Consistency in temperatures ensures that these sensitive products are safe and maintain quality. A remote cold chain monitoring solution helps ensure stable temperatures at the entire supply chain, including challenging storage and distribution.

Cold Chain Challenges.

Supply chains can be highly unreliable and unpredictable. And, when it comes to cold supply chains, an unexpected delay, clearing customs problems, or equipment malfunctions will spoil or damage the temperature-sensitive products.

Chain operators are usually incapable of maintaining appropriate temperatures. According to a recent study from UPS of the $76 billion worldwide pharmaceutical logistics delivery market, more than %30 of deliveries reach their destination with some level of spoilage. It is totally unacceptable and even fined by the government to deliver spoiled or damaged meat, dairy, drugs, or vaccines.

What are the main challenges of cold chain operators?

  • Transportation is exposed to sharp temperature fluctuations. Once a temperature-sensitive product leaves the safety of on-premise temperature-controlled chambers, it is suddenly exposed to sharp fluctuations in temperature. It is challenging to monitor and document the temperature of products being transported by cargo delivery trucks, trains, or ships.
  • Rigorous Compliance: Although industries such as food and pharmaceuticals strive to provide the highest quality and safest products to their customers, they are also required by federal regulatory compliance to use cold chain monitoring and data logging. For example, vaccines are rigorously monitored across the entire cold chain, as a slight change in temperature can spoil them.
  • Audits. The lack of remote cold monitoring and data loggers of the shipment storage conditions makes it challenging to pass audits on the product’s safety and quality. When such products arrive at a storage center or retail, they must be inspected with monitoring and logging documentation.

Remote Cold Chain Monitoring Solution for Storage and Transport.

Cold chain operators should leverage digitally connected purpose-built refrigerators— a stable temperature-controlled cabinet attached with sensors and alarm capabilities that alert to temperature fluctuations. Such refrigerators should be deployed with remote real-time cold monitoring and control, along with data logging systems.

The remote cold chain monitoring architecture is as follows:

  • Data collection. The solution relies on IoT thermometers and humidity sensors to monitor the temperature and humidity of the connected refrigerators. Aside from monitoring temperature, sensors can also be used to keep track of volume or container fill levels.
  • Data transport. Data collected is valuable if it is monitored in real-time. An intelligent IoT gateway (such as Lanner’s LEC-7242 or V6S) with wireless support and rich I/O will allow real-time management and monitoring of the cold chain in remote monitoring centers or vehicles.
  • Data processing and analytics. A high-end server located on-premises or in the cloud can provide further data logging, processing and analytics. It can help deliver alerts to the right personnel, take proper actions, provide feedback, and even predict equipment failure.

At a storage center:

The LEC-7242 is an IoT gateway IPC with rich I/O and wireless support. This appliance is designed for either IoT or IIoT edge, and it is fit for specific industrial environments. The appliance receives data from multiple IoT-based refrigerators or sensors, aggregates it, and forwards it to a monitoring or analytics center.

  • CPU: Powered by Intel® Apollo Lake CPU
  • Network: 2x GbE RJ45, 1x RS232/422/485 COM Port
  • I/O: 2x USB 3.0, 1x Display Port, 1x HDMI
  • Wireless: Expansion for LTE and WiFi. FCC/CE/PTCRB certification for LTE and WiFi.

At a moving vehicle:

The V6S is a next-generation fully ruggedized in-vehicle computer with rich I/O. The V6S is designed for transit video surveillance, recording, and analytics. This computer receives data from temperature sensors, aggregates it, and forwards it to a monitoring or analytics center.

  • CPU: powered by Intel® Core™ i7-7600U CPU,
  • Network: 10-Port PoE and one GbE RJ45 port
  • Certifications: MIL-STD-810G and E-mark
  • Wireless: Mini-PCIe for LTE/WiFi

Benefits of the Remote Cold Monitoring Solution.

The benefits of the remote cold chain monitoring solution are overall improvements in revenue growth, reflected in operational efficiency, reduced load loss, high product quality, and increased value through the entire supply chain.

The remote cold chain monitoring solution avoids multi-million dollar losses due to spoiled products. It keeps the safety and high quality of temperature-sensitive products such as meat, seafood, vaccines, or drugs.

How can remote cold chain monitoring provide these benefits?

  • Use analytics to improve efficiency. Improve the efficiency of the supply chain with analytics. Apply analytics to the cold chain operational data to find insights, predict, get feedback, and share across the entire organization. In addition, analytics can improve asset utilization efficiency with predictive maintenance.
  • Help ensure compliance and audits. Data loggers at high-end servers and the remote cold chain monitoring solution can help comply with strict federal regulations for food safety, medicine quality, or vaccine storage. The solution can also help deliver a digital chain of custody to keep track of the movement of evidence from its collection, safeguard, and analysis.
  • Reduce labor using automatic inspection and control. A high-end remote server receiving temperature or humidity data can perform certain automated inspections and control. For instance, the server can push actions for remote control units to change modes, re-adjust temperatures, or perform further diagnostics.
  • Introduce side benefits, especially physical security. The remote monitoring solution can also help avoid theft with virtual geofencing security locking mechanisms that ensure trailer doors remain locked outside allowed areas. In addition, with an in-vehicle NVR computer, such as V6S, which is optimized for mobile surveillance, a camera system can be introduced to get broader visibility.

Next Steps.

For more information on other rugged industrial IoT gateways or the remote cold chain monitoring solution, please contact Lanner’s sales representative.

Vector Attribution: Logistics Icons Vectors by Vecteezy

Featured Products


LEC-7242

Industrial wireless gateway with Intel® Apollo Lake CPU and FCC/CE/PTCRB certification for LTE or Wifi

CPU Intel® Apollo Lake: Celeron® N3350 / Atom® X5-E3940
Chipset None

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V6S

10-Port PoE Fanless Vehicle NVR Powered by Intel® Core™ i7-7600U CPU

CPU Intel® Core™ i7-7600U (Kaby Lake)
Chipset SoC

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