“Eye” in the sky: IoT powers vaccine delivery blitz
Charged with transporting rush shipments of Covid-19 vaccines around the globe, logistics service providers turned to the latest internet of things (IoT) tools to monitor and safeguard their lifesaving cargo.
Ben Ames has spent 20 years as a journalist since starting out as a daily newspaper reporter in Pennsylvania in 1995. From 1999 forward, he has focused on business and technology reporting for a number of trade journals, beginning when he joined Design News and Modern Materials Handling magazines. Ames is author of the trail guide "Hiking Massachusetts" and is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism.
When logistics service providers were first charged with delivering the new Covid-19 vaccines in late 2020, they may have wished for a magic wand to solve the extraordinary challenges their mission would present. While some already had specialized pharmaceutical divisions and cold chain warehouses to serve the typical trade in medicines and biological products, those networks were designed for a lighter flow of goods to predetermined destinations like hospitals, not an all-out blitz to reach every corner of the globe as quickly as possible.
The vials of the precious vaccine had to be moved in huge quantities, kept at ultra-low temperatures, and shipped and delivered at top speed … all at a time when commercial aircraft—whose belly space has long been the main means of expedited international cargo transport—were largely grounded due to pandemic-related restrictions on passenger travel. At the same time, the service providers’ employees had to work in conditions where they faced exposure to the very virus they were fighting. To cap it off, the contractors were under colossal pressure to distribute the vaccines before the deadly disease could spread among vulnerable populations.
Citing severe capacity constraints in the aircargo market, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) dubbed the effort “the mission of the century” for the sector.
Yet despite those and other challenges, logistics service companies—and parcel carriers, in particular—have been successful in their efforts to swiftly distribute Covid-19 vaccines. One of the key tools players have brought to bear is the internet of things (IoT), a vast network of connected sensors that allowed shippers and carriers to monitor and track this critical cargo as it passed through multiple hands, transportation modes, and countries.
MOVE IT QUICKLY, KEEP IT COLD
To help them track shipments and manage the complexities of time-sensitive vaccine distribution, the major parcel carriers—DHL, FedEx Corp., and UPS Inc.—all turned to variations of IoT technology.
For DHL, IoT tools were critical for monitoring cargo that had to be maintained at subzero temperatures (-70 degrees Fahrenheit for the Pfizer vaccine and -20 degrees for the Moderna version) and for reassuring trading partners who were pushing for urgent delivery. Those partners stretched across the globe: Through May of 2021, the company had transported more than 200 million doses of the various Covid-19 vaccines on about 9,000 flights to more than 120 countries.
While DHL has a well-established network for transporting vaccines and other pharmaceuticals, it looked to the IoT part of its existing system to meet the specific demands of Covid vaccine distribution, said Claudia Roa, the company’s president, Life Sciences and Healthcare.
“The three main differences or unique features with the Covid-19 vaccine were its extremely low temperature requirement; the lack of data available to know the risks and the effects of changes in temperature, time, etc.; and its global urgency—which is probably the most sensitive aspect of this distribution effort,” Roa said. Thanks to its IoT network, DHL had the resources in place to manage the first two challenges, thereby freeing company leaders to concentrate on the third one. “Using sensors, we have been able to monitor the temperature and location of every vaccine shipment to guarantee that the temperature stays within the required range,” she said.
For FedEx, IoT networks were crucial for tracking a steady stream of vaccine shipments to all 50 states as well as destinations around the world. Through the use of connected sensors, every shipment of vaccines has generated a cloud of detailed tracking data, the company said. As of mid-June, FedEx had delivered Covid-19 vaccines and related ingredients and supplies to 40 countries, including a shipment of 1.35 million Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses from Memphis, Tennessee, to Toluca, Mexico, in coordination with the nonprofit aid agency Direct Relief and the U.S. and Mexican governments.
In a statement about its role in the vaccine delivery effort, FedEx cited its standard dictum about tracking packages, saying “The information about the package is as important as the package itself as it moves through the network.” The Memphis-based company has invoked that motto for years, but it added something new when it tackled the vaccine delivery challenge: its “FedEx SenseAware ID” tracking technology, which it unveiled in May 2020, about six months before the first public vaccine shipments began.
