Talking Point New Initiatives
Intra-Asia Transpacific CIS, Eastern Europe and Africa Industry-specific solutions – Pharma & Healthcare Reefer and perishables logistics Niche products – Aerospace, hotel, marine, expo, event, oil & gas as well as emergency & relief logistics, etc. Integrated logistics solutions
“Our investment will be in warehousing for pharmaceutical logistics, reefer vans/ trucks and IT systems,” informed Mueller. Integrated logistics, industry-specific solutions, niche product development, i.e., a broadened range of end-to-end solutions, automotive competence centre, lead logistics competence centre and pharma competence centre will be of advantage for the company. India is one of the major operating subsidiaries of the Kuehne + Nagel Asia Pacific organisation, which consists of around 170 locations in 21 countries in Asia Pacific. At present, the company has 43 offices and 1.7 million sqft warehousing space at 38 different locations in India under management. During last 18 months, Kuehne + Nagel India has increased its manpower and has achieved significant growth of volume handled during the same time. The company added new verticals like Domestic Component Centres in Pune, Retail Desk comprising specialists from retail and buying house background and above all pharmaceutical logistics (company’s recent and global initiative). “India is a strong market for pharmaceutical logistics service providers. We are all geared up for meeting the customers’ demands in this sector. We are implementing our international pharma product called ‘KN PharmaChain’ in India, with an expectation of positive market acceptance,” said Mueller. Meanwhile,
Kuehne + Nagel has introduced this new airfreight product in India since June 2012. The use of active wireless sensors is a major achievement in the segment of seamless airfreight cold chains for pharmaceutical products. Generally, security rules prohibit the active use of mobile sensors during the air transport. However, together with a number of airline partners, Kuehne + Nagel thoroughly tested low-emission devices which can stay active during the flight so that the temperature is being constantly measured and reported practically in realtime. With this offering, the Kuehne + Nagel Group set new standards in the handling of pharmaceutical products in India. Key benefits include temperature data available at destination; proactive
action possible due to realtime and even alarms; less temperature deviations; less cost of lost product; no reverse logistics needed due to cost-effective onetime sensor use; temperature control during the whole supply chain; tailored packaging solutions, etc. In the unlikely event of a supply chain disruption (e.g., flight cancellation, delays, improper handling, etc.) contingency measures previously defined and outlined in the SOP are immediately executed to minimise any disruption within the supply chain, and/or temperature deviations. These contingencies can range from moving the shipment to another flight, re-icing, cool zone storage, etc., while automatically notifying all predefined stakeholders of the issue and explaining the action taken to resolve it.
Kuehne + Nagel India has been appointed by an international charity organisation to handle their aid and relief-related medicines from India. Interestingly, Kuehne + Nagel’s logistics solution is not all about temperature controlling. “More than temperature, proper cooling for sensitive life-saving drugs and vaccines can be maintained by scientific packaging and adoption of multiple temperature controlled tools,” he added.
Proper cooling for sensitive life-saving drugs and vaccines can be maintained by scientific packaging and adoption of multiple temperature controlled tools
68 CARGOTALK
JULY 2012
Mueller also shared that the pharma logistics chain will be operational at major metro cities including Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi. For this, the company will set up transshipment cold storage nearby the airports. The reefer vans/trucks will be operational on short haul routs—from manufacturers’ units to warehouses and then to airports. Mueller hoped they would get the adequate infrastructure and policy supports from the government. WWW.CARGOTALK.IN