According to our research on Global Supply chain Visibility, Control and Collaboration in Life-Sciences, 7 out of 10 industry executives are concerned about of product counterfeiting and diversion.
The Whitepaper recommended that stakeholders expand the use of existing track & trace technologies to include business intelligence and analytical tools. DHL Same Day, the special services group within DHL Express, has taken the initiative in developing a modular device – DHL Smart Sentry, which provides both condition and location monitoring for high value shipments throughout the supply chain.
To learn more about this offering, I recently spoke with Matt Groppe, Director, Global Sales, DHL Same Day. Matt covered how the DHL Smart Sentry program can serve the needs of the Life Science industry. According to Matt, “the unique feature of this solution for our Life Science customers is our ability to provide real time monitoring for sensitive product and specimens for both air and ground movements. ”
He continued: “Many of our customers are looking beyond traditional temperature monitoring to track humidity and how often a shipment has been opened during transit. Conditions such as pressure, humidity, shock and vibration also add new measurements to evaluate packaging options. As regulatory and governing bodies hold pharmaceutical companies to more strict policies, it has become critical for companies to seek enhanced methods of monitoring product conditions. In the current environment, you can only see shipment history and react to packaging in distress only after the fact. Now, actions can be taken to secure arrival conditions at destination.”
As part of the deployment of the Smart Sentry service, DHL Global Same Day analytics team monitors shipments’ status 24/7. Customers can track the condition of the package on demand via a secure web portal or by setting up min / max ranges for notifications only if thresholds are on the verge of being exceeded.
Since many customers have their own packaging Smart Sentry can be added to existing supply chain monitoring systems to provide continuous feedback as the product moves through the global supply chain thus identifying when product or packaging has been tampered with or diverted.
Matt provided an example of the value and the peace of mind that Smart Sentry can provide: Real-time location monitoring for air shipments are key for many laboratories as it is critical to know where their specimen is at all times. Laboratories are sometimes moving specimens that have spent considerable time in development and would cost thousands of dollars to replace.
Real-time monitoring solution such as DHL Smart Sentry can fill a void in securing the safety of global shipments and minimizing the risk for product adulteration or counterfeits entering the supply chain.