That new tracking system incorporates sensors designed with the Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) communications standard, which uses less power and costs less than previous versions. That makes the IoT devices affordable enough that users can attach a sensor to each vaccine shipment, not just to pallets or containers. The sensors allow FedEx to track the location of vaccine shipments in near real time. The company then analyzes the data it collects with a platform that leverages artificial intelligence and predictive tools to monitor conditions surrounding the packages; this allows customer-support agents to intervene if weather or traffic delays threaten to impede deliveries, the company said.
And for UPS, IoT devices are enabling the company and its customers to actively monitor temperature-controlled cargo, including pinpointing the location of any Covid-19 vaccine shipment within its worldwide network. Using its “UPS Premier” service, the Atlanta-based company attaches a small mesh sensor, about the size of a credit card, to every vaccine shipment. The technology provides visibility into the location of every package, to within 10 feet, anywhere in the network. Like FedEx, UPS analyzes the data it collects using software that can detect network disruptions before they occur and then recommend countermeasures in real time.
NEW TECH SOLVES OLD PROBLEMS
The successful application of IoT technology in vaccine distribution can be attributed to two main factors, according to companies that manufacture the sensors and networks that make the system work. The first is the industry’s deep experience with the technology: Vendors have been deploying simpler versions of IoT devices to solve similar logistics challenges for years, which meant that when the call for more-sophisticated versions came, they had a solid foundation to build on. The second is a spate of technological advances that occurred just before the pandemic began, solving several longstanding problems with the technology and greatly expanding its capabilities.
For example, California-based IoT technology vendor Identiv has long been providing systems that use radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags to monitor the temperature of wine shipments in transit. These systems help shippers determine whether their products have been exposed to out-of-range temperatures while en route—a concern that vaccine shippers share. So when the need arose, the company was able to use the same approach to develop a monitoring system for ultra-cold shipments.
“‘Smart’ packaging with temperature control, anti-tampering [features], and location tracking is critical in efficient vaccine delivery,” Identiv CEO Steve Humphreys said, adding that Covid-19 has forced “exponential growth” in this technology.
That “exponential growth” came just in time to solve several key challenges with Covid-19 vaccine distribution. Thanks to a “technology convergence” of recent advances in sensors, readers, and other devices, IoT systems were able to overcome past shortcomings, according to Chris Jones, executive vice president, marketing and services for Descartes Systems Group, a provider of IoT devices and logistics technology.
Until recently, most tracking tags suffered from short battery life, but modern units using Bluetooth low-energy technology can run for seven years on one of the coin-shaped batteries commonly used to power wristwatches, Jones said. Earlier sensors were also too expensive to use on anything but the highest-value shipments, but their cost today is just one-tenth or one-twentieth of what it was half a dozen years ago, he said. Thanks to those price drops, users can now toss a tag into each carton of goods being shipped or attach it to the outside of the parcel, the pallet it’s stacked on, or the unit load device (ULD) that airlines use to roll cargo into the bellies of planes.
Yet another recent technology advance has helped the industry overcome some longstanding problems with collecting data from those sensors. Older systems that relied on cellular data networks had limited capacity to collect and then share the information they recorded, since airports limit cellphone connectivity to protect planes’ communications channels, and because shipments sitting in cold storage are insulated by thick metal walls. But in recent months, Descartes has provided some of its customers with readers that are tuned to Bluetooth low-energy signals, creating networks of local antennas that operate on a different bandwidth than airplane wireless signals and can therefore be placed close to cargo. Airfreight carriers, including Delta, Air New Zealand, and Cathay Pacific, are installing the solar-powered units on light poles and other sites around an airport; the resulting coverage is far more effective than anything cellular networks can offer, Jones said.
For example, Cathay Pacific Cargo said in June that it was launching Descartes’ BLE-based network, tags, and readers at dozens of airports across the globe. This investment will allow customers to monitor vaccine and other shipments in near real time through the airport-to-airport leg of each shipment’s journey, the airline said. With the new system, Cathay Pacific’s data loggers can now record and transmit data to Bluetooth readers in the cargo terminal and the airside ramp area, providing such information as the GPS location, temperature, humidity level, and vibration.
HISTORIC ACHIEVEMENTS
By collecting and sharing crucial data about shipments in transit, IoT technology has played a critical role in logistics companies’ historic effort to deliver Covid-19 vaccines. Thanks to engineering upgrades, modern IoT sensors and networks have allowed users to overcome extraordinary challenges in this global race to save lives.
