Page 14 - Logistics News - Issue 01 - 2024.indd

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Valentine’s Day – a global
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cold chain challenge
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By Andre Luecht, Global Strategy Lead for Transportation,
Logistics and Warehouse at Zebra Technologies

How suppliers, logistics and warehousing companies can make sure their cold chain is
the best it can be during peak buying times such as Valentine’s Day.

magine going to a shop and it’s out of roses, ‘air traffic control’ platforms that connect, analyse and
chocolates or luxury dining for two – it might mean a leverage data across the chain. These platforms provide
I romantic plan is spoiled and reverting to a less-than- predictive insights and analytics for road, sea, air, rail
ideal backup option. In February, Valentine’s Day is upon and last-mile routing and allow transport and logistics
us again. For retailers, it’s a peak time for gift buying – teams to build custom solutions with APIs and leverage
roses, chocolates, luxury items and special offers. Total AI assistants for problem identification and solving.
spending in 2023 was expected to reach $25.9-billion, For example, if a delayed arrival of an empty truck is
according to National Research Foundation (NRF) data. reported, a loading dock manager can turn to their
workforce management solution to reallocate labour.
And, like in previous years, things can go wrong. One They may have four workers they can send to help load
risk is around wasted inventory – flowers, cosmetics, or unload another temperature-sensitive shipment to
food – because these are sensitive to humidity and minimise exposure to warmer (or colder) temperatures.
temperature. For example, the rose supply chain is In another scenario, the platform may be able to
global, with countries like Ecuador, Colombia, Kenya reconcile weather reports with anticipated transit routes
and the Netherlands growing, harvesting and shipping to recommend a delayed departure. The shipment may
roses across the world. Timing and temperature are be late, but it’s better to be late than throw away pallets
everything – they need to be picked and processed at of roses on arrival because they were temperature-
the right time and transported thousands of miles at compromised.
the right temperature and environment so they’re fresh,
crisp and colourful for shoppers. At an operational level, environmental monitoring
systems can use sensors in heating, ventilation, air
Cooling via vacuum and forced air methods, removing conditioning and other systems to track air, humidity,
infected flowers and avoiding botrytis blight and light and other conditions in cold storage. They monitor
damage from frost while in storage and transit are conditions across a space, giving managers visibility into
some of the concerns that harvesters and logistics what is happening. Meanwhile, environmental sensing
managers have to think about when it comes to the cold systems monitor temperature, humidity, light and other
chain. Exposure to the wrong environment could cause conditions down to the item level and even after an item
wasted inventory, lost revenue and negative consumer has left cold storage. This means sensing systems can
experiences. But how can suppliers, logistics and travel with inventory such as roses, monitoring conditions,
warehousing companies make sure their cold chain is location and time as they move and share that information
the best it can be? during transit and upon arrival.

Cold chain and environmental data visibility Sensors can range from simple chemical-based
Supply chain managers need accurate, timely, high- sensors and passive USB monitoring devices to more
level views of their inventory and supply chain with advanced Bluetooth-enabled ones. For example,

12 I S S UE 01 – 2024 www .l o g ist i csn e w s .c o .z a