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Tag: covid 19

Deep-freeze Transport and Storage for COVID-19-Vaccine

Posted on by David Priestman

Germany’s MECOTEC Group has launched a complete–one-stop solution for the deep-freeze, transport, storage and distribution for COVID-19-Vaccines with its first Mobile Hybrid Container. The company claims it is the first hybrid container solution for ultra-cold transport and storage for vaccines.

  • – Transport and storage of up to 1,000,000 vaccination doses in one standard size container at temperatures down to -80°C / -112 °F possible
    – Active deep cooling technology ensures safe and controlled transport and storage without dry ice

Vaccine manufacturers, transport and storage providers are facing major challenges in the fight against the coronavirus, as many of these vaccines only retain their effectiveness at temperatures down to – 80°C / -112 °F according to the current state of science. In addition, very few medical facilities have space to store the vaccine in large quantities at constant minimum temperatures.

The MECOTEC from Germany has now launched a complete-one-stop-solution consisting of:
1. Deep-freeze cooling + 2. Transport + 3. Storage & distribution: Immediately after production, the vaccine is frozen on site in a kind of deep cold storage. The vaccines can then be loaded into a container and safely transported to the distribution station at constant minimum temperatures down to – 80°C/-112°F. On site at the distribution station, the transport container then functions as a storage and distribution center.

MECOTEC has already developed a mobile cold store solution as prototype, an industrial solution with which the vaccine can be frozen directly at the manufacturer’s facility. For this purpose, the cold store system is located near production, the machine container is set up outside the production building. Immediately after production, the vaccine is deeply frozen in the cold store. This cold store solution can be set up anywhere where the vaccine is available for deep cooling.

“The project knowledge that we have gained with the development of the prototype as well as our many years of experience in the field of cooling technology made it possible within a very short time to adapt this deep-freeze facility into a transport, storage and distribution container,“ explains Jan Hüneburg, Managing Director at COOLANT, the industrial division of MECOTEC.

“We are pleased that today we can present our Mobile Hybrid Container Solution for the transport and storage of Covid-19-Vaccines and thus make a contribution to a safe and fast supply of the vaccine for people worldwide,“ says the Managing Director of the MECOTEC Group, Enrico Klauer. “Since our system is based on an active deep freezing technology, it does not require dry ice for cooling which makes it also suitable for safe international air transport.”

The process for transport and storage of the COVID-19-Vaccines at constant minimum temperatures down to – 80°C/-112°F is as follows:
The Vaccine Veils are loaded into the mobile refrigerated container in transport packaging and insulation boxes and then transported to the distribution (vaccination) center while maintaining the deep-freezing temperatures down – 80°C / -112 °F. At the distribution center the veils can be taken out individually. The whole process, including the location and the temperature within the container can be monitored centrally.

The complete solution developed by the MECOTEC Group can be used worldwide. “It is our aim to get the vaccine to the people as soon as possible. Therefore we offer several options: Orders for container production can be placed at MECOTEC directly and at our worldwide sales offices. In addition we also offer licensed production,” says Klauer.

5-point Strategy Against Corona

Posted on by David Priestman

How do we deal with the rising COVID-19 numbers and the immediate effects on employees, supply chain and turnover calculations? At this year’s German Logistics Congress, Günther Jocher, Managing Director of GROUP7, presented his company’s 5-point strategy. The first point of the strategy is to quickly adapt to the changed needs of the market. “We recognized the increasing demand for medical protective equipment early on and supported our customers with the initially difficult import process. By transporting a total of 31 million pieces of equipment, we were able to compensate the reduced volumes in other sectors such as automotive and textiles”, Jocher explained.

Surprise customers with new services such as Skype inventory

Point 2 of the GROUP7 strategy is the development of new products and services, adapted to the new Corona restrictions. “An important stock-taking of a customer gave us the idea to handle the process digitally. Our customers and the auditors were able to view the inventory virtually via Skype, and our employees could take samples on site”, Günther Jocher explains. This environmentally friendly and time-saving process will also be used by the logistics service provider after Corona.

Use the crisis to strengthen cohesion in the company

GROUP7 Managing Director Jocher’s point 3 was very important: “I deliberately avoided short-time working – we used the time to reduce vacation and strengthened our sales department”. According to him, this had already proven itself in the past: Thanks to the strong sales activities in the 2008/09 crisis, GROUP7 was able to generate a 64 percent increase in sales in the following year.

Continue to drive investments such as the Hamburg construction project

The 4th point in GROUP7’s pandemic package is aimed at investments in future business areas. Despite the difficult situation, the company was certified according to the GDP guidelines (Good Distribution Practice) in order to further advance the Pharma & Healthcare sector. “Our new construction project – a logistics center in Hamburg-Billbrook will also start on schedule in 2021,” said Jocher on the subject of investments.