The benefits of improved IoT technology will extend far into the future, Identiv’s Humphreys believes. “Manufacturers, distributors, government leaders, NGOs, and the health-care community have an opportunity right now to troubleshoot methodologies and identify best practices to better prepare for a future pandemic,” he said.
Serious inland flooding and widespread power outages are likely to sweep across Florida and other Southeast states in coming days with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is now predicted to make landfall Thursday evening along Florida’s northwest coast as a major hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
While the most catastrophic landfall impact is expected in the sparsely-population Big Bend area of Florida, it’s not only sea-front cities that are at risk. Since Helene is an “unusually large storm,” its flooding, rainfall, and high winds won’t be limited only to the Gulf Coast, but are expected to travel hundreds of miles inland, the weather service said. Heavy rainfall is expected to begin in the region even before the storm comes ashore, and the wet conditions will continue to move northward into the southern Appalachians region through Friday, dumping storm total rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches. Specifically, the major flood risk includes the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina.
In addition to its human toll, the storm could exert serious business impacts, according to the supply chain mapping and monitoring firm Resilinc. Those will be largely triggered by significant flooding, which could halt oil operations, force mandatory evacuations, restrict ports, and disrupt air traffic.
While the storm’s track is currently forecast to miss the critical ports of Miami and New Orleans, it could still hurt operations throughout the Southeast agricultural belt, which produces products like soybeans, cotton, peanuts, corn, and tobacco, according to Everstream Analytics.
That widespread footprint could also hinder supply chain and logistics flows along stretches of interstate highways I-10 and I-75 and on regional rail lines operated by Norfolk Southern and CSX. And Hurricane Helene could also likely impact business operations by unleashing power outages, deep flooding, and wind damage in northern Florida portions of Georgia, Everstream Analytics said.
Before the storm had even touched Florida soil, recovery efforts were already being launched by humanitarian aid group the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). In a statement on Wednesday, the group said it is urging residents in the storm's path across the Southeast to heed evacuation notices and safety advisories, and reminding members of the logistics community that their post-storm help could be needed soon. The group will continue to update its Disaster Micro-Site with Hurricane Helene resources and with requests for donated logistics assistance, most of which will start arriving within 24 to 72 hours after the storm’s initial landfall, ALAN said.
As the hours tick down toward a “seemingly imminent” strike by East Coast and Gulf Coast dockworkers, experts are warning that the impacts of that move would mushroom well-beyond the actual strike locations, causing prevalent shipping delays, container ship congestion, port congestion on West coast ports, and stranded freight.
However, a strike now seems “nearly unavoidable,” as no bargaining sessions are scheduled prior to the September 30 contract expiration between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) in their negotiations over wages and automation, according to the transportation law firm Scopelitis, Garvin, Light, Hanson & Feary.
The facilities affected would include some 45,000 port workers at 36 locations, including high-volume U.S. ports from Boston, New York / New Jersey, and Norfolk, to Savannah and Charleston, and down to New Orleans and Houston. With such widespread geography, a strike would likely lead to congestion from diverted traffic, as well as knock-on effects include the potential risk of increased freight rates and costly charges such as demurrage, detention, per diem, and dwell time fees on containers that may be slowed due to the congestion, according to an analysis by another transportation and logistics sector law firm, Benesch.
The weight of those combined blows means that many companies are already planning ways to minimize damage and recover quickly from the event. According to Scopelitis’ advice, mitigation measures could include: preparing for congestion on West coast ports, taking advantage of intermodal ground transportation where possible, looking for alternatives including air transport when necessary for urgent delivery, delaying shipping from East and Gulf coast ports until after the strike, and budgeting for increased freight and container fees.
Additional advice on softening the blow of a potential coastwide strike came from John Donigian, senior director of supply chain strategy at Moody’s. In a statement, he named six supply chain strategies for companies to consider: expedite certain shipments, reallocate existing inventory strategically, lock in alternative capacity with trucking and rail providers , communicate transparently with stakeholders to set realistic expectations for delivery timelines, shift sourcing to regional suppliers if possible, and utilize drop shipping to maintain sales.
National nonprofit Wreaths Across America (WAA) kicked off its 2024 season this week with a call for volunteers. The group, which honors U.S. military veterans through a range of civic outreach programs, is seeking trucking companies and professional drivers to help deliver wreaths to cemeteries across the country for its annual wreath-laying ceremony, December 14.
