Preface
An
increasing demand of daily products, vegetables, fruits as well as the needs of
pharmaceutical drugs boosted the cold chain market where the logistics was
attached with more importance on the control of temperature and humidity in the
containers and carriers. To real time monitor, the M2M (machine to machine)
communication in use of big data technology has come into the market. It is
commonly known that various products have different requirements on the
temperature inside the containers or carriers. For example, the optimum
temperature for refrigerated vaccines is between 2℃
to 8℃ (the specific temperature tolerances depend on
the actual product that being shipped). For frozen vaccines, the optimum
temperature is -15℃ or even lower. The cold
chain logistics in pharmaceutical drugs is very complex as it also requires
additional conditions which includes carbon dioxide, oxygen, humidity etc. to
maintain specific environment parameters besides the temperature. To easily
understand and illustrate the purpose of this paper, I will be covering only
the food sector.
Brief on Cold Chain
Entering
into the new era, the relative distance among regions of the world is smaller
with the help of modern technologies, however, the physical distance remains
same. The greater the physical separation, the more likely the freight could be
damaged during one of the complex transportations, either by shocks or
temperature variations. Normal cargo might not be much impacted by the
temperature, but products like dairy food or pharmaceutical drugs which are
quite temperature sensitive would be severely suffered as their quality
degrades with improper temperature. To make perishable products available at
the right time, right place with right quality, the “cold chain” has come into
the market.
Cold chain
refers to the process used to maintain optimal conditions during the transport,
warehousing, material handling and packaging. It starts from the manufacturer
and ends with the client. Take a normal order for example, the exporter was
placed an order from the importer well in advance, then the items would be
transported from the points of origin to the destination with the help of fleet
of refrigerated vehicles (vehicles with chilling facility) at a temperature of
2 – 4℃. After delivery, the products were shifted to the
refrigerated warehouse where the items were sorted out. Then with utmost care,
the products were transferred to the refrigerated distribution center and
retail outlets afterwards, and finally go to the customers. Normally, there is
not much scope for reverse logistics, as the cost of returning or resending the
product will cost as much as procuring it. Any defective product would be
written off as a loss.
Big Data in Cold Chain Logistics
This
movie shows how Ambient’s 3000 Series 3rd Generation Active RFID
technology, using intelligent SmartPoints as RF Data Loggers, can be employed
in the Cold Chain for food and beverages.)
In
concerning with the food safety, on January 4, 2011, the FDA’s Food Safety
Modernization Act (FSMA) was signed into law which focused on regulating food
resources and the food supply chain in its first phase, and since 2014, its
focus is broadening to the transport of food from producer to consumer. To meet
the requirements of the government, food producers and transporters are turning
to sensor-based technologies and analytics which injects big data into the
supply chains for the real time monitoring during the transport. This “track
and trace” monitoring uses censor and radio-frequency identification (RFID) based
technologies that can follow shipments from the points of origin through the
logistics network, warehouses, distribution centers and retail outlets. When
comes to the “cold chain” products which require the mobile refrigerators or
other types of environmental controls, such as the maintenance of stable
humidity within the containers or carriers, the censors for temperature and
humidity will be installed inside. This censor-based technology works in two
ways: it provides GPS data which deliver the real-time location of the carrier,
and it also monitors the temperature and humidity inside the containers with an
immediate automated alert sent when there has been any temperature or humidity
digressions.
With the
continuous monitoring, huge sets of data (often called ‘big data’ in today’s
world) is being generated and gathered which is great as it may contribute to
the business growth of the company, but only holding the data without a proper
analysis may pose challenges. Therefore, it is important that the data is
analyzed according to key performance indicators (KPIs) for that particular
products, for organizations, how to read and interpret that data matters more,
as they shall be presented in a way that assures companies that their products
meet health and safety requirements, and it also needs to convince the
potential customers of the quality of the products which has reached them in a
condition which is safe to consume.
Globalization Impact
Globalization
implies the opening of local and nationalistic perspective to a broader outlook
of an interconnected and interdependent world with free transfer of capital,
goods and services across national frontiers, and the globalization of the
supply chain has made food accessible to more people than any time in human
history. But as a result, the supply chain bears more responsibility of the
safety of food supply, and the cold chain would definitely expand, with the
enhancing capacity of the cold warehouses.
In February
2015, at least five people in Australia sickened with Hepatitis A virus by
frozen berries. The suspected berries were packed in China before distribution
in Australia, an investigation by all health agencies is underway but it with a
high possibility that the contamination could be tracked back to the source of
the berries in China. In March this year, grocery stores in every region of the
United States and Canada have been taking frozen organic spinach off their
shelves due to the contamination with Listeria. News like above clearly
indicates that there is still a long way to go on the food safety. As mentioned
at the beginning of the posting, FDA has a legislative mandate to require
comprehensive, preventive-based control across the food supply chain, and it
also urges a stricter temperature and humidity control under food transport.
To better
monitor the temperature and humidity during the transport, numerous hardware
and software tools have come into the market. Globe Tracker International
recently released a “smart” refrigerated container. The system combines data
from the refrigeration unit with data collected from wireless censors to nearly
real time report condition and security variables inside the container. WAM
Technologies LLC, a provider of M2M (machine to machine) solutions for remote management
of refrigerated assets, has released a GSM-based tracking system to monitor and
control refrigerated on-board containers. All these new systems take advantage
of the fully explored big data which will be definitely enhance the real time
monitoring of the transport.
Furthermore,
the globalization also witnesses the shift of the buying habit of consumers from
normal markets to online stores. According to the investigation of OC&C,
the online sales rose nearly 50% in 2014, year on year, compared with a paltry
6.7% for hypermarkets and supermarket sales (including new store openings), and
solving the cold chain logistics problem is the key for online food retailers
which indicates a promising opportunity for cold chain logistics.
Conclusion
With the
gradual increasing concern of the food safety, cold chain will be playing a
more vital role. As one of the booming technologies, big data would definitely
insert an important positive impact in enhancing the cold chain logistics
together with the other technologies, such as mobile etc. According to the
research from Supply Chain Insights, in the past three years, cold chain
companies are making little progress on the adoption of big data strategies.
However, now is the time to prepare, invest and re-evaluate what is possible.
Reference