Using the pandemic as a driver of the digitalisation process

The final point of the GROUP7 strategy is to use the pandemic as a driver of the digitalization. “Our further developed, digital security net has proven itself useful for our customers in the current crisis,” says Jocher. GROUP7 also tested agile working earlier than planned and will in future use it in the forwarding departments where it brings added value. “With our 5-point strategy for dealing with Corona, we are planning to be even more innovative in the future,” concludes Jocher.

More freight news here.

Staying Rack Protected

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Safety for staff and site visitors is a first priority, which means protection systems must be in place – especially during a lockdown. Rack Armour took extra steps to provide support to its customers.

During these unprecedented times, places of work have come to be very far from normal, with many warehouses running on skeleton staff, only allowing a minimal number of visitors on site, and slowing down on deliveries. Despite this, The Rack Group has stayed open throughout, working to make sure that not only the logistics supply chain industry keeps going, but also the food sector. Working with two of the UK’s biggest supermarket chains, installation teams at The Rack Group have been visiting each site, to make sure that each can still carry on as normally as possible to meet the high demand of the public both panic buying and bulk buying.

The Rack Group was no exception to having skeleton staff working in the offices during the UK lockdown. A large number of employees were furloughed, not only due to the decrease in the company’s workload (caused by a large percentage of customers not allowing visitors on site), but also to make the offices a safer environment. With added sanitising stations around the whole building, doors kept open to reduce the number of people coming into contact with handles, and stair bannisters frequently being disinfected, the safety of staff has always been the number one priority. Only ‘business critical’ visitors have been allowed on-site at The Rack Group, including only urgent machinery repairs or replacements, and drivers delivering necessary products to keep the business running. More racking news here.

On-site teams have been minimised to two installers per vehicle, with facial coverings worn at all times throughout the journey to and from site, and masks also being worn throughout the visit if
instructed by site. Vehicles are cleaned regularly, and windows kept slightly open throughout journeys to enable fresh air to circulate. When working on site, installers must regularly clean their
tools and wash their hands at regular intervals. With logistics warehouses staying open throughout the pandemic, there has also been a need for the products of Rack Armour, a company within
The Rack Group. These products are necessary to ensure the warehouse is a safe working environment. From upright protection, to pedestrian barriers, Rack Armour has been able to liaise with couriers to make sure that all deliveries have still gone ahead.

Rack Armour products cut the chance of racking damage, hence reducing the need for extra visits to site to carry out any repairs. The Rack Armour upright protector alone has proven to reduce
racking damage by 80%. This product has had so much success since its creation back in 2004 that it is now sold all over the world, not only by The Rack Group, but by distributors with which the company has created longlasting and loyal relationships. Read more here: https://flickread.com/edition/html/index.php?pdf=5f3d1fcf3160d#54

Will Darkness Protect us from COVID-19?

Posted on by David Priestman

Sunlight was supposed to be the answer to COVID-19. However, fully automated warehouses that no longer need lighting or heating are helping to keep supply lines open during the pandemic. Here Neil Ballinger, head of EMEA sales at automation equipment supplier EU Automation, explains why retailers and distributors are investing heavily in fully automated distribution centres.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accentuated a divide between those companies that have embraced technology and those that have not. Retailers who had invested in automation and e-commerce fared better than their competitors. In 2020, the share price of Ocado, a British online supermarket, doubled while the share price of Marks and Spencer, a traditional high-street retailer, has halved. Clearly, in the eyes of investors the future of retail is online.

Behind the scenes of the race to online shopping, retailers and distributors are working hard to automate their warehouses and gear them towards new shopping behaviour. Amazon has emerged as one of the pioneers in logistics automation. The first generation of logistics professionals at Amazon had cut their teeth at Walmart. When they started working for Amazon, they quickly learned that shipping individual parcels directly to end customers required a different set of processes compared to shipping pallets of goods to stores.

Dark Warehouse

According to Brad Stone, the author of The Everything Store, Amazon executives realised that if they improved how orders were fulfilled, they could turn this into a competitive advantage. They invented a software to calculate the best way of combining the products in each individual order, factor in the address of the customer and ship it all in the least expensive way. Fast and cost-effective, picking, packing and shipping became a strategic advantage for Amazon.

The next frontier in warehouse automation is to seamlessly integrate the processes of sorting, picking and packing. Boxing-up parcels has traditionally been a very labour-intensive process. Last year, Amazon started to invest in packing machines built by CMC, an Italian automation specialist, which pack up to 700 boxes per hour. Automated packaging is currently booming. In Germany, Dm-Drogerie Markt, the country’s largest drugstore, has invested 100 million Euros into a new distribution centre. It contains state-of-the-art automation systems built by Swisslog, a Swiss logistics automation supplier. In the UK, The White Company, a clothing retailer, is planning to install a Quadient CVP Everest, also an automated packing machine, in August 2020.

