
Introduction
We are confronting a global health catastrophe unlike any in the history of India — one that has completely changed the way we live, killing people, spreading human suffering, devastating businesses and pushing the economies towards recession. It is obvious that the COVID-19 pandemic is much more than a health crisis. Instead, it is a human, economic and social emergency. The coronavirus disease, which has officially been announced as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), is attacking distinct global societies at their core. The tremendous health and economic impacts of the outbreak have led to the downfall of many institutions and societies.
The coronavirus disease hasn’t just exacerbated human misery and turned the lives of billions of people upside down, but has also thwarted the economy, businesses, and has uncovered the weaknesses of many companies. For cold chain logistics companies, the outbreak has intensified the primacy of the ability to actively acknowledge, respond, adapt and systematize crisis management strategies to not just survive but thrive in situations of uncertainty.
Due to the stringent restrictions and lockdowns, many pressing challenges emerged for the cold chain logistics companies that needed immediate notoriety in the early days of the outbreak. Inadequate cold chain capacities, distorted distribution infrastructure, and lack of advanced tools were some of the primary challenges faced by cold chain logistics companies as a direct impact of COVID-19. Now that cold chain logistics companies navigate their way back to streamline the vaccination process and seek to strengthen their business operations and resilience, the importance of tech-enabled and progressive temperature-controlled logistics solutions is more apparent than ever.
Current Scenario of Cold Chain Logistics in The Vaccine Distribution
Countries across the globe are now preparing for mass immunization programs against Covid-19. WHO released guidelines in late 2020 for nationwide authorities and administrative bodies to effectively manage the process of allocation, organization, implementation, and management of important medical supplies like oxygen containers, N-95 masks and surgical masks, oxygen plants, drugs like Remdesivr and Tocilizumab, which included a framework that can assist countries to inform their immunization strategy?
We believe that prompt medical supply distribution can only succeed when cold chain logistics companies are backed up with progressively and next-gen cold chain solutions, tech-enabled tools, adequate equipment, reliable power supply, both at the transportation stage as well as for the last-mile delivery stage.
How AWL India Is Helping in The Distribution of Critical Medical Supplies in India Amidst the Pandemic?
After a long year of struggle and battle against the COVID-19, vaccines and other life-saving drugs emerged as a ray of hope for the survival of mankind. As we undergo the drastic second wave of the pandemic, cold chain logistics has an important and complex role to play by ensuring a constant delivery and distribution of life-saving medical supplies and pharmaceutical drugs across the country.
As a leading cold chain logistics company in India, AWL understands the demands and critical temperature conditions required for pharmaceutical storage and transportation.
With the help of our contemporary and advanced supply chain technologies, we at AWL are working towards dramatically enhancing the visibility across the end-to-end supply chain, and improvising our ability to resist such shocks.
At AWL, we made sure to leverage and incorporate advanced technologies such as the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, robotics, and 5G, into our cold chain solutions in order to anticipate and meet future challenges.
Smart Tracking
Pharmaceuticals products and drugs like Remdesivr and Tocilizumab are fragile cold chain cargo that requires stringent temperature controls in order to protect their integrity and prevent them from getting spoiled. The World Health Organization reveals that – more than half of the temperature sensitive medications circulated across the globe are ruined due to the failure of cold chain logistics to maintain ambient storage temperatures.
Since such drugs lose their convincingness and efficacy if they’re excavated to temperatures outside of the range that they’re determined to be stored in, AWL has come up with end-to-end monitoring and automation features infused in its IoT-based cold chain logistics. AWL offers temperature-controlled transport from chilled to ambient cold chain deliveries. An independent monitoring data logger is available within our transport units to record the temperature for the duration of the journey.
Here’s how AWL ensures to provide constant monitoring and control:
- Detailed Insights of the cargo at each station to streamline monitoring supplier structures for optimal lead times and inventory levels.
- Temperatures are monitored and controlled during each point of the journey from the start to the end, enhancing supervision and actionable insights.
- Our smart solution provides constant and precise alerts of any excursion outside of the validated range and enables smooth management.
- Increased automation and lesser human intervention to minimize the chances of error.
- Increased automation strengthens functional efficiency and reduces expense.
- Our cold chain logistics solution provides real-time ETAs and event alerts based on the status of the cold chain cargoes throughout their entire journey, in order to meet sustainability standards and avoid delays.
- Our solution is enriched with a centralized system and a smart dashboard, CHAKSU, that helps ensure best-in-class product packaging and helps to track the integrity in real-time, right from the manufacturing site to the endpoint.
Advanced Cold Chain Solutions
AWL’s smart cold chain logistics solution addresses some of the major challenges faced by the healthcare industry and the government in ensuring a smooth and uninterrupted drugs and oxygen distribution chain. Our advanced cold chain solutions offer custom sensors, data loggers, interactive dashboard, warehouse efficiency, full supply chain visibility, data security, automated inventory management, increased compliance, and sustainability to reduce cold chain wastage by producing geospatial alerts and notifications in case of any excursion event.
AWL’s solutions can provide benefits like:
- Minimized drug spoilage during cold chain transportation of temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical with highly accurate temperature monitoring.
- Ameliorates Wastage: Enhances adaptability across the entire supply chain and delivers timely notifications of issues.
- Environmental friendly and sustainable.
- Enables to move beyond one-up, one-down visibility in the supply chain network by encouraging secure tracking of cold chain cargoes.
- Simplifies connectivity and boosts translucency for a smooth supply chain with the help of digitization and automation.
Real-Time Monitoring
AWL’s cold chain warehousing and logistics solutions are highly scalable and are powered by cutting-edge IoT, AI, and the blockchain technology that has completely revived and enhanced supply chain security, regulatory compliance, and has reduced cold chain wastage. Our installed sensors can monitor temperature and humidity on a regular basis to ensure uninterrupted delivery of shipments and compliance. The sensors lift the real-time temperature data with the help of cellular connectivity, if there are any connectivity disruptions, sensors can even store the data. Our logistics solutions provide steadfast alerts on any temperature variations and during the case of adverse events:
- AI-powered alerts and actionable insights driven from the cycle-time predictions that utilize new-age technologies like machine learning, pattern detection, and historical trends to actively observe irregularities disguised in transactional data and anticipate future circumstances.
- AWL’s supply chain logistics solutions are entrenched with AI capabilities that deliver real-time intelligence and smart inputs to curtail upheaval.
- Data-driven insights help in increasing efficiencies. Our solutions make it possible to access real-time data associated with the storage of shipments, transportation and delivery, and potential supply chain disruptions.
The core of our business relies on a strictly controlled and monitored cold chain network. COVID-19 has already brought about a profound transition in the way public services are delivered, mainly health care. We at AWL are ensuring that the scale and robustness of cold chain infrastructure for any health emergency at the country level must be fully efficient.