How a secure supply chain is the difference between life and death

The logistics challenges and disruptions over the first months of 2021 have been countless – from cancelled flights, limited spaces on aircrafts, reduced routes, congested terminals, unpredictable delays at main hubs and post-Brexit customs delays. And as the number of shipping options – i.e. operating flights – decreased, the prices surged drastically leading to many businesses fighting for their survival.  

We’ve also seen the vulnerabilities in the handling of temperature sensitive goods, such as the Covid-19 vaccines. For example, the temperature requirement of the Pfizer vaccine (-78 degrees Celsius) was something completely new to many logistics companies. This, in combination with the requirements not being procured towards vendors, led to malfunctional handling and inadequate results. All simply because a lack of experience meant insufficient risk mitigation and an inability to deliver as required.

When handling and transporting these types of products it is a great advantage to be GDP certified, you also need to have the awareness of the crucial negative impact in terms of cost – and in some cases lives – a smaller deviation in the supply chain could cause. Proactivity, active risk mitigation and complete transparency is therefore absolute key should any unforeseen deviation occur during shipping.

At YSDS we work with this every day. We’re a fast-paced global special logistics organization, dedicated to serving clients and products in need of the highest possible quality, security and service. The key insights and solutions we see to the challenges we’ve been following in the past months are many, amongst others:

• The importance of evaluating more optimal routes. Direct flights are no longer the safest and fastest solution. Not even charter solutions are safe due to terminals not being able to load the goods on time.
• The importance of backup solutions. More backup solutions and flights are needed in case of cancellations. We need to be much more agile and swift in re-routing.
• The importance of understanding the qualification time on the TCS. Using secure and qualified packing solutions, availability of correct temperature storage facilities, dry ice replenishment opportunities etc. I have so many times seen clients choose their own insufficient packing solutions with for example limited dry ice volumes jeopardizing product safety.
• The importance of full visibility. In order to handle the above, full visibility of the product is vital and there are a few good tools and systems to use on the market that allow this. Data points such as real time tracking as well as temperature, light, shock and humidity information provides crucial disruption insights enabling us to act before it’s too late. 

A few weeks back John participated in a panel about the need for secure supply chains that the current vaccine supply has demonstrated. Thanks to Bio Intergrates for having us. You can check out John's participation on the panel here.