In Australia, cold chain logistics is a rapidly expanding sector, driven by the growing demand for fresh food, meat, medicines and other temperature-sensitive products. With a market value estimated at more than $8 billion in 2024 and projected to reach nearly $10 billion by 2029*, cold chain logistics plays a crucial role in the Australian economy.
Effective cold chain management is critical to preserving the quality and safety of products that are sensitive to temperature changes. Yet, maintaining a consistent cold chain is becoming increasingly challenging for businesses.
Each year in Australia, around 7.6 million tonnes of food is wasted, partly due to cold chain failures like inconsistent temperature control and inadequate real-time monitoring. These issues can significantly impact product quality and compliance. However, the integration of operational IoT platforms is helping businesses tackle these challenges by improving the efficiency, reliability, safety and cost-effectiveness of their cold chain operations.
Read on to discover how you can enhance your cold chain using IoT, and boost your operational efficiency and ensure product integrity throughout the entire process.
What is cold chain management?
Cold chain management is the process of maintaining optimal conditions throughout the supply chain to prevent spoilage and ensure product safety and quality. The cold chain typically includes a series of temperature-controlled environments, such as refrigerated production facilities, refrigerated transport vehicles, storage warehouses and distribution centres.
Max Girault, Chief Commercial Officer at Inauro, explains more. “Cold chain is not only what happens on the road, it’s a series of stakeholders that take temperature-controlled goods from point A to point B.”
Cold chain management involves several complex challenges that impact the efficiency, cost and reliability of transporting temperature-sensitive goods. “More often than not, neither the sender nor the receiver has the power to maintain the temperature control throughout that chain,” says Max.
“You might have a logistics partner that’s got the trucks on the road that drops the goods in a temperature-controlled warehouse, which is not theirs, and then picks it up the day after to go on another route. So there’s plenty of points along the chain for things to go wrong.”
Max outlines the key challenges that companies face when managing a cold chain:
- Multiple stakeholders: Various stakeholders such as logistics providers, warehouses and distributors can lead to fragmented control of the cold chain.
- Regulatory compliance: Adhering to regulations related to vehicle weight, driver shift patterns and minimum temperatures adds complexity and can affect overall operational costs.
- Insurance costs: Due to the high risk of temperature deviations (for example, chilled products arriving frozen or frozen products thawing), shippers often face expensive insurance premiums.
- Data siloes: Temperature and compliance data are often recorded on paper and held by different parties, resulting in a lack of full visibility across the entire supply chain.
- Lack of real-time oversight: Delays in identifying temperature breaches or logistical issues can lead to spoiled goods, loss of business and costly insurance claims.
Traditional management processes limit visibility of the supply chain
Cold chain management solutions
Cold chain temperature monitoring systems and IoT sensors that record real-time data and issue automated alerts when conditions fluctuate outside a set range are helping companies maintain control across the cold chain. Thanks to IoT temperature monitoring, businesses can use automation to run efficient, compliant cold chain operations.
IoT platforms: your cold chain management solution
IoT platforms combine data from multiple IoT sensors and devices across the cold chain to provide a comprehensive overview of operations. By collecting real-time data on temperature, humidity and the location of refrigerated transport vehicles, warehouses and distribution centres, these platforms detect anomalies, predict risks and help you to remain compliant.
The benefits of IoT in cold chain management
AI-powered IoT platforms can proactively make decisions based on your operational needs, which leads to a reduction in spoilage and therefore the costs associated with managing temperature-sensitive goods. An IoT temperature monitoring system brings many benefits to cold chain management, including:
- Ensuring compliance and quality control: Integrating IoT data into a single AI-powered platform helps meet regulatory requirements by maintaining accurate records of temperature and humidity throughout the supply chain. Automated alerts notify users of any deviations, enabling immediate action to maintain product quality.
- Minimising loss and waste: Real-time data from IoT sensors helps quickly identify and correct any deviations from optimal storage conditions. This helps reduce the risk of spoilage and minimising product loss and waste.
- Reducing operational costs: IoT platforms reduce the need for manual monitoring and minimise human error. This lowers the costs associated with product spoilage, regulatory penalties and inefficiencies in the cold chain.
- Improving visibility and decision-making: Consolidated data provides better visibility across the supply chain, enabling data-driven decisions like route optimisation and inventory management. “Companies that can provide that level of transparency and clarity have a much better customer experience, making them more competitive and attractive to clients,” says Max.
- Overcoming the limitations of siloed data: Traditional monitoring often involves siloed data across different systems, limiting visibility. Inauro’s AI-powered Perspio™ platform centralises data, which provides a complete view of the cold chain. These real-time insights allow for more effective monitoring and management.
IoT technology can offer complete visibility of products no matter where they are in the supply chain
Optimising your cold chain with IoT solutions
Inauro’s operational IoT solution, Perspio™, offers a transformative approach to cold chain management by centralising data and providing real-time insights. This comprehensive visibility helps ensure regulatory compliance, reduces waste, lowers operational costs and improves decision-making across the supply chain.
By overcoming the limitations of siloed data, Perspio™ allows companies to proactively manage their temperature-sensitive goods, enhancing customer trust and competitiveness. For businesses looking to optimise their cold chain processes, working with Inauro can lead to significant cost savings and a higher standard of product quality.
Reach out to Inauro today to learn how you can streamline your operations, reduce risk and provide a clearer, more effective path to managing your cold chain logistics.
* Souce: Cold chain logistics in Australia
