A Guide to Cold Chain Logistics

What Is Cold Chain Logistics?

Cold chain logistics is the transport of temperature-controlled goods, such as temperature-sensitive foods, beverages, and biopharmaceutical products. For companies who grow or manufacture these types of goods, delivering their products to the end customer is only half the battle. Ensuring the products are in good condition as expected upon delivery can often be challenging.

The cold chain process does not begin with transportation. It impacts every step of the supply chain, from supply procurement to transport, storage, transport to end customers. The temperature-sensitive products must be kept at a consistent, specific temperature or temperature range throughout their lifecycle. A rise or fall of temperature during any supply chain phase can spell disaster for the goods. A broken temperature chain can also negatively impact the end-user, particularly with consumer products that are ingested.

Cold chain logistics serves to keep the temperature for these goods at a constant throughout the transportation phase of the cycle. It involves correct packaging, proper transportation equipment, carefully chosen transportation routes, perfect timing, and visibility to ensure that what was expected is what happened. This intricate choreography is only possible with data-driven insights at every point in the process, from supply procurement through end customer receipt of goods.

Why Is Cold Chain Logistics Important?

We often don’t consider how our foods, beverages, and medications are transported. We typically purchase them from local stores and pharmacies, unaware of how they got there. Yet, as we increasingly demand fresh, quality products from around the globe, we are placing a giant bullseye on the cold chain logistics companies who must deliver those goods. Whether we intend to or not, consumers are driving the demand for such care.

Growers, manufacturers, and suppliers of temperature-sensitive products, such as Alaskan seafood, dairy products, meats, frozen foods, wine, and certain medications, are taking heed. They understand how critical it is to keep these products at a set temperature for the duration of the sales cycle. Some products can withstand temperature fluctuations, while others become unsafe with even the smallest deviation. While the end customer may not be able to notice the salmon they purchased at their neighborhood grocery store spent a couple of hours in a truck above 40°F, they may be at risk for foodborne illness.

This risk is exacerbated by certain medications, such as many vaccines, antibiotics, and blood products. The Healthcare Distribution Management Association reports that approximately 10 percent of all medications are temperature sensitive, and that number may only increase in the coming years. Drug development is becoming more complex and, more frequently, involves large-molecule biologics that require precise temperature standardization to ensure efficacy.

Plenty is at risk when temperature-sensitive products experience environmental shifts. Quality, flavor, consistency, efficacy, and safety are all on the line. Cold chain logistics can help minimize the threat of such deviations and give these manufacturers and suppliers better control over their products every step of the way.

What Are The Challenges with Cold Chain Logistics?

Cold chain companies are under increasing pressure to ensure goods are kept at specific temperatures, yet it is a constant challenge that only gets more complex with every passing year. “The sector is grappling with additional challenges – from increases in the sensitivity, quality standards, and volume of many of its goods, to continually mounting regulations. The cold chain also faces many of the same issues challenging the entire supply chain: service the global market, driving out costs, becoming more strategic, and addressing capacity and resource constraints, all while managing the exacting needs of the sector’s precious cargo – primarily good and pharmaceutical products,” said Inbound Logistics in a recent article on the top trends in cold chain logistics.

As consumers become more informed about their health and what they put into their bodies, they are demanding fresher foods and products, often from thousands of miles away. This raises a logistical challenge. Growers and suppliers of these fresh foods must find ways to bring their products to the consumer in the safest, fastest way that keeps the integrity of the product intact. With foods now sourced from all over the globe, this isn’t always easy.

The food industry isn’t the only one, where temperature fluctuations in the supply chain can impact products. The pharmaceutical industry often brings to market temperature-sensitive medications that can range in their temperature requirements. These medications can travel from one end of the country to another, and even a slight temperature deviation can cause an expensive, potentially life-saving drug to “go bad” before it ever makes it to the patient. Even worse, if these temperature fluctuations aren’t strictly monitored and reported, the patient may still receive a compromised medication that can dramatically impact their treatment or even life. As such, pharmaceutical cold chain logistics involves as much or more oversight than that of the food and beverage industry.

How Cold Chain Logistics Works

Today, third-party logistical companies are taking the cold chain enforcement burden off of the manufacturer, at least when it comes to transporting their goods. These cold chain logistics companies provide specific expertise geared around transporting temperature-sensitive products. According to one source,  “The potential to understand local rules, customs and environmental conditions, as well as estimation of the length and time of a distribution route, making them an important factor in global trade.”

The key to cold chain logistics is to integrate and control the various elements of the supply chain. This requires data and lots of it. This is not data that can be manually curated. There’s simply too much data to consider, and it comes from too many potential sources. Furthermore, these data points are constantly changing. Instead, cold chain logistics companies are leveraging smart technology and data science to bring order to an often chaotic process.

Data science is transforming the logistics industry, just as it is virtually every other industry. When used properly, it enables organizations to gather insights and visualize their shipping networks before anything is shipped. This valuable foresight allows decisions to be made with greater accuracy and better outcomes. The data is out there. Data science pulls it together in meaningful ways.

One such data point is the environment. The environment(s) in which the products will encounter directly impacts cold chain logistics. Using data gathered from historical and predictive weather models, cold chain logistics companies can calculate specific risks for each individual and unique shipment. This data empowers transportation planners with the ability to make more dynamic decisions around transportation modes, shipment timing, and equipment selection in data-rich, intelligent ways.