CSafe
2900 Dryden Road
Dayton, OH USA 45439
Phone: +1.937.312.0114
Fax: +1.937.312.1277
www.CSafeGlobal.com
Dayton, Ohio, USA
Jeff Sitzlar, Director of Business Development – Americas
Jeff joined CSafe as Director of Business Development – Americas in January 2012. In this newly created position, Jeff is responsible for developing new business, with the primary focus being on the continued growth in the utilization of the CSafe RKN by life science companies for the shipment of their high value payloads. Jeff will work directly with our life science customers alongside CSafe’s global airline and forwarder partners.
As we have found in previous blog postings, the bi-annual Health and Personal Care Logistics Conferences (HPCLC) keep attendees up to date on the latest industry research and logistic trends. This year’s spring conference held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was entitled, Building Innovative Supply Chains through Data Analytics and IT Integration, had sessions on the following topics:
• Global Economic Issues and Trends: Why Innovative Data-Driven Supply Chain Operations are Relevant Now, More Than Ever
• Data Analytics: An Overview of the Issues, Risks, and Implications
• Making Data Analytics Work: Experiences with Converting Data to Information
• Best Practices in Data Management through Supplier Relationships
• The Value Proposition and Benefits of Data Analytics for Service Providers
The seminars discussed how one of the most important issues for today’s supply chain administrators is the ability to effectively use and apply data analytics. The attendees were provided an introductory overview of the fundamental risks involved with the leveraging of data and admonished that the ability to generate and access data is not enough for successful administration. Rather, they were told that it is in the application of the informed analysis that data manipulation manifests as effective decision-making.
Effective decision-making infrastructures must therefore, be built on solid data analytics, that, in turn, must be undergird by effective Information Technology integration and data management. Intensive research and extensive consideration must be given to the question of whether data resource management is to be managed from within the organization or outsourced to others. Both of these can be challenging and require an understanding and access to proper infrastructure, technologies, and skills that will, in turn, require expert management capabilities. Most of all, decision-makers must have a clear understanding of the overall value and possible performance benefits of introducing and supporting data analytics for their particular operations and those of their customers. These include return on investment, value implications, and experiential learnings.
For life science and healthcare sectors like the pharmaceutical industry, increased effectiveness in the use of data may reveal vast opportunities to improve operations. These industries have an abundance of data at their disposal that is growing exponentially with the continued introduction of mobile applications and web-based accessibility. The challenges lie in the ability to parallel this growth with processing capabilities. Transforming raw data into useful information is a valuable asset that brings with it an equally valuable competitive advantage for those who can generate, analyze, and interpret it. As for cold chain logistics, product integrity and patient safety are the ultimate goal. It is only through the careful generation, analysis, and interpretation of data that leading organizations are able to create and maintain optimized cold chain networks.
Data Generation
According to IBM, 90 per cent of the world’s data has been created in the last two years alone. Data is ubiquitous. From climate sensors to the postings on social media sites, the generation of data is constantly occurring. We see it in numerous forms such as digital pictures and videos, receipts for our purchases, and signals generated for GPS tracking.
In the life-sustaining industries that rely on cold chain logistics to transport their temperature-sensitive materials throughout the world, the generation of meaningful data is crucial. Monitoring times and temperatures throughout a product’s journey, from its point of origin to its final destination is critical to ensure the viability of these high-value shipments. Data is generated from a variety of sources throughout the intricate transport chain process. By accurately capturing this information at its various levels, the life science and healthcare organizations are able to make use of the data through the methods of analysis and interpretation.
Data Analysis
Analytics allows for those in operational roles to monitor and optimize processes on a regular basis, providing opportunities to make insightful changes to operations. Data becomes a powerful asset once it has been gathered, organized, and evaluated. Data analysis can be as simple as identifying temperature excursions or quantifying the frequency of shipments. Then again, it can be as intricate as validating Standard Operating Procedures performance while determining the effectiveness of risk mitigation. The analysis can consist of spreadsheets extracted from a number of formats, data extracted from multiple platforms, or can be completely unstructured.
