Managing the transportation of temperature-controlled products continues to grow increasingly. According to Pharmaceutical Commerce’s annual BioPharma Cold Chain Sourcebook- in 2021 the pharma cold chain logistics is predicted to be $16.6 billion industry. This includes the transport of temperature-controlled goods along a supply chain through refrigerated and thermal packaging procedures and the logistics planning to safeguard the integrity of the shipments.

Understanding the pain points

In the healthcare industry, the pharmaceutical cold chain is a key part of the supply chain and cold chain logistics services help the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry maintain a continuous supply of drugs from distributors and suppliers in various locations.

Nowadays more high-value active ingredients are being used in drug manufacturing that have a short shelf life and come with strict temperature requirements. Hence the need for monitoring and temperature control through the complete supply chain has grown manifolds. Even the drugs that are typically safe at room temperature may need practices to avoid the spikes that come with related transportation.

Logistics providers are now receiving increasing requests for Controlled Room Temperatures which involves the usage of refrigerants, insulated containers, temperature-monitoring electronics, and thermal blanketing. With products being handled multiple times from suppliers to end-user, there is a requirement of an assemblage of temperature controls to maintain quality, coordinated actions, and monitoring tools along the entire supply chain.

The biggest challenge with cold chain logistics is to maintain a certain temperature range throughout the delivery cycle. Multiple variables impact the length of time a product’s temperature is considered controlled. Temperature-controlled transportation requires specialized equipment and trucks, and skilled drivers.

Monitoring the temperature is another huge challenge and without that in place pharmaceutical manufacturers lose control over their goods as it moves up in the supply chain.

Besides that, increasing pharmaceutical mandates and globalization is causing many pharma manufacturers to implement more strict protocols to stay ahead of the regulation. For instance, in European Union, almost 80% of pharma products need temperature-controlled transportation.

Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on the cold chain’s role in the pharmaceutical industry. With temperature-controlled vaccines for the virus, there is a need for optimizing the entire supply chain for the industry.

Traceability across the supply network

To ensure product quality there is a need for a system to track unit-level items, identifying issues, finding an optimized solution, communicate an action plan, and compose a response. Supply networks function based on the trading relationships between manufacturers, producers, retailers, suppliers, distributors, and consumers. Full traceability across the supply network that includes visibility across final products, raw materials, and intermediaries across trading partners and to the end consumer.

Monitoring

The companies that outsource logistics, their carriers and providers become an important part of the process with a high level of risk. To avoid the risk, recordable devices such as RFID tags and sensor technologies can enable companies to manage and monitor supply chains.

Digitization and Visibility

Most of the pharma companies are now working towards digitization. The main objective is visibility on demand into each business process right from production to sale. By digitizing the entire supply chain process pharma companies get better control and coordination and they can base their decisions on reliable data and information. The use of technologies such as IoT to collect real-time and relevant data and cloud platforms- to manage the data and make sense of it for your business needs and supply chain.

The demand for visibility across the supply chain due to increase in globalization that includes temperature monitoring and location irrespective of where in the world product is moving, is driving the technology market to create solutions to deliver and track data in real–time.

Final Word

To meet the varying demands and not to mess up an already complex process, the cold chain logistics in the pharmaceutical industry needs to be based on three points- service, agility, and cost-effectiveness.

Furthermore, with the expanding reach of the pharmaceutical cold chain sector the logistic providers, manufacturers, and carriers will need to continue to coordinate their efforts to address the ongoing cold chain challenges in the pharmaceutical industry.

The post Optimizing Supply Chain to Address Cold Chain Challenges in the Pharmaceutical Industry appeared first on ScaleUp Consulting..

For most of the businesses, supply chains are the lifeblood. Collaboration across  various suppliers, processes, software has long led to creation of huge data off the back of even small-scale supply chains. Unfortunately, the data generated is useless in its raw form, however, when businesses leverage the power of analytics to create insights from them can help them in making informed decisions and run supply chain networks seamlessly.

Today, analytics is advancing at a breakneck pace, from developing innovations around the cloud, democratizing technologies, new AI capabilities and much more; various Analytics trends are gaining traction in the market.

With this horizon and data analytics technology on the upward path, it is critical to stay informed of what’s new and upcoming. Here we have compiled key supply chain analytics trends for 2022.

Supply Chain Analytics Trends for 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that agility is essential to avoid significant supply chain disruption during these unprecedented times. Over the last two years, competitive advantage within supply chains has relied on the ability of all businesses to adapt quickly, embrace new technologies, and find innovative solutions.

