A cold chain is a temperature-controlled supply chain that is necessary to maintain product quality, safety, and efficacy during distribution. The cold chain is used to preserve, extend, and ensure the shelf-life of products such as fresh agricultural produce, dairy, seafood, frozen food, photographic film, chemicals, and pharmaceutical drugs.
There is a growing realization of the importance of cold chain management by the relevant industry leaders, however there are several considerations and challenges before Cold Chain Management can be implemented.
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Shipment Monitoring in Cold Chain Management
A cold chain is a temperature-controlled supply chain that is necessary to maintain product quality,
safety, and efficacy during distribution. The cold chain is used to preserve, extend, and ensure
the shelf-life of products such as fresh agricultural produce, dairy, seafood, frozen food, photographic
film, chemicals, and pharmaceutical drugs. Managing the cold chain requires keeping a product within
a particular temperature range throughout the supply chain, and keeping in consideration temperature
tracking, container selection, distribution route variances, and contingency planning, among others.
This presents many challenges for pharmaceutical companies, government agencies, transportation
providers, and other businesses. With recent regulatory scrutiny and industry initiatives requiring
exacting temperatures conditions, the need to establish an extensive strategy for the distribution of
temperature-sensitive products in accordance with product requirements, regulations and industry
standards is imminent.
Challenges in Cold Chain Management (CCM)
There is a growing realization of the importance of cold chain management by the relevant
industry leaders, however there are several considerations and challenges before Cold Chain
Management can be implemented.
Some of the important considerations and challenges are as follows:
Considerations Challenge
Business
Process
complexity and
Requirement
Ability to speak business language to understand process complexity and
business requirements:
Mode of transport (Road/Ocean/Air) and reasons
Nodes in the Supply Chain (WH, DC, 3PL, Shipper, Insurance agent)
Complexities and challenges in the logistics planning and execution
Acceptable Product quality parameters and tolerances
Digital Strategy &
Roadmap
Complexity of digital options and recent progress in the areas of:
Digital Architecture for IOT, AI, Block chain and Cloud technologies
Device & sensor Options
Edge technology & options
Cellular technology & data plans (2G/3G/4G/LTE/ CAT-M)
Cloud and Integration Options (AWS, Azure, others)
Battery life and available options (different battery types and life)
Data and Analytics Options (predictive analytics, exception/alerts)
Mobile & Scanning technology (iOS, Android, Barcode scanner)
Process and
Application
Integration
Complexity of process and application resulting in complex integration:
ERP/ SAP and TMS Integration for shipment
QM system integration for temperature excursion of product
Planning System Integration for shipment
Integration with barcode scanner
Data & Exception
handling
Ability to manage large data volume generated from sensors
Availability of staff to act on exceptions at a timely basis
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“IOT is not as scary as you think if you know what the digital options are for your business”
These days, there are claims from different organizations about their capabilities in the space of IOT
enabled digital transportation platforms, however it is imperative to appreciate that, “one size doesn’t
fit all” and digital solution of one mode for shipment (i.e. land) may not be the ideal solution for shipment
through another mode (i.e. air).
Due to ever the improving landscape of digital technologies such as IOT sensors, battery life, cellular
technologies, block chain and artificial intelligence, it is quite difficult to be up-to-date with technological
improvements.
SCMXpert Corp, a digital transformation company specializing in the Supply Chain Management area,
is recognized as “20 Most Promising Supply Chain Solution Providers in 2019 in USA” by CIO
magazine. The company offers innovative solutions to answer several process challenges mentioned
earlier.
SCMXpert provides value by offering a customizable digital platform, which can be modified as per the
business requirements of the organization, while removing the burden of keeping up-to-date with digital
improvements. With the help of the platform, a simplified version of shipment monitoring for temperature-
controlled product can be visualized as below, where seamless integration with customer data lake,
SCM control tower, and serialization/ ATTP (Advance track and Trace) is available.
4. Handling the large IOT data volume:The new challenge
It is indeed a challenge for senior executives to realize their investments in data generation
because of the huge data volume generated through various sources such as social media, IOT
sensors, etc. IOT sensors contribute in this problem of cluttered data by generating data at
continuous time interval. The generated data and alerts help businesses make timely decision.
However, managing and interpreting the generated data has created challenges such as
requiring:
Additional resource to manage & interpret the generated senor data
Timely action on the exceptions and alerts for proactive decision making
Additional cost or budgetary provision to manage the data
The five-pronged approach of Monitoring, Alert, Intervention, Escalation and Quality Assurance help to
ensure the effective management of sensor data for the customers.
SCMXpert offers a cost-effective approach for this challenge of handling IOT sensor data. The
approach manages to encompass different supply chain partners within the shipment process. It also
offers services to achieves and protect sensor data for regulatory needs.