“Wreaths Across America relies on the transportation industry to move the mission. The Honor Fleet, composed of dedicated carriers, professional drivers, and other transportation partners, guarantees the delivery of millions of sponsored veterans’ wreaths to their destination each year,” Courtney George, WAA’s director of trucking and industry relations, said in a statement Tuesday. “Transportation partners benefit from driver retention and recruitment, employee engagement, positive brand exposure, and the opportunity to give back to their community’s veterans and military families.”
WAA delivers wreaths to more than 4,500 locations nationwide, and as of this week had added more than 20 loads to be delivered this season. The wreaths are donated by sponsors from across the country, delivered by truckers, and laid at the graves of veterans by WAA volunteers.
Wreaths Across America
Transportation companies interested in joining the Honor Fleet can visit the WAA website to find an open lane or contact the WAA transportation team at trucking@wreathsacrossamerica.org for more information.
This story first appeared in the July/August issue of Supply Chain Xchange, a journal of thought leadership for the supply chain management profession and a sister publication to AGiLE Business Media & Events’ DC Velocity.
Companies can find it challenging to meet the increasing demand to make their supply chains sustainable—except when external events force their hands.
Our research shows that when large-scale disruptions compel companies to rethink their operations, improving sustainability is often part of the redesigned supply chains that emerge from such crises. Counterintuitively, supply chain sustainability (SCS) efforts appear to thrive in a crisis.
While companies should not limit their SCS efforts to crises, an awareness of these opportunities can help them identify opportune moments to advance their green agendas. This is especially the case in today’s volatile business environment, where adjustments to operational footprints in response to disruptive market forces are becoming more frequent.
The pressure to make supply chains more sustainable has risen steadily over the four years we have done this research. We measure 10 sources of pressure, including investors, government entities, corporate buyers, company executives, and consumers, and the pressure from all of them has increased over the four years.
Investors represent the fastest-growing source, with a 25% increase in average respondent score throughout observation. Next come corporate buyers, with a 15% increase, followed by governments and governing bodies (11%).
Overall, the research indicates that commercial interests—be it access to capital gated by sustainability-minded investors or sales opportunities gated by sustainability-minded procurement teams—are pushing companies to improve their SCS performance year after year.
OBSTACLES TO SCS
However, meeting stakeholder expectations of significant reductions in supply chain carbon footprints is still a stretch for many companies.
Reducing Scope 3 emissions—those associated with assets not owned by the company and therefore largely out of their control—is proving particularly tricky. These problems are reflected in our latest research. Almost half of the “2023 State of Supply Chain Sustainability” report respondents indicated their organizations will not begin measuring or reducing Scope 3 emissions for five years or more. Scope 3 reporting and collecting reliable data across company boundaries appear to be especially challenging.
Another indicator of the bumpy road to SCS is the number of companies rethinking or scaling back their net-zero emissions pledges. Again, these issues are reflected in our research. Across all global respondents in the 2023 report, only 35% confirmed that their companies have net-zero goals. Moreover, many within this minority group appear unprepared for the net-zero deadlines they set for themselves.
DON’T WASTE A CRISIS
Four years of researching SCS efforts have allowed us to study the impact of various large-scale global crises on firms’ commitment to this work. We have found that the effect varies with the type of disruption experienced.
For the most part, crises that provoke acute supply chain network disruptions necessitating supply lines to be redrawn tend to result in an increased commitment to sustainability in supply chains. However, economic crises that require companies to regroup tend to dampen their SCS commitments.
For example, in the 2023 report, respondents were asked to rate their companies’ continued commitment to SCS in light of three crises: the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020–21, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (asked in 2023), and adverse economic conditions in 2023. In the first two cases, SCS efforts did not flag, but they did in the third situation. The survey results show that 79% of respondents confirmed that their SCS commitments increased in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and 61% said they have increased due to the Ukraine invasion.
In contrast, 56% of respondents indicated that their commitments to SCS declined over concerns that an economic slowdown was imminent in 2023. The research shows that when an economic downturn is in the offing, firms tend to concentrate on developing leaner, more cost-effective supply chain networks, even when such efforts do not align with sustainability goals. Also, companies are more focused on short-term risk-mitigation efforts—rather than longer-term sustainability targets—when dealing with economic headwinds.
However, when global disruptions upend operations, the reaction is different. Companies redesign their supply chain networks in response, and building sustainability into these revamps makes sense. In recent years, we’ve observed that the most opportune time to redesign a supply chain with sustainability in mind is, paradoxically, when the supply chain is broken.