Analytics that highlights the trepidations as they arise can help in achieving this much needed agility. However, a customized approach is required for businesses to focus on getting better insights from their software and align it with business outcomes.

AI and ML will become more intelligent

In recent years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) space has been complex, with more companies entering the space than before. However, as we begin to enter a more mature space in 2022, more companies will invest in AI-driven automated insights. Low-code and no-code will democratize artificial intelligence. While data scientists will continue to focus on high-value issues, the participation will increase in advanced analytics utilizing automation, natural language processing, computer vision, and machine learning. More responsible AI will reduce the gap from design to innovation.

More businesses will move to the Cloud

While the migration to the cloud provides various opportunities and advantage to the businesses, such as scaling analytics processes, it also means they are bound to governance around data ownership, data access, and data control.

In 2022, analytics will finally cross the gap to the cloud. Adoption of Cloud technology is steadily growing as businesses seek to leverage the big data already available in the cloud repositories. These businesses are geared up to take the benefit of cloud native computing and reap the benefits of easier analytics access.

Data Fabric will become the base for the distributed enterprise

With online sales channels and digital businesses proliferate and remote working becoming a norm, a complex and diverse ecosystem of applications, devices, and data infrastructure is created. Especially, data infrastructure can extent on-premises, hybrid-cloud, multi-cloud, single-cloud, or a combination of these, extended across regional boundaries with no single solution to combine all this data together.

This year, organizations will create Data Fabric to drive organization-wide data and analytics to automate many of the data exploration, preparation, and integration. Data fabric will help in unifying the data assets spread across different formats, locations, and latency using physical, logical, or hybrid approaches. These data fabrics will enable organizations to choose their preferred approach that will lead to reduced time-to-delivery and make it a preferred Data Management approach in 2022.

Data Mesh architectures will become more appealing

As companies grow in size, central data teams have to deal with wide range of functional units and associated data consumers that makes it difficult to understand data requirements across cross-functional teams and provide right set of data products to consumers. Data Mesh offers a new decentralized data architecture approach for analytics that intends to remove the hurdles and take data decisions nearer to those who understand the data.

Beginning this year, big enterprises with distributed data environments will implement a data mesh architecture. With different domains or functional units within large organizations have a better understanding of how the data should be used, enabling the domains implement and define their own data infrastructure results in lesser iterations until business needs are met and are of high quality.

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Supply chains involve a series of processes that takes a product from the manufacturer to the consumer. For supply chain networks to function suitably, they require operational and management support.

Choosing a career in the supply chain industry- here is all that you need to know

A career in the supply chain industry offers so much diversity. It gives you an in-depth overview of the complete organization where you not only learn the suppliers’ business but learn customers’ business as well. There are many departments from production, procurement, shipping, finance, and accounting to warehousing, marketing, R&D, and sales.

In this constantly and ever-changing industry you can gain a variety of experiences. Simply put, the industry offers something for everyone- there are numerous opportunities for those who like to be led and inspired, and for those who like to lead and manage.

To get started with a career in supply chain management, here are some important things to consider-

Understanding the supply chain industry

Depending upon the industry and organization, supply chain management roles can vary. One needs to keep in mind the size of the company as well as ownership as these factors can have a significant impact on your career. In big enterprises, you may have to start working within a function or segment of the supply chain that has a lot of resources. Whereas, in smaller organizations, you might have to manage multiple tasks that may give you wide exposure to the supply chain processes, but has limited resources. Therefore, it is vital to understand the requirements of the industry thoroughly before you begin your journey.

Pick a supply chain management area that interests you

There are innumerable career options within supply chain management, however, you must opt for an area that interests you. You should get yourself acquainted with that specific area by reading about topics related to it. This will help you to determine whether you want to pursue it. Typically people choose the following career paths in the supply chain field-

• Production/Operations Management
• Supply chain planning and/or Technology
• Supply Management/ Procurement
• Distribution Management/ Logistics

Keep yourself abreast with the latest and upcoming trends in supply chain management

You can keep yourself updated with the latest trends and technologies in supply chain management as it will allow you to take important career decisions. You can enroll for supply chain management sessions or read blogs or can engage in various discussions forums.

What qualification do I need to start a career in supply chain management?

The most common way to pursue career in supply chain is a bachelor’s degree in SCM, logistics or international transport. In addition there are various courses available such as CPM (Certified Purchasing Manager), CPIM Certified in Production and Inventory Management, Certified Supply Chain Professional, Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) Professional, and Certified in Logistics, Transportation, and Distribution.

You may also pursue a master’s degree in supply chain, logistics, and/or transport. Doing MBA is also a great option.

