By: Francis D’cruz

Cold Chain Logistics Tracker – Real-Time Dataloggers

Cold Chain Logistics, Fluctuations in temperature can have a devastating effect on pharma products, F&B and any temperature-sensitive products, Falling outside of certain temperature thresholds can cause this item to physically change, lose its potency or even threaten the health of a consumer. Having the ability to monitor and react to temperature fluctuations is critical to saving capital in unnecessary write-offs and wastage of products. Due to the perishable nature of food, a lot can go wrong during the supply chain journey. Damage or contamination is a huge concern, and the industry is under stricter safety regulations than ever before under the FDA’s Food & Drugs Safety Modernization Act (FDSMA). By avoiding issues on the supply chain journey, overall handling and transportation efficiency increases while negative environmental impact decreases.

Old Technology

Most Cold Logistics operations use a device that tracks the temperature in the cause of the entire journey and record it in the device. So, if there is any breach with the cargo or even device inside the shipment. Thereafter, the organisation will ship the device to an analyst team who would download the data from the device into Excel sheets to work on an in-depth analysis and determine the details of any breach event. The entire exercise could take at least 2-3 days before details of the analysis emerge.

In most cases, it will require an additional 3 to 4 hours of the QA analyst’s time to consolidate the data and analyze the trend of the cause of the damaged goods. Should the goods be deemed damaged, further financial losses are incurred and profitability drastically affected. Pharma shipments such as vaccine logistics and cold chain management, Organs and other valuable items are extremely critical for saving lives and overcoming critical illnesses & pandemics like Covid-19.

Although millions are spent on research to manufacturing these products, the point of failure is in the cold chain transport where issues of temperature excursions, poor handling and storage facilities, breach of unlawful access to the goods or even theft results in huge losses in time and investments. The unreliability of the entire supply chain hinges on the weak links in the handovers between parties which is not visible due to the lack of data. Aside from cargo, some transporters & clients use returnable assets that are poorly tracked which adds to the payload of losses and these items are lost or written off.

The responsibility of disappearing reusable supply chain assets can arguably be contested by all parties involved. Keeping track of the circulation of these assets by monitoring their location enables companies to always know where their assets are located. This allows companies to not only take responsibility where necessary for reusable supply chain assets but also significantly reduce waste and unexpected losses leading to greater levels of sustainability in line with Going Green. With the introduction of Intellistride Real-Time Datalogger to an environment with no trackers or/and older devices, its increased business benefits can be gained through;

• Complete visibility of your cold chain distribution
  It sends critical data or vital statistics of the shipment right from the time it’s packed for dispatch up to the end destination.
• Real-time Mission-critical data – Temperature related events along with shock and exposure to light are captured & reported in real-time by the device to the cloud application portal.
• Immediate Remedial actions – User-defined Alerts that monitor your threshold in the vital signs of the cargo will ensure immediate remedial actions are taken to preserve and save the cargo.
• Real-time data and analytics – The data transmitted by the device is analyzed in real-time and pre-alerts are generated even before an actual breach happens.
• Compliance – Real-time data available for compliance with regulators and strict clients’ product reporting needs.
• Eco-Friendly and reusable –The device can be recharged and reused asset to reduce electronic wastage. Overall longer lifespan stretches your investment.
• Lower cost of device per trip making it affordable and easy to deploy in any business situation.

As a result, both preventive and corrective actions are taken to preserve the quality of the shipment and reduce the risk of damaged goods by 100%.

More savings through faster response with no effort on the part of QA analysts are required. The entire activity is automated and driven by data provided by the device and managed by the application portal. tremendous operational savings and efficiency can be achieved by digitizing the supply chain through smart IoT technology driven by strong analytics that not only pre-alerts but reduces breaches of vital statistics in the cold chain operations. Contact us for more information.