Cold Chain Logistics Management: How to Handle Temperature-Sensitive Goods
When they toss frozen pizzas into their grocery carts or receive their annual flu shots, average citizens typically don’t stop to think about how those items traveled from manufacturers thousands of miles away to our neighborhood stores. The answer is cold chain logistics. This is the complex process of moving temperature-controlled goods like foods, beverages and pharmaceutical products from origin point to end customers.
What is Cold Chain Logistics?
Cold chain logistics are vital for the safety and quality of many products, from food to pharmaceuticals. The process involves managing temperature-sensitive items throughout each phase – beginning at production all the way through consumption. While it sounds straightforward, every step brings potential risks if proper precautions are not taken – making cold chain an essential component for successful final delivery.
Cold chain logistics encompasses every point in the supply chain, from supply procurement and manufacturing to transport and storage. At every step along the way, temperature-controlled products must be kept within a consistent temperature range. This serves to ensure the delivery of safe, high-quality goods for customers’ use.
To maintain this highly sensitive environment, cold chain logistics providers depend on proper packaging, functional equipment, strategic transportation routes and a constant stream of data to ensure that every link in the chain is fulfilling its purpose.
The Importance of Cold Chain Logistics
With an increasing number of products traveling from around the globe into our homes, the role of cold chain logistics and refrigeration cannot be overstated. Fresh, temperature-sensitive goods like dairy products, meats and seafood, frozen foods, wine, medications and other items must be kept in a temperature-controlled environment throughout the sales cycle. Failure to do so could result in deterioration of product quality. It can even lead to an increased risk of illness for the end customer.
The importance of cold chain logistics has recently been thrust into the spotlight by the race to develop and deliver COVID-19 vaccines. Several of the first vaccines to be approved—including those manufactured by Moderna and Pfizer—must be kept at extremely cold temperatures in order to maintain their efficacy. This raises challenges related to distribution and storage. The world is grappling with the monumental task of vaccinating billions of people against this devastating virus. As a result, cold chain logistics is finally being recognized for its critical role in global health and safety.
The Cold Chain Logistics Process
In the U.S., third-party logistics companies (3PLs) specializing in cold chain and refrigeration are largely responsible for managing this component of the supply chain.
Their highly specific expertise and familiarity with local regulations and processes—along with the force-multiplying factor of smart technology and data collection—enable them to bring efficiency and stability to a complex industry.
Cold Chain Logistics Challenges
An increasingly health-conscious consumer base has resulted in new pressures on the cold chain logistics segment. Demand for refrigerated products globally requires suppliers to identify methods of transporting goods to consumers thousands of miles away. This must be done while simultaneously maintaining the quality and integrity of the product. Additionally, they must minimize the costs of shipping cold chain goods quickly and efficiently. Doing so serves to avoid pricing themselves out of an extremely competitive market.
Beyond the food and beverage industry, sensitive pharmaceutical products frequently demand temperature-controlled environments. These environments are needed to preserve their safety and efficacy until they are delivered to patients. Even a brief, relatively minor fluctuation in temperature can degrade a drug or other treatment, compromising both health and safety.
Cold Chain Regulations and Guidelines
Cold chain logistics providers must be well-versed in a host of constantly-changing guidelines and regulations related to maintaining product quality and safety. These requirements are issued by multiple agencies, including:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)
International Air Transport Association (IATA)
In addition to these regulatory bodies, individual shipping companies and manufacturers issue quality guidelines that exceed federal requirements. These regulations typically apply to categories such as minimum temperatures, product stability, packaging, monitoring and transportation.
The Role of Data in Cold Chain Logistics
It is crucial for cold chain focused 3PLs to meet clients’ needs while also remaining profitable. As a result, these cold chain 3PLs depend on a constant supply of data to manage temperature, time, and transportation. These three key factors are vital to ensure proper optimization of the cold chain. Data science enables logistics providers to accurately forecast potential challenges, such as infrastructure and weather, every step of the way. This allows them to effectively plan a strategy and make necessary adjustments before perishables enter the supply chain. Without this data, 3PL’s would fly blind into an array of factors causing delays, damage, and potential loss to the bottom line.
High-caliber data also allows cold chain logistics companies to maximize profits by capitalizing on existing conditions. For example, using raw data to generate a map that illustrates risk factors in 10-mile increments along the entirety of a shipping route may show that an unusual cold snap will make the use of reefers unnecessary, resulting in significant cost savings over the length of the trip.
Even when their cargo remains the same, every shipment faces different environmental dynamics that can impact temperature, transportation and time, including weather patterns, road construction, and even human error. An integrated approach to data equips 3PLs with the information they need to potentially alter shipping dates or routes, use different equipment or otherwise adjust their plans to reflect real-time conditions on the ground.
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8161 N 107th Ave UNIT 113, Peoria, AZ 85345
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Shipping@cooltransitllc.online