Maintaining product integrity with smart temperature controlled solutions

Within the vast field of logistics and supply chain management, perishable food products make up a large and important part of the country's supply chain. It is critical, within this sphere of supply chain management, to ensure that effective and specialised temperature controlled solutions are in place.

For logistics service providers, the primary challenge is that the product integrity needs to be maintained across the entire value chain - from source to consumption. A deviation at any point will impact on the integrity of the product.

This means, for example, that if the specific temperature regime (frozen, chilled or ambient) for a product is not maintained, the product will deteriorate - impacting on the quality, shelf life and usability. In addition, there is an element of protecting the physical integrity of the product (packaging, etc) from damages that always needs to be taken into account.

One of the major complexities is that there are multiple entities involved (usually not the same service provider) and hence multiple handover points. This makes determining the root cause (i.e. accountability) for a deviation problematic.

Finding the right solution

For the product integrity to be maintained across the entire value chain, the different temperature regimes (frozen, chilled and ambient) need to be catered for separately with regards to storage, staging and distribution.

Added to this, the products need to be actively monitored and maintained at all times - with appropriate reporting and tracking technology. As the handover points introduce the highest risk for non-conformance, appropriate operating processes and methodologies need to be strictly adhered to in order to mitigate this risk.

Specialised expertise

When designing the right supply chain solutions for customers, it is essential to take into account the food safety regulations around temperature-controlled products. There is rigorous legislation that must be complied with. Indeed, every product has specific requirements developed to maximise its integrity.

In the long term, dedicated expertise will ensure that the consumer expectations are met. With regards to food, this includes the quality and freshness of the product as well as the longevity (shelf-life). This also results in less waste and improved sales numbers for customers.

Technology fuelled innovation

Looking ahead, there are a number of innovations and technology platforms in the pipeline that will benefit supply chain specialists and their customers with regards to perishable foods. Current innovations include live temperature monitoring in vehicles and facilities, temperature probing at handover points and thermal dividers in vehicles (multi-temperature).

In the next few years, we also expect to see a lot more progress being made with regards to 3D temperature monitoring, individual temperature monitoring devices (i.e. the ability to track temperatures per item) and in finding alternative energy solutions to maintain temperature.