How Iot Underpins Pharma Cold Chain Monitoring Systems

How Iot Underpins Pharma Cold Chain Monitoring Systems
Photo : Photo by Jacques Dillies on Unsplash

Modern supply chains encompass intricate webs of processes that involve multiple stakeholders, services, expectations, regulations, vehicles and quality assurance parameters. It should come as no surprise that technology is playing a vital role in ensuring the integrity of goods, especially in the pharmaceutical sector.

The goods in this sector range from medicines to precision electronic equipment. As such, pharma cold chain monitoring systems hog the limelight when speaking of technology that powers these supply chains. However, there's a critical technological piece that makes sure cold chain monitoring goes off without a hitch.

No longer used primarily in the manufacturing segment of supply chains, IoT devices are now starting to be used across the supply chain and function in various ways to eliminate waste and increase efficiency.

Here are a few ways in which IoT technology helps to create efficient supply chains.

Real-Time Monitoring

One of the most basic functions of the supply chain is ensuring full visibility of goods at all times. Technological innovation first addressed issues such as parcel and delivery tracking in the logistics industry, and IoT has taken things a step further by adding condition monitoring to the mix.

While knowing the location of in-transit goods is helpful, the ability to monitor their conditions in real time goes a long way towards eliminating costly waste in the supply chain. These days, sensors embedded in delivery shipments monitor a range of conditions from humidity, light, shock, and temperature. As far as the pharma sector is concerned, condition monitoring is vital in ensuring medicines and vaccines arrive in safe conditions.

Typically, these sensors are attached to the outside of a shipment, and employees can scan a QR code to transmit data to a central cloud platform. If the goods violate preset thresholds, logistics companies swing into action and notify relevant parties immediately. For instance, if a shipment of insulin violates temperature thresholds, the driver of the vehicle will receive a notification and can take corrective action immediately.

A large volume of goods are shipped by boat these days, and smart containers perform the same condition monitoring functions that smaller sensors do. These containers transmit all condition-related data, along with GPS coordinates, to central locations, providing full visibility into pharmaceutical shipments at all times.

Efficient Storage

Storage in the pharmaceutical industry is vital since most medical products are highly condition-sensitive. As such, condition monitoring through IoT devices plays a vital role from manufacturing to retail. Manufacturers use IoT-embedded scanners to maintain inventory lists and monitor storage conditions.

Thanks to automated batch code recording via these devices, damage in a single product allows manufacturers to isolate the entire batch and take corrective action instantly. Manufacturing facilities tend to run lean inventory, and IoT helps companies plan demand ahead of time by feeding inventory data and trends into sophisticated demand prediction models.

These warehouses also increase delivery efficiency by employing robots to load and pack goods in bulk. Thanks to seamless communication between scanning devices and robots, delivery preparation is simple and efficient. Once goods reach retailers, condition-monitoring sensors track relevant data to ensure goods are safe to consume.

Tracking data this way also helps isolate sources of product damage, which plays an important role in determining insurance liability and future damage prevention.

Seamless Manufacturing

Pharma manufacturing lines are a mix of human and machine input. Machines play vital roles in inspecting and packaging final products, and errors in this part of the process can lead to serious consequences.

Given the life-saving nature of many medicines, delays in manufacturing can cost lives, aside from damaging a company's reputation irreparably. IoT devices embedded in manufacturing line machines track a component's shelf life and alert relevant teams when maintenance or errors are detected.

The result is that companies know the state of their manufacturing devices at all times and can even predict when a component might fail.

Thus, ordering spare parts or maintenance repairs is simple. These processes ensure waste is reduced to a minimum or even eliminated. A manufacturing component's lifecycle data also plays a vital role in helping companies plan production cycles and meet projected demand.

Transparency

Supply chain visibility is essential in the pharmaceutical sector. Products are extremely sensitive, and failure to monitor their integrity could lead to serious consequences. IoT device data fed to analytics platforms brings complete visibility into every corner of the supply chain.

These days, companies can integrate every facet of the supply chain, from logistics to procurement, into a single platform and use sophisticated algorithms to model scenarios. For instance, a manufacturer can predict their resource requirements depending on different demand predictions.

They can automatically designate vendors according to their past performance, thanks to the condition-related data gathered by IoT devices.

A vendor that delivers goods in perfect conditions and on time can be trusted more during heavy production schedules, as opposed to one that delivers goods less efficiently. IoT data helps companies analyze the effects of production demands on their vendors and plan accordingly.

A Connected Supply Chain

While advanced technology like AI and ML algorithms are leaving a mark on supply chains, all of these features work from the foundation laid by IoT devices. Thanks to these seemingly simple devices, pharma companies, and their supply chain partners can rest assured that the goods they deliver are always in top-notch condition and that customer safety is guaranteed.

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