it's road work, maybe a building elevator is broken requiring a long slog up some very steep steps, maybe a overworked doorman took his time notifying a resident.
也許是道路使用運作工程，也許是建築物的電梯壞了需要很長且艱難的一些非常陡峭的步驟，也許是過度勞累的看門人花費時間通知居民。
Whatever the cause and its likely duration, which could be seconds or years, it's added into the Fresh Direct dynamic software program that boasts a 98% success rate for directing all deliveries to a smooth conclusion within two hour windows, scheduled anytime between 6am and 11pm, seven days a week.
無論何原因和其可能的持續時間，這可能是幾秒或幾年，它的加入讓Fresh Direct動力軟件程序，擁有98％的成功率，指揮所有遞送在兩個小時窗口內順利完成，早上6點和晚上11點之間，每週7天隨時計劃。
It turns out at least for now, people are a lot more reliable and detail orientated than a GPS chip.
至少到現在， 事實證明，人們比GPS芯片更可靠，更注重細節。
But Mr Ackerman is always trying to seek out more sophisticated software and hardware solutions capable of calculating advanced algorithms that produce even more accurate delivery times and which can handle constantly changing traffic and weather patterns.
但阿克曼一直在努力尋找更先進的軟件和硬件解決方案能夠計算使用先進的算法，產生更準確的交貨時間，它能夠處理不斷變化的交通和天氣模式。
Ironically the idea is that the more technology can be used at each step in the process, the less the end customer should know about it.
具有諷刺意味的想法是，在每一步的過程中使用越多的技術，客戶最終愈不了解它。
This food is a trust brand. People expect the quality”
這種食品是品牌信任。人們期望的是品質“
Jason Ackerman Fresh Direct
Fresh Direct 傑森-阿克曼
Mr Ackerman admits that most consumers only start to think about such things when there's a problem.
"Where we have really applied the technology is our ability to see everything that the customer sees in real time so our ability to control the experience is so much more than it ever was.
阿克曼先生承認，大多數消費者一直到有問題時才開始考慮這些事情時。
“如果我們所提供的技術是我們有能力去辨識每件事的，客戶所看到是實際實時的，我們有能力控制的經驗則比以往任何時候更多。
"This food is a trust brand. People expect the quality that they want, the condition of the product to be excellent, the accuracy of the product, the on-time delivery etcetera.
"We had to pick it out better than they could, so all these aspects get fed into our incredibly complex information systems."
“這種食品是信任品牌。人們期望想要的品質，產品的條件是優秀的，準確的產品，及日復式的準時交貨。
“我們必須比他們所設的把它更好的挑選出來，使所有面向送到我們極其複雜的信息系統。”
Complaints logged online by customers also get fed into the system and are tracked back at base which can have an immediate effect on the supply chain.
If numerous customers object to the taste of a bag of apples for example, the supplier can be notified within minutes.
客戶線上投訴記錄也被送入系統，並追溯到基礎，可對供應鏈有立竿見影的效果。
例如如果眾多客戶對一袋蘋果味道反味，，供應商可以在幾分鐘之內被通知。
City challenges
城市挑戰
Such a speedy, effective and efficient result is much less likely in a supermarket scenario where people often don't bother to return bad food or even contact the company once they are home.
It's taken Mr Ackerman almost 10 years to branch out.
這樣迅速，有效和高效的結果是和超市的所發生的情況不同，在那裏人們往往不厭其煩的返回變質的食物，即使在家也會與公司聯繫。
它花了阿克曼先生近10年的時間來擴展出。
The company is now looking at providing same-day delivery
He's watched other delivery services expand and implode within weeks, taking millions of dollars down with them. So he is not in any hurry.
目前，該公司關注在提供當天送貨
他觀察其他遞送服務的拓展，在幾週內爆量，但下滑數百萬美元。所以他一點兒都不著急。
It was brutally hard to open a delivery service in Philadelphia it turned out - because the supply chain and customer base had to be built from scratch. Every city is different and comes with its own set of challenges.
這是粗暴地展開原來在費城的送貨服務 - 因為必須從頭開始建立的供應鏈和客戶群。每一個城市是不同的，並面臨自己的挑戰。
All orders, no matter the destination, currently have to be placed at least one day before delivery to take advantage of the economies associated with batching orders together in an industry where margins are notoriously thin.
But Mr Ackerman is already working on the next phase of Fresh Direct - same day delivery. For many companies like Amazon this is the final frontier, but it will not be easy.
目前所有的訂單，無論目的地為何，在遞送前至少必須放置1天以經濟利用與利潤在行業是出了名的薄的配料訂單連結。
不過，阿克曼已經開始 Fresh Direct 下一階段的工作- 當天遞貨。對於許多像亞馬遜這樣的公司，這是最後的邊界，但它不會是容易的。
Mr Ackerman believes that realistically it can't be done with the same kind of resources and algorithms used in the existing business model, so it will require a whole new approach.
But as third party data streams containing valuable information like weather and traffic get better and better, online delivery can only become more and more accurate.
阿克曼先生認為，實際上用同一種資源在現有的商業模式和算法不可能做到，因此可能需要一種全新的方式。realistically 寫實地;
但是，作為第三方數據流，提供包含如天氣和交通有價值的信息，讓訊息變得越來越好，線上送貨能變得更加準確。
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