Logistics businesses routinely face particularly thin profit margins. Creating efficiency and flexibility that help you overcome unexpected setbacks is the key to success. Technology is playing a major role in helping logistics business owners future-proof their businesses, and cold chain temperature control systems lie at the heart of it.
Temperature control seems like a basic function on the surface. After all, every logistics business incorporates temperature monitoring when delivering goods. However, the data generated by temperature monitoring systems are critical, since they help you detect trends that mitigate future risks.
Here are four reasons why temperature control capabilities are critical for your logistics business’s success into 2022 and beyond.
Better Deliveries
Beginning with the obvious, temperature control systems ensure optimal deliveries. Goods such as food and healthcare products require controlled storage when being transported. The smallest deviations from ideal conditions can compromise entire shipments, leading to losses.
The need for robust temperature monitoring has become apparent with the COVID pandemic. Countries are mobilizing global supply chains, and the challenges of dealing with extreme weather conditions en-route have compromised more than one vaccine shipment.
While transportation vehicles have received the bulk of cold chain attention, storage facilities have also come under the scanner. Shipment losses have occurred due to inadequate cold chain temperature monitoring at delivery sites or patient-facing facilities.
A robust temperature monitoring system would have alerted stakeholders of issues before the damage occurred, allowing them to salvage shipments. Aside from alerts, a good system also builds transparency into the supply chain, since all parties can track shipment-related data. This makes shipment damage less likely, provided communication channels remain open.
Greater Resilience
Traditional shipment monitoring systems rely on radio waves to transmit measurement data, and this creates communication dead zones when goods are transported over long distances. For instance, ocean liners that travel huge distances frequently enter dead zones where logistics partners cannot track their goods’ condition.
Transporting goods by air leads to even bigger blackouts, since radio waves interfere with airplane systems. Modern temperature control monitors use wireless networks and optical scanning solutions to get the job done. The result is a supply chain that is more resilient to unexpected events.
For instance, pressure changes within an aircraft might change the shipment’s internal temperature. Traditional systems would not capture these events, leading to potential damage. In the case of healthcare shipments, using damaged goods can lead to fatal consequences.
A logistics provider that helps its customers build a resilient and transparent supply chain will be highly valued, and using the right technology is the key to success.
Build Efficiency
Efficiency in the supply chain reduces costs and boosts profits. However, locating the sources of inefficiency is tough. Logistics companies face issues when trying to determine where to begin. Technology, in the form of temperature monitoring, can give them a head start.
Historical temperature monitoring data can unearth trends in shipments that might lead to future issues. For instance, a popular route might be causing complications in shipments, leading to goods violating temperature thresholds too often. Such situations might lead to significant losses in the future.
Route planning is a tough task, and temperature data plays an important role in the process. The shortest route might have regulatory and geopolitical complications. Shipments that routinely arrive close to temperature thresholds indicate the presence of an issue that the logistics company is not accounting for.
Temperature-related data lends itself well to analytics and can unearth much more than the best route. Partner quality becomes easy to figure out. For instance, a logistics partner or subcontractor that delivers goods in subpar conditions will be highlighted by temperature data.
Liability audits occur when shipments are damaged. The outcome of these investigations is critical, since they impact insurance premiums. Temperature data creates a constant audit trail that pinpoints where damage began and who is responsible, thereby removing the possibility of the wrong party being found liable.
Better Customization
Customization is the next big thing in business, and it follows that logistics customers will also begin demanding tailored solutions. Currently, logistics providers customize solutions industry-wise, but technology can help them drill deeper.
Upon examining historical temperature-related data, logistics providers can discern trends in a customer’s shipments and tailor shipment solutions unique to them. For instance, they could use routes that have more storage facilities along the way, given the sensitivity of a customer’s goods.
If a customer prioritizes speed above all else, logistics providers can use historical temperature data to create the fastest route. Note that the fastest route isn’t always the one that has the shortest distance.
Regulatory actions and weather patterns play an important role in this exercise. Historical temperature data will point to the most efficient route that shippers must take.
Simple, Yet Powerful
Temperature monitoring is a straightforward process to install. Happily, it has several positive impacts on a logistics business, provided the data the process generates is used properly. Future-proofing a business is challenging, but temperature data offers a great way for logistics business owners to achieve this goal.
