6 Tips to Better Manage Your Cold Chain Logistics

Keeping track of inventory and maintaining cold chain logistics have become pressing issues for retailers. 

Consumers as well as retail brands expect a flawless shopping experience, which means fast and accurate order fulfillment as well as a high quality of products. 

To meet these needs, companies need to implement new technologies and processes to optimize their supply chain management. 

How to Improve Cold Chain Logistics

Cold chain logistics involves monitoring temperature-sensitive products during storage, distribution, shipping, and other points of handling to ensure they do not exceed safe thresholds. 

Effective cold chain logistics management can help you reduce the rate of product spoilage, damage and shrinkage by keeping your warehouse temperatures at ideal levels. 

If you’re looking to improve your cold chain logistics management practices, here are some tips that will help you get started.

•  Make Use of Automation

Automation can reduce human error, improve inventory visibility, and streamline your supply chain. If you’re currently manually tracking product temperatures, you’ll likely find that you have incomplete data, or you are not able to generate actionable insights from your temperature data. 

Solutions for temperature monitoring such as sensors and data analytics can help ensure that you have a complete picture of your product’s journey. 

Using automation can also take off some of the burden from your warehouse staff by reducing the number of manual inspection points.

•  Track Your Inventory

Most retailers track their inventory using barcode scanning. This method, however, only allows you to track the retail side of your business, not the product as it moves through your cold chain logistics. 

If your inventory tracking is limited to retail, you will find it challenging to integrate data from your cold chain logistics with your retail systems. Using a single software solution to track both your retail and cold chain logistics data can help bridge these gaps in visibility.

The ability to integrate your cold chain data with retail systems can help you understand demand patterns and make better informed merchandising and ordering decisions.

•  Manage Your Supply Chain Partners

Effective cold chain logistics management starts with the management of your supply chain partners. This can help you create a strategy for dealing with product spoilage, damage and shrinkage by keeping your warehouse temperatures at ideal levels. 

With the help of technology, you can track the temperature of your products in real time and stay informed about any disruptions to your supply chain. This way, you can take immediate action in case of an issue with your cold chain logistics.

•  Establish A Single Point of Contact for Tracking

Knowing where each of your products is at any given time can help you reduce product spoilage and improve your inventory turnover rate. For example, if a certain product is at risk of spoiling, you can notify your vendors and ask them to expedite its delivery to minimize the risk of product loss. 

Using a single point of contact for tracking products can help you keep better tabs on your inventory and reduce the amount of time it takes to respond to alerts generated by your temperature monitoring solution. This way, you can better meet customers’ expectations and improve your product availability.

•  Re-Think Your Delivery Practices and Placeholders

When you are shipping perishable goods, it is important to account for delays in transit. To avoid spoilage, you should plan and leave enough time for your goods to arrive at the desired destination. To do this, you can use a placeholder system or a target date system.

A placeholder system allows you to enter a date that is later than the actual delivery date. By doing this, you have an opportunity to re-arrange the shipping date if there is a delay. The target date system lets you enter an expected delivery date and alerts you if there is a delay.

•  Utilize Technology to Improve Efficiencies

The more accurate your inventory data, the better you can forecast demand and reduce inventory levels. This will help you avoid stock outs and maintain a consistent level of customer service. 

The best way to accomplish this is to implement a real-time data feed that is accessible across your entire organization. Although various technologies can help you achieve this, the best option is a cloud-based solution that can integrate with your existing systems. You don’t have to replace your current hardware or software and can simply integrate your new solution.

Conclusion

Cold chain logistics plays a vital role in the supply chain. This is especially important for food items, vaccines, and other goods that require refrigeration or freezing. 

Effective cold chain logistics management starts with the management of supply chain partners. It involves establishing a single point of contact for tracking, re-thinking your delivery practices and placeholders, and utilizing technology to improve efficiencies.