Data analysts can evaluate hundreds of possible risk points that are likely to have an effect on temperature-sensitive products throughout the transport journey. These individuals have access to and are responsible for both real-time and historical analyses, allowing for the evaluation of trends and giving them an unprecedented level of control over operational conditions. When working effectively, data analysts are able to intervene in operations when necessary, ultimately mitigating risk.
What are companies doing with data analytics?
• 60% of executives say that they “believe in data analytics”
• Of the 60%, 40% of those executives are attempting to do something with the analytics
• Of the 40%, 20% have staff on hand that are working to analyze the data
• Of the 40%, 13% actually have data analytics initiatives
Today’s data analytics employs a rapidly growing number of technologies that allow for the collection, integration, and analysis of data in differing formats. It is important for administrators to have access to this data, in that it drives efficiencies and brings about cold chain excellence through continuous improvement and regulatory compliance. When looking at data from the perspective of innovation, it reveals numerous opportunities to add value to operations.
Data Interpretation
Technical capabilities allow for the manipulation of raw data and the bringing together of it into reviewable formats. The ultimate evaluation, however, is one of human interpretation. In the transportation of temperature-sensitive products, success comes with the combining of quantified operational processes; managed administrative transformations; and the extrapolation of deep, meaningful, and insightful information.
A typical cold chain operation has more than 10 parties involved in the transportation of a temperature-sensitive product. It is only through a detailed monitoring across all of these connections that a true interpretation of integrated data can be understood and utilized to improve operations. The goals of cold chain administration include patient safety, product integrity, regulatory compliance, process optimization and cost control. Data interpretation allows operators to explore some of the potential gaps within the logistics chain; and collaborative partnerships, open communication, and data awareness allow cold chain administrators to use information in powerful ways.
About CSafe
CSafe and AcuTemp merged to become the world’s largest producer of actively controlled mobile refrigeration units for life sciences, healthcare, military and international disaster relief agencies. The company is now called CSafe Global and includes the AcuTemp brand passive packaging and hand held mobile carriers and the CSafe brand of active containers.
The active solution product assortment includes the CSafe RKN, the only compressor-driven air cargo container of its kind with approvals from both the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). The RKN utilizes heating and compressor-driven cooling technology to eliminate the cost and the environmental challenges associated with dry ice transportation, refrigerated trucking and internal packaging and to allow the flexibility of uninterrupted routing of shipments without the need for special staging or dry ice handling. CSafe Global’s AcuTemp brand has provided more than 10 thousand hand-held mobile management solutions since its founding more than 25 years ago. CSafe Global is now proud to introduce a series of AcuTemp brand hand-held
CSafe Global offers a highly efficient and precisely engineered product range that delivers door to door and ‘last mile’ temperature controlled solutions to the pharmaceutical, life sciences, medical, military, and disaster relief organizations around the world. CSafe’s active solutions, and their passive line of AcuTemp solutions, are designed to protect the integrity of temperature-sensitive goods during transportation.
Company President and CEO, Brian Kohr explains, “AcuTemp and CSafe are grounded by the same guiding principles: to offer quality products and services centered on sincerity and business integrity that ensure successful shipments of our customer’s products.” Kohr adds, ‘‘By combining resources, CSafe now leads the industry as the global total cold chain solution provider.”
CSafe’s corporate headquarters are located in Dayton, Ohio, U.S.A. To find out more about the company and its product and service offerings, visit CSafeGlobal.com
References:
Cold Chain View on WordPress.com (2013): What’s the business case for real-time temperature monitoring and analytics? Available online at http://dyzle.wordpress.com/, checked on 6/05/2013.
Cold Chainers (2013): Innovative Data. Cold Chainers News. Available online at http://www.coldchainers.com/latestnews.11.html#LatestNews, checked on 6/05/2013.
Health and Personal Care Logistics Conference Inc. (2013): Health & Personal Care Logistics Conference | Just another WordPress site. Available online at http://hpclcnet.org/, checked on 6/05/2013.
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