Data Logging in the Supply Chain – ONLINE EXCLUSIVE

Temperature control is crucial to the food supply chain, and ensuring that products reach the shelves correctly refrigerated can be a significant cost for the industry. Food distributors and manufacturers know that the potential for human error in the supply chain is immense, which is why companies cannot afford to disregard looking at new environmental data logging technology.

Monitoring the supply chain can start from the farm, to the storage in warehouses, logistics trucks delivering the produce, to supermarket chillers in retail environments, and new high-tech monitoring solutions on the market provide opportunities that greatly simplify the process.

The capabilities of new wireless data loggers ensure that the temperature and humidity of food and drink products and their environments can be closely monitored regardless of their location, or the location of those tasked with the monitoring. This means that managers can provide assurance as to the quality of the supply chain. Costs can be reduced across the board by reducing the level of waste, but also by avoiding the time-consuming task of manual data logging.

Changing Times, Changing Technology

The food and drink supply chain has become an increasingly complicated network of bodies, actions and technologies to ensure the safety and quality of the products. Regulations require that all produce must be temperature controlled—from source to end location—to reduce health risks such as the growth of dangerous bacteria.

Once restricted to manual clipboard and pen checks, supply chain monitoring has matured—utilizing the power and advantages of wireless communication. The rapid adoption of Cloud computing and the use of mobile devices now present further supply chain management opportunities. Companies of all shapes and sizes are adapting to this new Cloud technology.

This provides significant opportunities for businesses throughout the supply chain to cost-effectively optimize their operations through the more efficient and effective collecting, storage, access and sharing of critical data online. In combination with the emergence of wireless remote temperature monitoring devices, supply chain managers are increasingly able to ensure the integrity of products, anywhere and anytime.

Modern IT for an Optimization

We’ve seen the industry taking advantage of new technologies to optimize business operations, and to address the challenges affecting modern supply chain management; from improved fleet tracking systems with optimized GPS, to equipping warehouse staff with headsets to instruct them on what items to pick ready for dispatch.

In line with the rise of new technologies, the popularity of advanced remote environmental monitoring systems is growing.

Historically, the manual collection of data along the supply chain has been challenging and resource-hungry. This could often lead to inaccurate or missing data, compromising the effectiveness of monitoring throughout.

Remote data logging is beginning to overcome these challenges as more and more companies have become keenly aware of the costs and benefits of addressing challenges that affect an ever more complex supply chain.

While logging data as accurately as possible is vital, it is now equally important to have unconditional insight into the temperature of the produce at each stage. And perhaps most importantly, the data gathered needs to be accessible remotely so that it can be monitored and managed by anyone, at anytime and from anywhere.

While the range of operations and legislation-related challenges involved in modern supply chains may be daunting, a quality remote data logger can save the day. The ability to record and manage databases, which automatically scale to meet demand, has quickly become an indispensable element of supply chain optimization. Professionals can now spot and target issues or technical problems remotely and tackle them head on—at the time they occur.

Rapid Changes

It’s no wonder that remote data logging sensors are already making a distinct impact on the way we run modern supply chains. Data can be logged for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year with no interruption due to absent staff or misreading. The fact that there is no limit to the amount of information that can be stored remotely in the Cloud is a great benefit.