What are the most common inventory management challenges in perishable goods logistics?

Shipping & Logistics, especially for regulated items like food and medicine. Applying active refrigeration for goods will vastly increase freight cost, while using passive cooling requires quick clearance of goods before they get defected. Another challenge is the availability of proper storage facilities in ports to assure proper storage till goods reach final destination.

Transportation of chilled or frozen products can be quite challenging. Often times cold chain gets broken during transportation process especially when using a 3rd party where you have limited visibility such as getting temperature alerts when there’s a breakdown and as a result goods gets spoilt

Managing demand fluctuations effectively is one of the most crucial challenges for supply chain managers. It is essential to avoid stock losses and shortages in cold chain operations. Even though sales forecasting systems are not entirely accurate, there are strategies that can significantly improve demand management, such as collaborative forecast management. The deployment of this collaboration mode, where stakeholders can jointly contribute to demand and forecasting, inventory, and production planning, allows for more accurate and coordinated decision-making, improving communication and alignment across the supply chain.

I strongly believe that the factor that best favors would be the requirement for an accurate demand forecast. Creating goals and having active supply leadership with the sales team greatly favors the increase and turnover of stock.

The most challenging issue when working with frozen foods is delivering the products in a timely matter. Once the products leave the storage facility, many factors can affect your schedule and if your products don't get to the destination on time, it throws off the schedule at the receiving facility and increases the overhead costs for your company and your customers.

The best way to deliver value on Inventory management is through People, Processes and Technology all together. Through my professional experience, I have successfully executed various market-driven transformation projects. I was able to achieve this with the help of some of the best inventory management solutions available in the market, such as Slimstock, Gains, Tools Group, and Anaplan. These projects involved the integration of sales projections, procurement requests, and production schedules, with the ultimate goal of improving customer satisfaction and driving sustainable revenue growth.

É fundamental entender que a necessidade de ter uma ferramenta isso me refiro a tecnologia, ferramentas como WMS e entre outros para se ter um estoque ideal, uma equipe engajada bem treinada com a mentalidade, pra executar suas tarefas. Já fiz alguns projetos visando otimizar erros no estoque aonde geraria um desgaste futuro.

Shrinkage represents a significant challenge for cold chain operations, particularly at transshipment points and during consignee transfers. Furthermore, the precarious infrastructure of ports and airports in some regions requires intensive clockwork monitoring. In my previous experiences, I was exposed to a range of control methodologies, from straightforward solutions such as data loggers to more complex approaches such as employing IoT in order to limit temperature fluctuations. Essential to the success of these methodologies is adherence to clear SOPs with logistics operators, sufficient training of the operational staff, and the use of packaged solutions where possible in order to mitigate the effects of transportation on the cargo.

I think the most challenging topic in perishable logistic sector is how we could maintain the right temperature all the way up to delivery to the final consumer.. This is a serious issue for us as PICs working in the front line of operation service starting from how we prepare products up to delivery to the final destination walking through all circumstances/challenges in between.