Mail Order: Improved Logistics = Savings

Big volumes mean that small changes translate to huge savings. A leading mail order pharmacy, one of the largest in the country, turned to Cold Chain to improve its logistics, develop more cost-effective and efficient thermal packaging designs, and to create an efficient inventory system. Cold Chain was able to reduce the number of designs and quantity of gel packs, which dramatically reduced material, labor, and shipping costs. Additionally, a just-in-time (JIT) inventory system was set-up enabling the pharmacy to concentrate its time and warehouse space on fulfilling customer demands.

With attention to detail and scope, Cold Chain optimized this large mail order pharmacy's cold chain distribution shipping network. At the same time, Cold Chain focused on the importance of maintaining the integrity of what's inside the box, critical pharmaceutical products.

Cold Chain's engineering staff analyzed the multiple products and packouts with the goal of reducing the number of designs and lessening the number of gels being used. These changes were adopted resulting in tremendous cost savings. Each of the new containers were designed using a packout for all seasons, and were thoroughly tested in Engineering and Technical Services. Auditable data from package testing was fully documented and described.

Once the packages were redesigned and tested, Cold Chain established a smoothly functioning JIT inventory control system from multiple locations throughout the country that could be provided within one hour. In addition, some locations are provided with conditioned gel packs.

With the help of Cold Chain, this mail order pharmacy not only ships big volumes, it does it with complete confidence.