Introduction
With 16 facilities serving 65 countries around the world, Sylvan Inc. is the global leader in fungal technology—and the world’s largest producer and distributor of mushroom spawn. Sylvan began growing mushrooms and making spawn in the 1920s, and draws upon decades of mycological experience to provide its customers with products designed to enhance the value of their crops.
Sylvan has one of the world’s largest collections of mushroom strains, as well as casings —which are sterile soils made up of a number of compounds which are colonized with the mushroom spores. Sylvan is also the premier source of nutritional supplements and disease control agents in the world.
Prior to using Tive, Sylvan used basic temperature recorders to monitor their delicate shipments—but they were never 100% sure that their products were remaining at a steady, correct temperature throughout the journey. Says Melissa Frederick, in Logistics & Sales at Sylvan, “The other trackers we used didn’t connect to the network to give us updates as often as we wanted.”
Sylvan started using Tive Solo 5G trackers, probes, and the cloud platform in February 2024, and uses it primarily on their ocean freight and cross-border shipments into Mexico and Canada. “Tive allows us to use temperature probes on our ocean shipments, which we couldn’t do before. So now we get to see the temperature of the actual spawn across the ocean and as they cross borders.”
Protecting Perishable Spores/Spawns from Damage
Sylvan prides themselves on their deep dedication to the global mushroom industry. Their unique combination of cultivation knowledge and premium quality products ensures that they can support mushroom growers around the world—to help maximize the value of their crops.
Because Sylvan’s products are expensive—and are extremely sensitive to shifts in temperature—Sylvan installs Tive trackers and probes at different locations throughout a container—not just closest to the doors. This has been immensely helpful in maintaining consistent temperatures, especially during the hot summer months.
According to Frederick, “The benefit of using several trackers per shipment is that Tive consistently tells me that everything looks great. For example, there’s a tracker on a palette in the middle. That one is showing 61 degrees—a bit warmer than we’d like. We want to lower the truck’s temperature without freezing the other products, and Tive helps us determine the right amount to bring that temperature down to accomplish our goal.”
“Being able to monitor a bunch of different spots in the truck—instead of just one—helps us a lot.”
Alerts + Customer Collaboration
Knowledge is power—for Sylvan and for their customers. Before Tive, Sylvan lacked real-time visibility into shipments, and couldn’t accurately update customers about temperatures or arrival times. Tive helped change that by providing immediate alerts when things stray outside of configured specifications, and by facilitating seamless collaboration with customers and stakeholders.
Using the Tive platform, Frederick and her team can create a new shipment and set up specific temperature parameters that are not to be exceeded. The probes provide hyper-accurate temperature readings from the trackers—and Frederick gets immediate text alerts if things go out of spec. “I have much better visibility because of these alerts,” Frederick says. “Knowing the minute there’s a problem means I am able to act quickly—and resolve it.”
Frederick now experiences less stress about when shipments will arrive. Learning about problems beforehand, so she can let the customer and her manager know—so there are no surprises. Tive helps Frederick and her team stay ahead of problems, and also improves customer communication and collaboration.
According to Frederick, “We share shipment tracking links with our customers and they watch the shipments, too. If they see an issue that I haven’t yet spotted, they reach out to me and we work together on it. I think they enjoy being so involved.”
When it comes to alerts, Frederick says, “The text alerts are really nice for me because it isn’t always easy to check my email. If there's an issue, Tive sends me a quick text—and I can look at it on my phone and fix it fast.”
Immediate Benefits Sealed the Deal
It didn’t take long for Sylvan to see the benefits of using Tive. Once they figured out that the best way to protect their products was to monitor the temperature of different spots inside the container, Sylvan started learning about the other features available in the Tive platform. Says Frederick, “With other products, shipments were never marked as closed; they would just stay open until I had time to close them. With Tive, a shipment ends when it is supposed to end—when it actually arrives.”
Sylvan uses the data collected from the Tive probes and the temperature alert settings most of all. Their customers based in Mexico also like to use location tracking so they can monitor shipments as they cross the border and move throughout the country—so they can know exactly when a shipment will be delivered.
Frederick says the probes are very easy to use—and are extremely reliable. “We haven't had any issues with bad data collected by the probes. When our products arrive, the receiver compares the probe readings with their own temperature readings—so everything matches up.”
“Tive has been very consistent and reliable for us.”
Reduced Worry = Reduced Stress
All manufacturers and shippers experience logistics stress—but none of them like it. Real-time shipment visibility can reduce that level of worry by providing immediate alerts when things go wrong, so you can take action to stop excursions before they result in damaged or lost goods that not only are expensive, but erode confidence for all stakeholders.
“I definitely worry less now that I can monitor my shipments in real time,” says Frederick. “Tive makes sure everything is okay—and tells me when it isn’t. If something does go wrong, I find out before things get too bad, when I still have a chance to correct the problem.”
By using Tive, Frederick has been able to actively intervene to save shipments: from reducing the temperature on overly hot shipments to preventing border crossing problems—both of which would have cost Sylvan money. If a pallet of spores is too hot, real-time alerts prompt Frederick to have her team lower the temperature. “I get an alert text, and I am able to quickly intervene to save our products,” says Frederick.
“That’s a big money saver for us.”
Customer Support Can’t be Beat
When Sylvan chose to use Tive on their shipments, they were delighted with the high level of customer support they received from the Tive team. According to Frederick, “Tive’s customer support team has been so great—you guys even helped our customers in Mexico by showing them how to use the platform to generate reports. It has been great from day 1.”
Sylvan supports their customers’ success through dedication to quality assurance, science and research, and state-of-the art manufacturing facilities. What starts with the strains’ mother cultures scales up to become Sylvan spawn under strict process controls. Sylvan customers are assured to receive full batch traceability to ensure top quality mycelium growth—from start to finish.
How does Tive help Sylvan meet those goals? Frederick continued: “Tive trackers and probes have saved several shipments already. The text alerts are fantastic, and you can customize them to your needs. And customer support is always there if there's anything that you need help with.”
“I am glad we made the switch to Tive.”