How do I enter the supply chain industry?

There are several ways to break into the supply chain industry. Typically people start by using the services of recruitment agencies or by putting up a profile on various job portals. One can also use networking- looking out for industry-type events in your area that can give you an opportunity to meet and interact with professionals.

Another option to get real-world experience is by looking for a supply chain internship that is closely related to the job role that you are interested in.

What career options do I have in the supply chain industry?

There are many entry-level jobs that you can explore that do not require prior experience but only some kind of degree/diploma or certification. These jobs require a period of on-job training. For instance- cost estimators, quality controllers, customer relations, marketing and advertising, and buyers.

But that is not all, supply chain management offers many other possibilities as well such as –IT specialists, Data Managers, Finance Managers, Human Resource Personnel.

In case you are graduated with a bachelor or master’s degree in the supply chain you can also consider the following career options-supply chain analyst, supply chain coordinator, production planner/ inventory controller, purchasing agent, logistician, procurement analyst, and warehouse manager.

Final Word

Supply chain management is a vast field that offers a lot of opportunities. All you need to do is to carefully choose your niche and then set about gaining relevant knowledge and expertise.

The post Getting started with a career in supply chain management appeared first on ScaleUp Consulting..

The years 2020 and 2021 were hugely disruptive years. 72% of the companies experienced external disruptions to their manufacturing supply chain as per 3D Hub’s Supply Chain Resilience Report.

After years of globalization, trade disruptions such as US-China trade war, Brexit and the ongoing pandemic is prompting economies to reduce dependency on global integration and focus on themselves and their neighbors. Many manufacturers are trying to reduce their dependency on China as pandemic exposed the fragility of the supply chain network, be it due to factory lockdown, tariffs or logistics disruptions. However, global supply chain network revamping has to be followed carefully without hampering critical relationships.

Only 21 percent of the respondents in a recent survey done by Gartner indicated that they have a highly resilient network today; that means good visibility and the flexibility to shift sourcing, distribution, and manufacturing activities much faster. This advocates that growing resilience will be a primacy for many as they emerge from the ongoing crisis. According to this survey, more than half are going to be highly resilient in the next two to three years.

Diversifying sourcing – a vital step to build a resilient supply chain network

Last year, when the COVID crisis began in China, known to be the world’s factory the entire supply chain was disrupted across industries. Diversifying sourcing became an obvious way to mitigate risks in future.

However, to design a multi-sourcing strategy, it is essential that the supply chain leaders know their supplier network in-depth and should be able to classify suppliers not just by spend, but also by revenue impact in case of a disruptive event.

Diversification can be achieved by giving business to additional suppliers or working with a single supplier who can produce goods at several locations.

Predictably, the increasing interest in supply chain diversification brings to the fore the theme of re-shoring or near-shoring which goes arm-in-arm with a bigger focus on domestic markets. A Standard Chartered research indicated that 74% of US corporations and 84% of European companies are prioritizing their home regions as a source of growth.

All this calls for more production nearer to the home and to make supply chains less vulnerable. The organizations are now assessing their complete sourcing strategy and supply chain network design. This approach will ensure that the companies have multiple options and can determine the right balance between off-shore and near-shore manufacturing.

Multiple choice in the supply chain also means a wider opportunity to analyze cost, range of goods available, and location. Diversifying sourcing can also encourage competition among suppliers to drive down prices.

However, to diversify sourcing the suppliers also need to keep in mind certain factors to determine their supply chain network’s optimal resilience.

Vital Partners

While large enterprises might have resources to invest in a diversified network, their vital suppliers might not. Supply chain leaders will have to evaluate if their partners are weakened by the present conditions and are not able to support diversification strategy. In that case, they will have to look for more capable partners or slow down and may have to consider supportive actions.

More resilience involves more cost

An organization may choose to absorb the cost, or raise prices for its customers or share them with upstream suppliers. Similarly, the cost of not investing in resilience can also be high in terms of longer lead times, tariffs, negative impact on the brand, or decreased customer satisfaction.

National policies and incentives

Governments in many countries are now offering incentives to enterprises that move manufacturing closer to the end consumer or back. Bringing manufacturing back to the United States got a major push from politicians.

The crux

With the ongoing pandemic, there has been a heightened desire to shift production and sourcing out of China to other locations in Asia. Although this trend was going on for some time due to rising production costs in China but has strengthened by a sense of over-reliance.

However, shifting from China is easier said than done. A study from CBRE, a commercial real estate giant cited last year that while production costs in Vietnam were 30% lesser than in China, but the productivity was almost 20% lower and there were more quality issues. Industry experts suggest that there is more benefit in the ‘China plus one’ strategy for sourcing considering manufacturing capacity and sophistication in the Chinese industries.

