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Today, automated control systems are everywhere you look in manufacturing, storage, and delivery supply chains. Smart location, logistics, and condition package management sensors, combined with blockchain technology and IoT solutions, govern every step of the process, from initial ordering to its final destination. These advancements enable real-time visibility, enhancing traceability and operational efficiency across the global supply chain.
Centralized shipping control servers now ensure that all kinds of perishable shipments arrive faster and in better condition than ever before. Supply chain automation helps reduce labor costs and turnaround times while mitigating risks associated with human error, particularly in handling temperature-sensitive goods within the pharmaceutical industry.
Automated control also allows for tool-assisted management. When total process automation is impossible or unwise (i.e., with safety-critical choices, handling unexpected errors), data is sent to a human expert to finalize the decisions.
Machine learning algorithms and metadata logging can also help develop better long-term strategies, benchmarks, and targets.
These digital transformation initiatives have proven especially critical in addressing challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, which highlighted vulnerabilities in supply chain logistics and emphasized the need for robust, end-to-end monitoring solutions.
Sensor-Guided Control Automation
Within cold manufacturing storage and transit, digitalization and robotic automation are critical to ensuring quality control and meeting service standards. All intelligent cold warehouses, vehicles and control hubs (dashboards) now use a network of automated software and sensors to provide control interventions, vital data, and complete routine tasks. Better logs and receipts provide better accountability for third parties transporting and handling high-value, temperature-sensitive goods.
Why? Historically, refrigerated and frozen product manufacturers and wholesalers (e.g., food, drinks, pharmaceuticals, and microelectronics) struggled with the expense and commitment of demanding, time-consuming cold supply chains.
Every comprehensive cold supply chain uses multiple automated control systems, all parts working together to deliver a “rolling” supply chain in sync. With the rise of blockchain technology and IoT integration, companies now have improved end-to-end visibility, ensuring compliance, reducing waste and optimizing distribution processes.
liberoMANAGER at Lundbeck
Learn how Lundbeck harmonized their temperature monitoring systems for their clinical and commercial supply chains.
Automated Cold Storage
Automating picking and packing at source and stopover cold warehouses has revolutionized supply chain management. Robotic, wirelessly tracked lifters, rollers, and conveyor belts can now store, retrieve and replace numbered goods pallets or boxes as they feed into the system without any human input.
QR pallet codes, GPS tags, and scan point database entries log every transaction made, the nature of the goods stored, and its internal and external (if applicable) destinations, ensuring real-time visibility and traceability. Automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) also eliminate the need for human workers to enter mass fridges or freezers except for maintenance and routine checks. Limiting cold exposure to robotic loaders increases worker safety and job satisfaction while mitigating risks associated with human error.
Another key advantage of AS/RS is its ability to improve operational efficiency by reducing costly order corrective fees, system downtime and errors in high-value pharmaceutical shipments. Additionally, automated warehouses can maximize space utilization, reducing energy consumption by as much as 50% compared to traditional, human-controlled facilities.
Smart Energy Management and Regulation
Even with full warehouse automation in place, mass refrigerators and mobile cold storage still tend to consume substantial electrical power. Automated sensors and smart programming can manage energy usage by optimizing refrigeration cycles, turning off unused equipment, and integrating alternative energy sources like solar and wind into the grid.
Using AI-driven energy management systems helps companies mitigate power-related risks and reduce operational costs, ensuring a more sustainable and robust cold supply chain.
Automatic Software Courier Routing and Itinerary Optimization
Managing perishable shipments efficiently requires intelligent routing solutions. Changing weather, late orders, and unique cold transportation challenges mean that any truly optimized supply chain must be flexible and adaptive.
By leveraging AI, blockchain, and machine learning, companies can automate route planning, ensuring real-time visibility into potential disruptions. This automation aids human planners and drivers in optimizing their itineraries, reducing transit times, and improving overall efficiency.
Automatic Alerts and Correctives
What if a part in the chain goes wrong, underperforms, or breaks down? Thanks to automatic sensor data relay and active monitoring, engineers and managers can be alerted in minutes if any part of the cold chain behaves outside of nominal readings. Software streams temperature, humidity, and voltage data to create a virtual image of the chain's machine and vehicle performance, enabling proactive intervention and risk mitigation.
Passive automatic monitoring plays a role in streamlining cold delivery, too. GPS sensors and remote condition tracking double-check estimates for automatically created plans against human performance, ensuring accountability and compliance.
Post-Delivery Metadata and Analytics
When cold deliveries finish up for the day, how does one improve further? Automated analysis software can collate data from an enormous range of sources and apply optimizing changes based on real-time insights. Power usage, travel time, and depot efficiency can all improve via machine-learning-powered tweaks.
Dashboard analytics use automated data logging to generate reports and visualizations of performance trends, helping logistics managers refine their strategies for greater operational efficiency. Additionally, auto-alert networks can quickly flag outstanding issues via SMS and email push notifications, ensuring rapid corrective actions.
Automated Monitoring Sensors and Systems from ELPRO
An automated control system is only as good as the sensors and monitors that feed into it. At ELPRO, we specialize in providing intelligent temperature monitoring solutions that form the foundation of robust, end-to-end supply chain management.
With decades of expertise in the pharmaceutical industry, we develop, build, and supply precision sensors, IoT-based monitoring solutions, and blockchain-enabled data tracking for manufacturers and shipping companies worldwide. Our solutions offer real-time visibility, enhanced traceability and risk mitigation strategies that ensure the integrity of high-value, temperature-sensitive goods.
With hundreds of products currently in stock, we have the sensor required to meet your needs. If not? We can build it.
Contact us today to learn more about how ELPRO can help transform your digital cold supply chain.
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