IoT-Driven Cold Chain Management for Real-Time Monitoring and Alerts for Perishable Goods

As more temperature-sensitive goods are required to be transported safely, the demand for cold chain facilities has overtaken normal growth in the common market place. Things such as fresh fruits and vaccine are products that when taken to markets as a tool and useful for the people, depends greatly on maintaining adequate temperature for the product during the entire supply chain. Conventional storage monitoring is not effective as it limits the use of boring routine manual temperature checkups or temperature data recap done away from the premises. Thus, it is not uncommon for many cold chains to encounter temperature fluctuations without being noticed until it is too late; thereby resulting in wastage, costs, and risks to safety. Lately, the development of cold chain management has been greatly assisted by the advent of internet of things technologies. IoT creates an opportunity to link up everyday working equipment and facilitate geographical approaches by way of collecting data without human interference. With the help of IoT incorporated into cold chain logistics, business owners are able to monitor temperature-sensitive products regardless of their location in the supply chain in real-time. This minimizes time wastage caused by a slow investigation process in the event of any discrepancies and helps manage the product’s quality during the entire supply chain. It also helps avoid the burden of manual collection and analysis of environmental information since it can be done via smart devices.There is a strong possibility of applications of IoT in cold chain management processes; however, it is observed that there is a limited use of available technology in this respect, where many of these solutions are oriented toward specific problems, such as temperature control only, and overlook an array of other equally important issues like humidity and CO2 concentration. This is important because a reasonable number of essential elements are not only measured but also well taken care of by a discipline so as to avoid possible inefficiencies. This elucidates this gap by proposing a system that leverages the power of the Internet of Things to enhance cloud-based data logging and instant notification systems to improve cold chain logistics. It goes without saying that, in today’s logistics chains, where products are not only moved but also stored, constant control over temperature conditions of perishable items throughout the supply chain becomes an ever-increasing challenge in the cases of food, medicine and biotechnology industries. Cold chain logistics serve the purpose of spoiling the save if the right environmental conditions are not maintained for the specific product, these conditions are usually referred to as storage and transportation critics. Although the logistics industry has improved over the past few years, real-time tracking of important parameters such as temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide is still a challenge even today. To solve this challenge, Smart technologies, particularly of the Internet of Things category, provide a way out where all monitored values are continuously recorded, the data recorded and actions taken, if any, returned within the required time. This paper addresses the cold chain processes of perishables management and monitoring using the internet of things, and guarantees better control of the environmental factors within the supply chain processes.