Ambient Profiles - Deciphering the Supply Chain Elements (Part 1)

Weather has fascinated humans for thousands of years because it has a positive or negative affect in daily life (e.g. food supply in gathering, hunting, fishing, agriculture, traveling, etc.). Throughout history men have created explanations for these climatic events that were not only poorly forecasted but also misunderstood. The ancient Greeks for example,attributed these climatic changes to specific gods and their temperamental natures to explain everyday weather and gave meaning to the world around them. Greek mythology includes many fascinating and colorful stories of more than 40 gods, goddesses, nymphs, monsters and heroes related to weather and climate. For example, Aeolus was the god and ruler of the winds. All occurrences of favorable or unfavorable weather were interpreted as a sign of divine intervention.

Aeolus, the Wind God (Source : http://www.flickr.com/photos/buecherwurm/486825832/in/photostream/)

Cold Chain Supply also demands understanding and managing the ambient temperature that a shipping container is exposed to during its transport (i.e. ambient profile) because these ambient temperatures greatly affect the cold chain supply performance. Ambient profiles can be not only as fascinating but also as intricate as Greek Mythology. Fortunately, Cold Chain Supply professionals do not need the Greek weather deities and their divine interventions to manage the ambient profiles but a set of tools and practices to manage the temperature and other logistics factors during transportation. Keep in mind (and this is an important concept) that the ambient temperature may or may not be the same as the actual weather temperature because a container can be stored inside a warehouse with a temperature different from the actual outdoor temperature .  So let’s start with two frequently asked questions many cold chain supply professionals deal with, “What is an ambient profile?” and “Why are ambient profiles important?”

An ambient profile refers to the ambient temperature that a shipping container is exposed to during its transportation. It is common to find three elements in an ambient profile; the temperature, the transit date and time and the logistical step associated to this temperature/date-time point. Note that placing an external temperature logger to collect temperature data will provide the temperature the loggers were exposed to but may not guarantee that the shipping container is always exposed to the same temperatures. Temperature variations in storage areas (refrigerated or non-refrigerated warehouses), carrier fleets (aircraft, trucks, etc) and logistics handling procedures could lead to differences in ambient temperatures. The geographical location and season in which the transport is performed may impact the temperature variations as well. A well managed supply chain will be less influenced by weather variations due to location and seasons because the shipping container is moving through controlled and semi-controlled conditions of storage, carrier fleet and logistics handling instructions.

Defining realistic ambient profiles is critical to the performance of the cold chain supply for many reasons:

1)   It supports the optimal packaging design of the shipping containers. An incorrect profile drives over or under designed shipping containers. For example, a profile with unrealistic extreme cold temperatures will require more insulation and less frozen gel packs to reduce the risk of product loss due to freezing. On the other hand, a profile with unrealistic mild cold temperatures will demand less insulation and more refrigerated gel packs but will introduce a higher risk for product freezing.

2)   It helps the selection of the right distribution and logistics partner. Long transit times as well as extreme temperatures recorded by the external temperature monitors may be an indication not only of limited supply chain integration but also poor collaboration among the distribution and logistics partners. This lack of integration and collaboration may increase risks such as product loss or delays.

3)   It helps to maintain the identity, strength, quality, and purity of the product from beginning to end. Unrealistic profiles create over and under designed containers that expose the product to unnecessary hot and cold temperatures. Creating a profile requires not only understanding of the storage and transportation steps but also proper management of the distribution and logistics partners to provide realistic expected temperatures for the shipping container design and to align the distribution and logistics handling procedures that protect the product.

4)   It ensures patient safety by maintaining the product temperature within the manufacturer’s recommended allowable temperature ranges for storage and distribution.

5)   It increases customer satisfaction by minimizing product loss or temperature deviations that require product quarantine and investigation. A product loss event may require reverse logistics to bring the product back to the manufacturing or distribution location, to send the product to a laboratory for further testing or to ship it to a controlled site for incineration (i.e. destruction). An investigation will delay the product release upon arrival and may cause a stock out situation. Finally, product losses activates lengthy and expensive insurance claims processes and delays also trigger severe financial penalties for not meeting the delivery dates stated in the contract (i.e. supply chain agreements).

6)   It reduces the safety stock and pipeline inventory by reducing transit time and temperature variability. Larger transit time and temperature variability increase the risk and this increased risk requires more inventory overall.

7)   It reduces material (i.e. shipping container) and freight costs by removing inefficiencies in a container design (under or over design). The unrealistic profiles usually drive over-design that translate in bigger and heavier containers because more insulating material and gelpacks are added. Bigger and heavier containers may also cause a capacity issue in the carrier fleet.

8)   Increases compliance by ensuring the container is qualified for the worst case scenario so the Quality team has less temperature deviations to process and the Regulatory team has a modular qualification document that can speed up the submission to new markets.

9)   It calibrates and validates the dynamic environment found in the logistics by ensuring regular confirmation that the distribution and logistics handling instructions are being followed by the logistics partners.

Selecting or building ambient profiles for the shipping container qualification is a difficult and intense task because an ambient profile requires a deep understanding of the distribution process and the logistics involved. In my next posts I will describe how to build or select ambient profiles.

Until then...

Carlos