The process of a cold chain is not as easy as it sounds to be. If things go wrong, both the shipper and the client are sure to suffer enough loss. What most people complain about is getting stuck at some point of time in the cold storage business and failing to incur growth. There might be various reasons for which the growth of your cold storage supply chain can be affected. Before we get into the factors affecting the development of the cold storage supply chain. Let us first understand a bit more about cold storage management.
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What is cold storage management?
The cold storage management system manages logistics for products that are required to be stored in the refrigerator. The whole process involves the system of preparing, storing, and transporting products in the supply chain. If you fail to maintain the coldness of the products, they will ultimately lead to loss of goods and their eventual wastage. Therefore, to ensure a successful cold chain process, you have to keep the products within an optimal range of temperature from the beginning until the end.
Factors marrying the development of cold storage supply chain
Given below are the factors that affect the growth and development of the cold storage supply chain:
1. Inability to meet cost efficiencies
In most cases, it has been noticed that you or your supplier is managing the storage warehouse management with whatever is available. This means that you have to compromise with the quality as you do not have enough technological advancement at your warehouse. This kind of compromise cannot go on for too long. Someday or the other, it is sure to crash down. Also, you fail to meet up with the most effective solutions because of their expense.
2. Absence of a proper infrastructure
You have to acknowledge that the most advanced technology often can also fail or fall short of some cutting-edge technology. For example, since cold storage management involves storing goods and products in the refrigerator under an optimal temperature, lack of proper technological infrastructure or failure in technology is sure to destroy the products and thereby induce a reduction in the growth of the cold storage supply chain.
3. Effect of enhanced regulations
So, here, the regulations related to the cold storage warehouse management that might affect its growth can be divided into two parts – the ecological aspect and the legal issues. Considering the ecological aspect, it has been noticed that due to too much power consumption required for the active cooling mechanism in the refrigerators, many hydrofluorocarbons are emitted. This affects shipping across countries.
Again, from legal issues and compliances because of the lack of a single Good Distribution Practices that might have worked on the global level. Also, the constant change of the policies makes things more complicated.
4. Impact of environment
Besides the nature and the environment that might sometimes turn out to be a hostile force for the growth of logistics and supply chain development. Some other aspects also affect the working of the cold storage supply chain. These are environmental policies, macroeconomic factors, rules and regulations, geological factors, etc.
5. Risk of supplier
Whether things are on the right track or going wrong depends primarily on after the refrigerated shipment has even begun. Some of the issues that generally occur after the beginning of the refrigerator shipment include destroyed raw materials, not having good terms with the supplier, bad practices of packaging, etc. If the packaging process at the beginning of the shipment is not done rightly, it can cause temperature excursions at the initial stage of the transportation.
6. Risk of delivery or distribution
The distribution process involves two major activities – transport and storage. In the transportation process, several things need to be taken care of. A failure in any of these activities is sure to affect the growth of the cold storage management process. For example, if there is a failure in the packaging, the item can get damaged while transporting it. Again, in case of hardware failure, the cooling solution may be affected, thereby damaging the processed goods.
7. Effect of the human element
With the latest developments in technology, the cold chain development processes involve handling, packaging, and transporting goods. Therefore, there might be a failure in handling all of these. There have been issues related to poor handling of items, untrained professionals, damaged handling environment, etc.
8. Risk of security
So, the two dominant products managed on a large scale in the cold storage warehouse supply chain are food and pharmaceutical items. In the case of drugs or related other controlled substances, the security of temperature control is vital. A stolen or used item cannot be put into the supply chain for further use. This will question the security and the safety of the cold chain warehouse management. If there is a lack of proper security measures, it is sure to raise questions on the supply chain’s security and integrity.
9. Risk of retailer
Apart from the human handling during the delivery process. The way the retailers handle and manage the cold chain products or how the people involved in the process manage the items has a huge impact on the growth of the cold chain supply storage. The better the things are handled by the retailer, the better condition they will reach in.
10. Risk of customer
Often, customers are in a hurry and demand the products within a short period. So, to meet up with the demands of the customer, the retailers rush, and that is how the products might get damage, thereby affecting the growth of the cold chain supply management.
Conclusion
Now that you know the risks involved in the cold chain management supply, you can be more careful to avoid them. It is better to be cautious beforehand than to incur losses later.
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