Does a fully automated warehouse still need lighting? In a recent newsletter, Swisslog’s Paul Stringeman described the distribution centre of the future as follows: “no staff driving back and forth on forklift trucks, no load handlers examining products and picking items onto pallets, not even an electric light – just sky high racking, shuttles, lifts, robots, conveyors and autonomous vehicles choosing their own paths through the darkness”.

COVID-19 accelerated the use of technology in logistics. When a warehouse is fully automated, it no longer needs flickering neon tubes to keep running. Lights-out logistics is fast becoming a reality. http://www.euautomation.com/us/

similar news

Industry View: Automation and the Future of Warehouse Racking

 

Control Towers Tackle Disruption

Posted on by David Priestman

The ‘control tower’ concept came into its own in the bid to tackle supply chain disruption, says Cyril Lefebvre of Gefco.

In the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 outbreak, we saw already complex supply chain challenges become ever-more intricate and convoluted for freight forwarding customers. From airport closures and changes in rates and availability, to quarantines and complete collapses in production activity, the picture was changing daily – sometimes hourly. Perhaps more than ever before,
organisations across the globe needed logistics partners and solutions that could manage every step of the shipping process, react quickly and provide much-needed visibility on the status of their critical cargo.

Amid this disruption, the control tower has fast emerged as one of the answers to this challenge. It is a concept that has been in circulation in the logistic industry for years now but has often
escaped easy definition. Gartner defines ‘control towers’ as combining five elements: people, process, data and organisation supported by a set of technology-enabled capabilities for
transparency and coordination.

To put this more plainly, we can consider the fact that businesses will often work with multiple carriers or service providers to execute shipments on a day-to-day basis. Often, these carriers and processes are managed in a silo and it can be hard to get a clear overarching picture of a shipment’s progress, expected timeframes and potential inefficiencies. you can read the whole story, fro our September issue, here:

https://flickread.com/edition/html/index.php?pdf=5f3d1fcf3160d#12

Keeping Out of the Cold

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Industry expert Paul Waldeck explores the extent to which COVID-19 has already left its mark on the sector and what we all need to do to prepare for the future.

The pandemic has caused massive disruption to the logistics industry. It began with stockpiling, which caused an immediate shock to the supply chain, followed by the move towards online shopping instead of in-store purchasing. A noticeable shift in consumers from buying perishables to predominantly frozen goods has meant, as a sector, we have had to switch our initial reaction mode to one which ensures we can adapt.

As with many industries around the world, the current coronavirus pandemic is likely to be remembered as a permanent turning point for logistics and what businesses have to implement to ensure they are fully prepared for the new world. Over the past several months, we have all experienced the natural response of panic created by the pandemic, with stockpiling being one of the major symptoms felt by society. Prior to the pandemic, logistic managers had robust systems to uphold strong, reliable supply chains and pricing structures that were more or less a given and relied upon. But since the spring, disruption to the international supply chain has resulted in many businesses re-evaluating suppliers to mitigate any further breakdown in logistics.

The loss of revenue and sales for businesses has also had an impact on pricing, with goods and services now costing more and causing the logistics industry to look at its rates. Research in July 2020 by the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply found that the disruption caused by COVID-19 will lead to permanent changes in global supply chains, as businesses look to adapt to
new ways of working and managing the varying stages of lockdown around the world. This thinking has already left inevitable strain on the supply chain, but it is the level of uncertainty that refuses to abate that is a key worry for many.

The industry needs to adapt from over dependency on the complete process, as the fragility of such reliance has been exposed. Permanent shift As a result, logistics industry leaders are starting to think differently. We’ve seen a growing demand for increased capacity in both independent buildings and infill temperature-controlled facilities; further incorporation of next-generation technologies, such as automation on the facility floor; and enhanced visibility across the supply chain. We’re ready for an industry-wide upheaval across the tried-and-tested methods of preservation, many of which were becoming aged solutions in recent years. We all need to embrace modern, agile, and resilient solutions – so we are prepared to tackle any disruption on this scale that might arise in the future.

If the industry has understood one key thing from this pandemic, it is that we must have the flexibility to change. Personnel and space are valuable commodities that we consider on a daily basis and these have both been affected by the pandemic, and will continue to be so. Social distancing in the working environment is now the norm and will be for the foreseeable future. There are elements of the logistics supply chain, such as transport, where this does not apply, but for manual operators in storage facilities who work in close proximity, this has costly implications. The coordination and implementation of these measures is for the greater good of all. However, the internal changes to a building – from the moving of racking, aisle closures, to limiting picking lines – takes its toll in structural planning and is expensive.

read the full article here: https://flickread.com/edition/html/index.php?pdf=5f3d1fcf3160d#6

www.ambreybakerconstruction.co.uk

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