IOT to the rescue!

Being in the chocolate business for over 7 years now and one thing is certain,  high temperature is your worst enemy. Specifically over 24C. In the initial years I cannot begin to list the number of times our confections have melted, either in transit or at factory level. 

As any head of an organisation, you start to look for solutions for challenges one faces. For the melt in transit issue, we increased the density of the thermocol boxes we shipped in, we switched to an ice gel pack which lasts longer and we also switched our logistic supplier who delivers within 24-36 hrs across India. Having said that, we also encourage our buyers to order as much chocolate as they can prior to mid March and stock up for 4 months at least.

Coming to the issue of refrigerators that run of of gas (because of a gas leak) and circulating hot air within itself, leading to the confections stored in it in to melt. You could argue saying, "Devansh, can you just not temper the chocolate and mold it again?" The answer is Yes & No...think about it, the team would have to open the package, sieve the nut/inclusion out (which cannot be reused), then temper and mold it. Its a messy job, time consuming and expensive given the loss of nuts.

After our first experience, we decided that we would service the refrigerators twice a year (instead of yearly). However, that didn't stop from the issue occurring again. I was breaking my head behind fixing this problem,.. what if the refrigerator could speak to me when the temp went above 24C??!! Problem solved.

I happen to stumble upon a TAPO system that address this matter. BTW, its the same company that runs TP-Link. So, I went ahead and purchased the temp and humidity monitor (one for each refrigerator, I have 4) and 1 hub. This hub is connected to the monitor and your wifi router. An app (TAPO) must be installed on your phone so you can monitor the temp and humidity and also set an alert range. 

The total cost for this was less than 10k and it allows for alerts to be sent when temp range goes beyond a set parameter. An incident has not occurred yet but I'm hoping when it does, we are alerted in time. I would highly recommend the TAPO systems. You can purchase them online on Amazon.