AN EXTENSION OF REDESIGN
In today’s uncertain world, there is no shortage of global-scale disruptions to supply chains, and these are unlikely to diminish in the face of future uncertainties, such as climate change and geopolitical instability.
Framing SCS as part of a company’s ongoing supply chain network redesign efforts might be a way to secure resources for these programs.
Moreover, perhaps this rationale need not be restricted to global crises. A host of competitive challenges can require firms to review the structure of their end-to-end operations. A company might need to change the geographic profile of its supply base as political tensions rise, decentralize its supply chain to reduce risk, or reconfigure its last-mile operations in changing e-commerce markets.
Further research is needed into the relationship between sustainability efforts and managing and mitigating disruption risks. Meanwhile, current and potential disruptions can offer an opportunity to integrate sustainability into the design and management of supply chains.
Krish Nathan is the Americas CEO for SDI Element Logic, a provider of turnkey automation solutions and sortation systems. Nathan joined SDI Industries in 2000 and honed his project management and engineering expertise in developing and delivering complex material handling solutions. In 2014, he was appointed CEO, and in 2022, he led the search for a strategic partner that could expand SDI’s capabilities. This culminated in the acquisition of SDI by Element Logic, with SDI becoming the Americas branch of the company.
A native of the U.K., Nathan received his bachelor’s degree in manufacturing engineering from Coventry University and has studied executive leadership at Cranfield University.
Q: How would you describe the current state of the supply chain industry?
A: We see the supply chain industry as very dynamic and exciting, both from a growth perspective and from an innovation perspective. The pandemic hangover is still impacting decisions to nearshore, and that has resulted in a spike in business for us in both the USA and Mexico. Adding new technology to our portfolio has been a significant contributor to our continued expansion.
Q: Distributors were making huge tech investments during the pandemic simply to keep up with soaring consumer demand. How have things changed since then?
A: The consumer demand for e-commerce certainly appears to have cooled since the pandemic high, but our clients continue to see steady growth. Growth, combined with low unemployment and high labor costs, continues to make automation a good investment for many companies.
Q: Robotics are still in high demand for material handling applications. What are some of the benefits of these systems?
A: As an organization, we are investing heavily in software that will allow Element Logic to offer solutions for robotic picking that are hardware-agnostic. We have had success deploying unit picking for order fulfillment solutions and unit placing of items onto tray-based sorters.
From a benefit point of view, we’ve seen the consistency of a given operation improve. For example, the placement accuracy of a product onto a tray is far higher from a robotic arm than from a person. In order fulfillment applications, two of the biggest benefits are reliability and hours of operation. The robots don't call in sick, and they are happy to work 22 hours a day!
Q: SDI Element Logic offers a wide range of automated solutions, including automated storage and sortation equipment. What criteria should distributors use to determine what type of system is right for them?
A: There are a significant number of factors to consider when thinking about automation. In my experience, automation pays for itself in three key ways: It saves space, it increases the efficiency of labor, and it improves accuracy. So evaluating which of these will be [most] beneficial and quantifying the associated savings will lead to a “right sized” investment in technology.
Another important factor to consider is product mix. With a small SKU (stock-keeping unit) base, often automation doesn’t make sense. And with a huge SKU base, there will be products that don’t lend themselves to automation.
With any significant investment, you need to partner with an organization that has deep experience with the technologies that are being considered and … in-depth knowledge of the process that is being automated.
Q: How can a goods-to-person system reduce the amount of labor needed to fill orders?
A: In most order picking operations, there is a considerable amount of walking between pick faces to find the SKUs associated with a given order or set of orders. Goods-to-person eliminates the walking and allows the operator to just pick. I have seen studies that [show] that 75% of the time [required] to assemble an order in a manual picking environment is walking or “non-picking” time. So eliminating walking will reduce the amount of labor needed.
The goods-to-person approach also fits perfectly with robotic picking, so even the actual picking aspect of order assembly can be automated in some instances. For these reasons, [automation offers] a significant opportunity to reduce the labor needed to fulfill a customer order.
Q: If you could pick one thing a company should do to improve its distribution center operations, what would it be?
A: Evaluate. Evaluate the opportunities for improving by considering automation. In my experience, the challenge most companies have is recognizing that automation is an alternative. The barrier to entry is far lower than most people think!