Adapt Ideations Cold Chain Guide

IoT enabled innovative solutions simplify the cold chain and enable automated asset tracking and monitoring allowing the industry to transform their everyday processes.

What is the Cold Chain?

The cold chain refers to a temperature-controlled supply chain ensuring perishable goods stay within the required conditions such as temperature thresholds. The cold chain process begins from the point of origin to manufacturing, logistics and distribution, storage, and the final destination. Effective cold chain management involves undertaking a chain of tasks to prepare, store, and transport temperature-sensitive assets along the cold chain. Failure to keep cold chain products within their required temperature, may render them ineffective and non-consumable leading to product damage. In addition, the damage of assets such as pharmaceuticals and perishable goods can greatly affect business-client relationships.

Importance of Effective Cold Chain Management:

The cold chain ensures that high-value and perishable goods are safe and remain within the correct conditions that is required. Ineffective cold chain management may include failing to keep temperature-sensitive assets within the correct environment resulting in physical degradation, discolouring, and microbial growth. Moreover, high-value assets such as vaccines and biopharmaceutical products must be stored in the correct conditions to ensure regulations and compliance measures are met. Cold chain logistics companies must ensure their processes are efficient, reliable, and optimised to achieve effective cold chain management.

The Need for an Effective Cold Chain:

An effective cold chain is needed to ensure consistent quality, compliance, and regulations are met. Innovative solutions are needed to increase supply chain visibility and transparency across the cold chain. Data can be gathered via digital asset tracking and monitoring solutions allowing companies to monitor vital metrics of assets. The sensitive nature of perishable goods highlights the importance of monitoring conditions such as location, temperature, humidity, light, and shock exposure throughout the cold chain.

An effective cold chain ensures perishable goods are consistently kept within optimal temperature ranges. IoT enabled asset tracking and monitoring solutions allow data to be collected on assets within the cold chain reducing the need for manual checks to occur. For example, some vaccines and other biopharmaceutical products must be kept at near freezing temperatures to preserve their efficacy. If temperatures go above the sub-zero ranges, the vaccine or biopharmaceutical product may lose its efficacy, and will no longer be safe for use.

Effective cold chain management reduces waste and damaged products through enhanced monitoring. By utilising IoT enabled asset tracking and monitoring solutions companies can rapidly identify when a cold chain breach has occurred allowing stakeholders to take necessary action. In turn this allows greater operational efficiency to be achieved and reduce waste associated with damaged products.

The Cold Chain Process

• Rapid freezing and cooling, re-packaging, and storing of perishable goods.
• Ensure effective cold chain management throughout including manufacturing, logistics, and storage.
• Transporting products to and from touch points along the cold chain, from the point of origin to the destination.
• Ensuring assets has remained safe and viable for use, through the use of innovative asset tracking and monitoring solutions.

How is Innovative Technology such as IoT Improving the Cold Chain?

Increased uptake of innovative solutions such as IoT enabled asset tracking solutions has positively impacted the cold chain sector. The digitalisation of the monitoring process of perishable goods, has enhanced cold chain operations. IoT enabled asset tracking and monitoring solutions increase supply chain visibility enabling companies and their relevant stakeholders to share vital metrics on their assets. Digital asset monitoring solutions have simplified this process greatly.

IoT enhanced asset tracking solutions gather vital metrics that are key for effective cold chain processes. The implementation of innovative solutions during the cold chain can:

Track the Location of Valuable Assets: 

IoT enabled asset tracking devices can be placed inside the packaging of valuable consignments to track the location in near real-time. For pharmaceutical consignments this is necessary to understand where their cargo is located at any point of time.

Monitor Conditions of Perishable Goods: 

Perishable goods such as poultry and meat require products to remain within stringent temperature ranges. Slight deviations from set parameters can make perishable goods unsafe for consumption, leading to waste and negative financial impacts. Cold chain monitoring solutions ensure perishable goods are kept within their ideal conditions throughout the cold chain.

Industries:

Pharmaceutical Industry:

The pharmaceutical industry encompasses a wide range of products including vaccines and biopharmaceutical products.

Biopharmaceutical products require stringent cold chain management measures to be in place. For these high-value shipments, the slightest deviations from set temperature parameters can render the pharmaceuticals ineffective, reduce their efficacy and become unconsumable. For pharmaceuticals its important to track moving assets and gather vital data.

The implementation of digital monitoring solutions for cold storage and cold chain facilities, will ensure vaccines and valuable pharmaceuticals remain in the correct temperature conditions. Insightful data gathered from digital cold chain monitoring solutions enables companies and relevant stakeholders to take proactive action when needed.

Perishable Food and Beverages Industry:

Food manufacturers face unprecedented challenges when it comes to exporting perishable goods. Perishable goods such as high-value meat and seafood shipments require stringent temperature monitoring to take place. Consistent monitoring is needed to ensure perishable goods are handled and stored correctly throughout the cold chain. For example, exposure to heat during cold chain logistics can break down raw meats and cause bacteria to grow, leading to product wastage.

The implementation of digital asset monitoring solutions within the cold chain, will enable companies to track and monitor their perishable goods. The data collected can be transformed into business insights to ensure future cold chain challenges are reduced.

Growth in the Cold Chain Sector:

Supply chain challenges and disruptions were emphasised during the Covid-19 pandemic highlighting the importance of innovative solutions to monitor assets throughout the supply chain. The demand that emerged subsequently for the cold chain sector, reflect how companies need to adapt and implement strategies including the use of innovative solutions to simplify every day asset management. Some emerging trends include:

• Increased demand for fresh foods globally, increasing the need for cold chain logistics and cold storage. The pandemic has in some cases led to higher rates of certain perishable goods such as meat being exported globally. 
• Emerging supply chain complexities due to global distribution
• Increased temperature-sensitive assets globally (i.e., vaccines)

The pandemic has also created growth opportunities within the cold chain sector, resulting in intensifying the demand for refrigerated transportation, warehousing, and digitalised asset monitoring capabilities. IoT enabled innovative solutions simplify the cold chain and enable automated asset tracking and monitoring allowing the industry to transform their everyday processes.

Further, digital asset tracking and monitoring solutions can:

• Optimise everyday processes
• Increase and simplify compliance and regulation adherence
• Increase supply chain visibility
• Identify when parameters have been violated such as temperature excursions
• Ensures temperature-sensitive and high value assets remain within their correct conditions throughout the cold chain

What Are the Associated Risks with Cold Chain Breaches?

Without the utilisation of digital asset monitoring solutions, companies may not be aware of cold chain breaches until they arrive at their final destination. This can result in increased product wastage, supply chain disruptions, financial losses and negative impacts on business relationships.