Major transport company (3PL) requires a single solution for 30-lane complex supply chain for a pharmaceutical client?
A major pharmaceutical manufacturer with an important, temperature-sensitive oncology product needed to ship the product within a complex supply chain and Geodis wished to evaluate multiple containers and solutions on the market to find a long-term solution and partner.
The drug is manufactured in the UK and has over 30 shipping lanes to Asia-Pacific; Middle East and Africa; Latin America and North America.
The client faced several challenges regarding the transportation of this oncology treatment that, combined, posed a high risk to product integrity. First, the packaging required a unique pallet size, as the EU drug pallets being used were slightly taller than the standard size. Second, temperature excursions were frequently being experienced with the existing active solution. In addition, there was a need to improve packaging availability and lead-time to supply. A desire to reduce costs was also a factor in selecting the right thermal packaging solution. There was a further issue to consider, as a 3PL (Geodis) was responsible for the transportation. As such a strong and transparent partnership between the provider of the thermal packaging and the 3PL was necessary for a robust supply chain.
The pharmaceutical manufacturer and Geodis assessed a number of solutions against preset criteria including: Availability, Temperature Performance, Price, Handling (whether it was as preassembled or self-assembly) and Lead Time (reduce the current lead time of four days without having to incur express service charges).
In conclusion, the KTM range from Tower Cold Chain Solutions scored the highest on all these criteria and was the optimum solution for the pharmaceutical client’s needs.
In terms of performance, KTM container range led in terms of maintaining temperature and ensuring product compliance. It also scored highly on ease-of-use, lead-time/availability and price.
This partnership has been a success, resulting in a KTM hub being located at the Geodis facility in Manchester to support availability and to maximize compliance times.
“From January 2018, we started to stock the KTM containers at Geodis Manchester and the integration has been really seamless. Acting as a ‘holding station’ this has resulted in dramatically reducing the lead time for the client’s cold chain. We now have a unique offering that our team can demonstrate with potential new customers, in that we can actually offer a “same day” availability of a KTM unit for their cold chain products if required. I believe no other 3PL can offer this service currently.”
– Tony Doyle, National Account Manager, Geodi
“We’ve been able to switch over the KTM passive containers really easily as a result of easy-to-follow SOPs and comprehensive training. The KTMs are already assembled and very easy to load, making integration into a complex supply chain seamless.
The KTM systems have had a significant impact on our day-to-day operations. There is evidence of efficiency savings and I’ve been able to expand my skillset and gain even more insight into the overall supply chain through the tracking and app system.”
– Pete Parker Warehouse Supervisor Geodis