[Webinar Recap] Five Ways to Improve Cold Chain Oversight

*On June 1, 2023 Emerson’s Climate Technologies business became a new standalone company – Copeland. Though our name has changed, we are building on more than a century of HVACR innovation and industry leadership, and Copeland continues to offer the same products, industry stewardship, and learning opportunities you’ve grown to trust. Information found on this webpage posted before June 1, 2023 may contain our old name or branding, but you can be at ease knowing it was created with the knowledge and expertise of Copeland. 

For perishable cold chain stakeholders, preserving the quality and integrity of goods throughout every step of the journey is imperative to their operational and financial success. Doing so effectively requires a combination of tools, technologies and value-added services (VAS) that enable in-transit shipment monitoring, data analytics and reporting capabilities. In a recent webinar, Jeff Korb, Copeland’s Northwest regional sales manager, Blanca Morales, Copeland’s key account representative and I discussed how Copeland’s Oversight Cargo Services suite helps to enable five key capabilities for strengthening the perishable cold chain.

Oversight Cargo Services is a robust suite of software and services which, when integrated with our GO real-time trackers and loggers, delivers cold chain insights, streamlines shipping operations, and ultimately drives profit increases. In the webinar, we provided an overview of the five Oversight modules and explained how these tools can be used to address escalating supply chain challenges.

1. Track shipments in real time

Oversight’s Track Your Shipment module provides growers and producers with real-time access to temperature and location data of in-transit, perishable shipments. This web widget easily embeds in a homepage or on a company intranet to enable customer and employee access to key data points. Simply enter the 10-digit serial number located on the GO real-time tracker to gain visibility to a particular shipment. Track Your Shipment is a key first step for improving operational efficiency and cold chain transparency while protecting food quality and safety. This service is free to our existing GO real-time tracking device customers.

2. View performance reports and carrier scorecards

A shipment’s temperature and location data are only useful if it empowers the right people to take decisive action at the right time. Oversight transforms shipment data into user-friendly Reports and Scorecards that deliver deeper cold chain insights and provide access to a live temperature monitoring dashboard. Quality assurance (QA) teams can use these tools to view individual shipments, uncover trends within specific shipping lanes, rate carrier performance, and pinpoint the root causes of recurring issues. By leveraging these performance insights, teams can develop preferred carrier lists and negotiate lower freight rates.

3. Simplify data integration complexities

Whether you’re using a transportation management system (TMS), warehouse management system (WMS) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, Oversight’s Data Integration feature consolidates cold data into one software platform. Data Integration unifies siloed data streams, eliminates incompatible platforms, and streamlines multiple logins to deliver holistic shipment monitoring and alerts within an aggregated portal. It also simplifies the shipment creation process by integrating workflows into one common system and process — saving your staff time and money while minimizing cold chain management complexities.

4. Extend your capabilities with managed services

If you’re like many companies, you may not have the internal resources or time to manage and respond to the influx of cold chain data insights that Oversight can deliver. That’s why Copeland offers a Managed Services feature — to extend your QA team’s capabilities and perform the VAS that they’re unable to fulfill. We create user-defined, standard operating procedures (SOPs) to address issues that may be occurring in transit, such as setting up communications protocol that expedites a response SOP to temperature excursions. In doing so, we can help to preserve perishable integrity, mitigate claims, and drive cold chain management best practices.

5. Consult a professional

Lastly, Oversight’s Professional and Consultative Services gives perishable stakeholders an opportunity to work with Copeland’s cold chain experts to assess and resolve their most difficult challenges. We can zoom in on a micro level to evaluate specific facilities and processes or take a macro view of your entire cold chain to identify strengths and weakness. Whether you need help preparing for a quality audit or are simply seeking to bring unknown issues to light, Copeland’s Professional and Consultative Services can help you to achieve your short- and long-term cold chain goals.   

To learn more about Copeland’s Oversight Cargo Services platform and explore strategies for improving your operation’s cold chain integrity, please view this webinar, Reduce Freight Risks With Oversight Cargo Services.