Why Industry Leaders Chose High-Tech Reusable Cold Chain Solutions

Recently the AeroSafe Global team (outfitted with eye-catching orange kicks) had the pleasure of attending the LogiPharma US event in Boston. Every year the conference assembles a prestigious group of supply chain leaders, including several of AeroSafe’s customers and partners, to promote collaboration aimed at the realization of more efficient supply chain operations. The event had tracks focused on the issues that AeroSafe actively seeks to improve including risk management, digital supply chain processes, and more sustainable distribution practices.  

In addition to showcasing our newest service offering, Cold Chain Intel, a visibility and engagement platform that improves delivery outcomes, we also enjoyed participating in a panel presentation with three customers. AeroSafe Global CEO Jay McHarg shared the stage with customer supply chain executives representing three of the top 25 largest pharmaceutical companies. The session, entitled, “Why Industry Leaders Chose High-Tech Reusable Cold Chain Solutions,” focused on the motivators and results related to each manufacturer’s selection of AeroSafe to enable the safe distribution of temperature-sensitive medicines. 

Reason 1: Extended Duration 

One common theme across all three manufacturers was the desire for extended duration since as Jay stated in his introduction, “We can’t rely on carriers to get a product delivered in one or two days all the time – it’s impossible.” Prior to engaging with AeroSafe, one of the customers was shipping almost all of their shipments via next day air, which is 5-times the cost of ground shipping. However, with AeroSafe and its extended duration shippers in place, the customer can now ship 80% of their volumes ground service level, every day of the week, and over weekends. “We don’t have any concern that our pack operation won’t be satisfactory; the payload will stay within the required range until the facility can receive it and store it properly.” 

Another customer spoke about the disruption that happens when there is concern that an excursion may have happened. “When you are experiencing growth, the time to investigate a potential excursion takes time away from getting product released.” This was one factor that led the manufacturer to AeroSafe Global: its reputation for zero excursions based on its high-performance packaging. Since adopting AeroSafe, this manufacturer has evaluated captured temperature readings from its entire shipment history and confirmed that there has not been a single excursion. 

Reason 2: Much Needed Operational Efficiencies 

All three speakers agreed that the switch to AeroSafe enabled better, smarter and faster distribution operations. For starters, with bespoke container design, fewer sizes are needed. One customer referenced the fact that this consolidation enabled the elimination of more than 50% of its container styles, reducing complexity and human error on the line while increasing productivity. 

Reduction of inventory was also another key theme of the presentation with one customer stating that, “We always tended to hold a lot of inventory just to make sure that we had it when we needed it. But by switching to a vendor-managed system, you can eliminate all those extra pallet positions. We were able to go from holding 18 months of empty boxes to a week or two by allowing AeroSafe to manage the inventory.” 

Reason 3: Achieving Vital Sustainability Goals 

Given the interest of conference attendees in approaches for greener distribution operations, sustainability results were a key focus of the session. Regardless of shipping volumes, speakers showed similar sustainability benefits of moving from single use EPS to AeroSafe.  

• >50% reduction in carbon emissions 

• 76% reduction in water resources 

• 42% reduction in energy usage 

• 87% reduction in landfill usage 

With the combined volume of shipments on stage equal to over 1M shipments annually, the collective reduction in CO2 emissions is 20,000m Tons.  One presenter offered that these numbers can be readily calculated because of the vast amount of data capture and analysis that AeroSafe provides. He adding that, “Our tracking and visibility is much better while our confidence in our deliveries is much higher.” 

Lessons Learned 

Each speaker shared advice for attendees interested in reuse with specific examples for each of their use cases, such as dedicated deployment project managers, phased vs full program launches, and communication strategies for stakeholders inside and outside the company. 

All noted that a successful circular reuse program depends on three key factors: 

1. The use of the most advanced packaging technology and digital tracking to achieve extended durations and visibility to ensure safe delivery of life saving medicines. 
2. The recovery and reuse of the high-tech solutions must be at least 98% to achieve the targeted sustainability and economics benefits of the program.  Anything less will not be sustainable or affordable. 
3. The program must be managed by a service partner that also provides additional operational support such as pre-conditioning, inventory management, automated shipment tracking, visibility into all shipments and their confirmed delivery. 
   
   

To learn more about the examples shared in this session, please contact AeroSafe Global.