COLD SUPPLY CHAIN AND INDIA

Cold supply chain is a logistic system combined with warehouses, that provides series of facilities for maintaining a given temperature range, and ideal storage conditions for perishable items from point of origin to point of consumption. Cold chain retains the longevity of product characteristics, active ingredients, freshness and nutritive value. There are two segments of cold supply chain storage, surface which consists of refrigerated warehouses for storage of temperature sensitive products and refrigerated transportation which consists of reefer trucks, containers, ships and trains for transport of temperature sensitive products. Keeping the entire chain cool necessitates an efficient and seamless transport of food from farm to market. The typical temperature standards are, Banana (13oC), Chill (2oC), Frozen (-18oC) and deep frozen (-29oC). Various refrigeration technologies are, 1. Dry Ice: It is a solid carbon dioxide at -80oC, and is capable of keeping shipment frozen for a long period time 2. Gel packs: It contain phase changing substances that can go from solid to liquid and vice versa to control an environment at a temperature range between 2C and 8C. These are used in transportation of products like Pharmaceutical and Medicinal product 3. Eutectic plates: The principle is similar to gel packs. Instead, plates are filled with a liquid and can be reused many times 4. Liquid Nitrogen: Liquid nitrogen is an especially cold substance, of about -196C. It is used to keep packages frozen over a long period of time and is mainly used to transport biological cargo such as tissues and organs 5. Quilts: Its an insulated pieces that are placed over or around freight to act as buffer in temperature variations and to maintain the temperature relatively constant. Its used to keep Freight frozen for a longer time period. Quilts can also be used to keep temperature sensitive freight at room temperature while outside conditions can substantially vary (e.g. during the summer or the winter)

It is also required to monitor and control cold chains through different innovative technological tools like,

Technical ability to link with airlines for real time status, generate web-based export documentation and provide electronic tracking Temperature data loggers and RFID tags help the temperature history of the product being shipped Documentation is critical. Each step of the custody chain needs to follow established protocols and to maintain proper records

India is an agriculture based economy with a total perishable products transaction volume is estimated to be around 230 million metric tons. With this immense volume, India has huge potential to become one of worlds major food supplier, if only it has the right marketing strategies and of course agile, adaptive and efficient supply chain. But, Indias inefficient cold chain networks results in spoilage of almost 40% agriculture products. Approximately 104 million metric tons of perishable produce is transported between cities each year. Of this, 100 million metric tons move via nonrefrigerated mode and only 4 million metric tons is transported via refrigerated mode. Currently there are approximately 25000 vehicles and 250 operators are involved in refrigerated transport, 80% of this capacity is dedicated to transporting milk. Each stake holder: farmers, wholesalers, food manufacturers, retailers all work in silos. Also, demand forecasting is totally absent and farmers try to push what they produce in to the market. In short we can say the best practices used on global platform are absent in Indian cold supply chain. Cold chain logistics should take advantage of technology improvements, in data capture and processing, product tracking and tracing, synchronized freight transport transit times for time compression along the supply chain and supply demand matching. Also the supply chain need to be designed and built as a whole in an integrated manner, with the processes of new product development, procurement and order to delivery processes well designed and well supported using IT tools and software. Information sharing is essential for generating the efficiencies. The internet and mobile communications are used to enable information and financial transfer between the stake holders. Also, recent advances in RFID technology will have tremendous impact in the management of the cold chain particularly for source identification and tracking and also in providing supply chain visibility. Also there are various risks associated with owning a cold chain. Some of these include country risk, monsoon risk, crop or raw material supply failures due to pests, diseases etc., partner risk and numerous others. India is all set to become the food supplier of the world. It has the cultivable land, all varieties of fruits and vegetables, but the main problems lies in poor supply chain infrastructure. However 100% FDI is allowed in this sector. The cold supply chain needs the attention of the industry and the Government.

BENCHMARKING
Benchmarking is a process of comparing ones practices and performance metrics with industrys best practices. The parameters to compare can be cost, quality or time. This comparison can be within the same industry or different industries with similar process. The organization we are comparing with, is an industry leader in one or more aspect of operations. Benchmarking provides necessary inputs to know where you stand with similar organizations. Further, benchmarking also provides with the areas of improvements in either system or processes.

JUST IN TIME
Just in time is a strategy to reduce the inventory cost, by receiving the goods only as and when they are needed in the process. The goods does not reach before or after the requirement arises, but rather at the time of requirement. This requires the manufacturers to accurately forecast the demand. The aim of just in time strategy is to increase return on investment, quality and efficiency. A good example is, car manufacturers operate with very low inventory of parts or subassemblies. The parts needed to manufacture the car do not arrive before nor after, but as and when they are required.