Temperature-controlled supply chains responsible for transporting and storing pharmaceuticals,...
The Internet of Things (IoT) revolutionizes the pharmaceutical industry’s cold chain management, ensuring products are transported safely and efficiently. PAXAFE, a leader in IoT solutions, has distilled the complex journey of IoT adoption into four clear stages. Let’s explore these stages and see where your organization stands.
Stage 1: Passive Loggers
If you haven’t actively jumped into real-time IoT, you’re at Stage 1. Here, your shipping network has passive data loggers that record temperature data. While these loggers are essential for maintaining cold chain integrity, they come with limitations:
- Manual Labor: Your team spends a lot of time manually processing product releases.
- Blind Spots: There’s no comprehensive data repository, leaving you with gaps in your network visibility.
- Risk Measurement: Assessing and mitigating risks becomes challenging without real-time data.
In the pharmaceutical industry, shipments often encounter thousands of temperature events annually. Managing these events involves extensive root-cause analyses and corrective actions. Automating passive product releases can save quality managers significant time, while logistics leaders can gain better insights into network risks.
Transitioning from passive loggers to active IoT devices can transform these data points into actionable insights, reducing risk and optimizing performance.
Stage 2: Some IoT
In Stage 2, you’ve validated an IoT partner and begun expanding your network with active IoT devices. This stage involves several challenges:
- Data Overload: The influx of data from IoT devices can be overwhelming.
- Alert Management: Handling device alerts and interventions requires streamlined processes.
To efficiently manage this stage, focus on creating clear Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), assigning ownership of interventions, and implementing predictive analytics. PAXAFE’s Live Shipment Risk Scoring can help synthesize the big picture, allowing you to identify and act on important alerts while ignoring irrelevant ones.
Effective monitoring and intervention are crucial as you scale from a few lanes to hundreds. Leveraging technology to filter and prioritize data ensures that your team focuses on shipments that pose real risks, saving time and resources.
Stage 3: Scaling IoT
As you move into Stage 3, your IoT network is growing, but you may feel like you’re hitting a plateau. With 50–200 lanes running IoT devices, the challenges evolve:
- Scalability: The methods used for smaller networks may not be effective at this scale.
- Recurring Issues: Identifying whether issues are systematic or one-offs becomes crucial.
- Feedback Loops: Understanding the impact of changes in packaging, SOPs, and SLAs on transportation performance is essential.
Aggregating shipment data into lane, route, and waypoint information allows you to pinpoint problematic areas and understand the underlying causes of failures. This data-driven approach enables confident decision-making on significant changes, leading to risk reduction and network optimization, potentially saving millions.
By transforming IoT data into actionable insights, you can optimize routes, identify problematic carriers, and adjust your packaging strategy proactively, ensuring your cold chain operates smoothly.
Stage 4: IoT at Scale
Reaching Stage 4 means your network is fully integrated with active IoT devices across hundreds or thousands of lanes. However, the costs and complexities of extracting value at this scale can be daunting:
- Rising Costs: Managing a large IoT network can be expensive.
- Manual Tasks: Your team may be overwhelmed with manual processes.
- Operational Challenges: Keeping everything running smoothly is a significant challenge.
This is where ATHENA, PAXAFE’s workflow automation platform, comes into play. ATHENA offers:
- Proactive Recommendations: Real-time data analysis to identify potential issues before they escalate.
- NLP-Powered Root Cause Analysis: Automatic dissection of network issues to pinpoint root causes.
- Automated Actions: Recommendations for specific actions to resolve problems.
- Workflow Automation: Automating repetitive tasks to free up your team for strategic initiatives.
- Chat interface: Makes your logistics team feel like ATHENA’s part of your team and is
an expert in the complexities of your business.
With ATHENA, you can transition from mere optimization to full-scale workflow automation, dramatically reducing the cost and complexity of managing your IoT program.
Where do you go from here?
Navigating the four stages of IoT adoption with PAXAFE can transform your cold chain management, ensuring efficiency, cost savings, and risk reduction. Whether you’re just starting with passive loggers or scaling a vast IoT network, PAXAFE provides the tools and insights needed to optimize your operations.
Where does your organization stand on this journey? Are you ready to leap into the future of IoT? Let’s chat about how PAXAFE and ATHENA can transform your operations and unlock the full potential of your IoT network.