All these things suggest that supply chains may be becoming more resilient by diversifying sourcing, but it’s not going to be that simple. The companies will have to still juggle with complexities and would need versatile and agile supply chain providers. 

The post Are Supply Chains Diversifying Sourcing To Become More Resilient To Global Disruptions? appeared first on ScaleUp Consulting..

The COVID-19 pandemic has put tremendous stress not only on the population but on economies across the globe. To effectively deal with this situation, much hope has been placed on creating a vaccine. Various countries and leading pharma players are conducting trials on potential COVID-19 vaccines worldwide, which could significantly slow the virus’s spread and ultimately eliminate it. However, while the creation of a vaccine will be historic, it is still not the final step. No matter where and who develops the vaccine first, the real challenge lies in providing the vaccine nationally and internationally. It is, however, a challenge we need to prepare for.

The global supply chain has already been stretched thin by the pandemic. The industries that drive goods around the world on planes, ships, and trucks will have to deal with the challenges of shipping an eventual COVID-19 vaccine from the drug makers to billions of people worldwide. But is the global supply chain ready for this challenge? Let’s explore 

The roadblocks ahead

Developing a vaccine in a shorter time-span is hard enough but distributing it across the globe offers a host of other challenges- from manufacturing vaccine contents to storage and packaging components, to cold-chain transit, global and domestic shipping, to distribution strategies. The road to creating and supplying the COVID-19 vaccine will be a long journey troubled with disruptions. Besides the colossal cost involved, the chances of failure are still very high.

However, this is not to say that it is not possible to do it faster than usual. More than 150 vaccines are in development worldwide, and many are in their third phase of trials. The hopes are high to bring one to market in record time to ease the crisis. The key to cross all the roadblocks is to be prepared.

Across the globe, pharmaceutical companies are receiving significant financial backing from their respective governments in their effort to create the vaccine for COVID-19. Therefore, expediting the complete process is not completely impossible.

Nevertheless, whether financial backing is provided or not, there is still no fool-proof method for developing an effective vaccine, and the timeframe still remains a bit uncertain. However, this does not prevent the planning of its arrival. The global supply chain must prepare a strategy to ensure that it reaches people in both a timely and safe manner. The suppliers must not be caught off-guard once the breakthrough is finally announced.

Julian Sutch, head of Emirates SkyCargo’s pharmaceutical division, estimated recently that a single Boeing Co. 777 freighter can carry 1 million individual doses of a vaccine. That means airlifting double-dose regimens to protect half the world’s population would require the space in about 8,000 cargo planes.

Large-scale preparedness is the need of the hour

The most important aspect of a vaccine is that it must be stored at an optimal temperature. The optimum temperature needs to be maintained right from the manufacturing through to the administration of shots. To fulfill this, the lead time between production and the final destination must be reduced.

As per a Bloomberg report, Health officials have said a vaccine that eventually comes to market will likely need to be maintained at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius (35.6 to 46.4 degrees Fahrenheit) throughout the shipping process. Some newer technologies could require more advanced freezers that can keep them at a frigid minus 80 degrees Celsius. Any deviation can ruin the shots.

Other factors will have to be taken into consideration, as well. For instance, the demand for the vaccine will likely outstrip the supply in the immediate term. Therefore, identifying the vulnerable sections of the population and prioritizing would be the key. Not only the supply of vaccines, but the supply of needles, syringes, and peripherals is equally vital for the success of a global vaccination effort.

Different companies often deliver these products; however, these components’ delivery will be crucial just like the vaccine itself. Most importantly, these items should not face any supply shortages which may create problems in administering the vaccine.

The Bottomline – Global supply chains must be able to look ahead and do so accurately

The supply chain integrity may seem like an unknown part of the pandemic-ending effort; however, it is a critical element of vaccine acceptance globally. Safeguarding the COVID-19 vaccines from diversion and falsification, cutting-edge traceability solutions, national-level support, and public-private collaboration will be needed. Emergency response always needs a well-coordinated, pragmatic, and agile action. 

FedEx, DHL, UPS, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, and other major players have expertise in delivering pharma cargo. The problem is not vaccine delivery but the volumes involved, which will require massive planning and a coordinated supply chain strategy to make an impact globally.

If this is done right, the COVID-19 response will leave a lasting legacy for more efficient and safer medicine supply chains for the future.

The post Is The Global Supply Chain Ready For A COVID-19 Vaccine? appeared first on ScaleUp Consulting..