End-to-end visibility vital to pharma supply chain

Track-and-trace technologies and data lakes are vital tools to ensure end-to-end visibility within the pharmaceutical supply chain. Using technologies such as data loggers and Internet of Things , members of the supply chain can track and monitor pharma shipments from the shipper to the patient, ensuring the cargo stays within required temperatures and arrives in a timely manner. “The vital part is end-to-end visibility. Real-time monitoring has become more the standard than the exception.” — Eric ten Kate, global health care sector leader at Ceva Logistics Capturing, distributing real-time data Ceva Logistics is working on its Ceva for Patients tool, which collects and compiles data from each stop in the supply chain. This allows stakeholders to learn from prior incidents and to pinpoint issues, enabling them to find solutions. [caption id="attachment_57143716" align="alignright" width="300"] (Air Cargo Next)[/caption] Ceva for Patients “is basically a control tower where we create the end-to-end visibility for our customers,” Eric ten Kate , global health care sector leader at Ceva Logistics , said in Air Cargo Next ’s webinar “Air Cargo and Pharma: Using Technology to Save Lives” today. “Recent technology development is that we are connecting or looking at the layer that we can put on top of this control tower, where we look at the different data lakes, or we can look at the temperature loggers and be more proactive and, whilst doing that, trying to integrate the quality aspect as well, allowing for customers to immediately capture all that data.” This visibility is not just for the forwarder or carrier collecting the data but should be shared with strategic partners, webinar panelists agreed. “The ability to also provide information to our shippers and our forwarders on time [and] not having to worry about that human interaction [is vital],” Jennifer Haigh , head of specialty products for the Americas at United Cargo , said in the webinar. “Being able to just send it over and out when it’s ready [is important because] everybody wants that information immediately.” Receiving that information in real time allows stakeholders to be proactive. For instance, Haigh acknowledged that, even if a temperature excursion is monitored on cargo in the air, the airplane cannot land at that moment. However, knowing about the deviation before landing allows stakeholders to be ready with dry ice and new packaging when the plane does touch down, according to Haigh. Data collection informs forecasting Being prepared for supply chain disruptions is critical in the air cargo industry — especially when pharmaceuticals are being transported and delays can cost lives . Therefore, predicting disruptions and planning solutions is critical. “When looking at the forecasting aspect, we try to use as many data points as possible,” Ten Kate said. This requires “aligning all the different stakeholders, the end-to-end orchestration. If we have all the data that we have at hand, telemetries of a plane, the data that packaging providers provide ... you can more or less determine what is going to go where. “And any adverse weather condition, for instance, you can proactively approach those and work closely together in that supply chain with the different stakeholders that allows for that quick intervention,” he said. Comprehensive data collection also allows stakeholders to create digital twins, which enables them to play out a scenario and find weak points, according to United ’s Haigh. Digital twins are simulations that use real-time and historical data to simulate outcomes of various actions. “This allows us to kind of create a scenario and then feed into that scenario and determine what the outcome is going to be,” Haigh said. “With weather, with excursions, with lane risk assessments, that sort of thing, [it is] being able to kind of create that and then see, ‘If I put this in, if I move this here, how’s that going to react?’ “I’m curious to see where that goes, especially within this industry,” she said. Brussels Airport (BRU) recently invested in a digital twin in the form of a 3D virtual replica of the airport to determine which sustainable technologies would best reduce its carbon emissions and how to implement them.

End-to-end visibility vital to pharma supply chain

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