The pharmaceutical industry faces annual losses of $35 billion due to temperature-controlled logistics failures, necessitating supply chain improvements. Globalisation, competition, and customer demands hinder visibility and lead to inaccurate predictions, delayed decisions, and product losses. Digitalisation, driven by technologies like blockchain and AI, is reshaping the industry but demands careful investment and expertise. System integration hurdles related to data governance and access are pronounced due to the complexity of sharing data among stakeholders. Overcoming these challenges is vital for an efficient and successful supply chain delivering crucial pharmaceuticals at the right conditions.

Ahead of the upcoming Temperature Control & Logistics 2024, this report features our global state-of-the-industry results and provides you with the key market trends and the technologies currently being utilised by leaders. In addition, we explore the greatest end-to-end visibility, digital transformation and systems integration challenges impacting temperature control and logistics, the solutions to these challenges and the pathway to successful digital transformation. Here is a snapshot of what you can expert in this report! Access the full report here.

The Technologies Being Utilised

Technology is essential for the success of the pharmaceutical supply chain, as it enables better inventory management, compliance with regulatory requirements, quality control, improved collaboration, and communication between different stakeholders, as well as efficient tracking, monitoring, and visibility. Moreover, it can enhance a company’s competitive edge by reducing costs, improving efficiency, and producing personalised medicines that offer better outcomes for patients.

“Technologies that enable you to get real-time, granular data providing complete visibility into your supply chain, along with smart contingency planning, are now required to deal with managing day-to-day business.” - Maria Nieradka, Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Executive.

There are several technologies that pharmaceutical companies are leveraging to increase end-to-end visibility and ensure the success of the pharmaceutical supply chain, but those gathering interest recently are Artificial Intelligence (AI)/ Machine Learning (ML), Blockchain and real-time monitoring.

According to our recent survey, real-time monitoring is the most widely used technology to increase end to-end visibility in the supply chain, with over 77% of companies leveraging it. Respondents also rated real-time monitoring an 8/10 for increasing visibility and a 7/10 for successful integration of this technology.

The Greatest Challenges

1. Integrating technologies into existing systems In our recent survey, 40% of respondents said that their greatest challenge with increasing end-to-end visibility was with integrating technologies into existing systems. Issues arise when integrating IT systems, processes, and data into existing complex systems, creating data silos in the enterprise. Existing systems may be outdated and not compatible with modern technology. This can make it difficult to integrate technologies without hugely disrupting the existing system. Integrating new technologies can also increase the risk of data breaches and cyber-attacks, which can have significant consequences on patient safety and regulatory compliance. In addition, the cost of integrating technologies into existing systems can be hugely expensive, and some pharmaceutical companies may not have the budget to invest in the newest technologies or have the resources to train staff on how to use them. “Where there are multi-echelon supply chain structures, achieving transparency requires compatibility across multiple platforms and information systems.” - Dr Aniekan Essien, Information Systems Lecturer, University of Sussex Business School.

2. Stakeholder or partner buy-in Stakeholder or partner buy-in was the second greatest challenge in increasing end-to-end visibility, according to our survey. As mentioned previously, stakeholder buy-in is a crucial prerequisite for leveraging end-to-end visibility across the supply chain, but with many stakeholders having different objectives, processes, and systems, this can prove challenging. Also, different stakeholders may have different levels of familiarity and comfort with technology, or concerns regarding data privacy and security, which can cause resistance to change. The adoption of these new technologies or digital transformation requires a significant investment of resources, time, and money, which can be a barrier to stakeholder buy-in.

3. Optimising operational structures and processes Over a third (32%) of respondents in our survey identified optimising operational structures and processes and successful system integration as the greatest ongoing barriers to successful digital transformation across the supply chain. Many companies fail to capture critical multidimensional data including data regarding location, temperature, humidity, shock, as well as other condition information that is crucial for advanced planning and execution.2 Significant changes to existing workflows and roles, as well as significant investments in new technology, training, and infrastructure may be required. This can cause resistance from employees who are used to working in a certain way, and from the companies themselves to make such investments without a clear ROI. Furthermore, without proper data integration, it can be difficult to optimise operational structures and processes effectively

4. Successful system integration System integration challenges often arise due to the sheer volume of data that needs to be shared between these different entities, including manufacturers, distributors, and healthcare providers, as well as the need for secure and reliable communication channels, and the complexity of the data itself is often high. Data management is one of the most significant issues that arises with system integration across the pharmaceutical supply chain - 36% of respondents in our latest survey said that data management was a key pain point they experienced with data integration and utilisation. Data must be monitored, cleansed, and transformed in real-time to ensure it is accurate, complete, and consistent across different systems. But different organisations use different data formats, and the systems they use are often incompatible with each other.

To discover the top solutions to overcome these challenges and learn insights which will put you on the path of digital transformation success, you can download the full report here!