When disruptions occur in the cold chain, it pays to have a detailed plan outlining how you and your team will deal with these issues. Panicking will only lead to hasty decisions, which can make the situation worse. Instead, evaluate the crisis and develop proper action steps to minimize loss and solve the problem as soon as possible. Here are five steps you can follow to solve a cold chain crisis.

Solving a Cold Chain Crisis

1. Understand the root cause of the problem.

A key ingredient to solving or avoiding issues is knowing the cold chain inside and out. To understand how the crisis occurred, consider running a thorough analysis of the processes in place to obtain a realistic view of the logistics systems and risks.

2. Develop a stabilization plan.

While it’s impossible to resolve the crisis overnight, implementing corrective action plans can help you see improvements within 8 to 12 weeks. Performance metrics can aid in the measurement of these improvements. A good metric should be easy to understand and derived from real data.

3. Employ a crisis management training program for employees.

To solve a cold chain crisis, it’s important to incorporate continuous training and education for both employees and managers. We recommend offering free workshops and training classes for your management team. Plus, establish management discipline through structured meetings and reporting. This will help your team achieve stability and responsibility.

4. Prevent recurrences.

Once you’ve handled your first cold chain crisis, it’s smart to put the following strategies in place to avoid recurrences.

• Establish real-time alerts to inform you when temperatures drop too low.
• Communicate regularly with suppliers.
• Track orders, confirmations, and Receiving records.
• Use Cargo Data’s Lightning Real-Time temperature monitoring.

5. Be transparent.

When your company is going through a cold chain crisis, be as transparent as possible. FSMA outlines a comprehensive view of the entire supply chain to ensure that contamination has not occurred.

Contact Cargo Data for More Information

If you’d like to know more about our real time temperature monitoring and how it can prevent costly errors and improve operational efficiency, give us a call. We offer free consultations and can be reached at (800) 338-8134.