Pursuant to my article in the March issue, I would like to take forward my views on digitalisation and its transformational journey in cold chain technical assets. Digitalisation cannot be any longer an ignorable trend, as it is known to bring in tangible benefits in the longer term, in terms of improving operations and energy efficiency, leading to sustainability. Digital technology in cold chain is still in its infancy, but its development is deemed to be massive, considering the huge business potential that is on offer due to the large number of cold stores, refrigerated logistics hubs and food retail outlets in the region, not to forget the vital transport refrigeration vertical. But, its incorporation is more practicable than before, due to lower cost of set-up and connectivity and the increasing knowledge among end-users and various other stakeholders. So, what exactly does digitalisation do in the mechanical world of refrigeration systems? To put it simply, digital technology gathers data from mechanical systems through electronic formats. And enabled by analytics, through complex algorithms, these data are used to optimise the performance of the refrigeration systems, thus enabling them to have a “longer life”.

Raja Subramanyam

How does this benefit the end-user? Again, simply put, digitalisation can squeeze out profits from system operations, ensuring savings in terms of running costs resulting from slower depreciation of machines, decrease in labour costs and from energy savings. It effortlessly streamlines processes, ensuring the system life cycle is effectively more controllable with fewer problems and uncertainties. Real-time maintenance can be converted to predictive maintenance. And machine failures and system stoppages, which could cause loss of several thousands of dollars, can be avoided. It is proven that digitalisation plays a great role in incremental economic growth. But, more than technological, the all-important shift has to be cultural, which means an organisation has to have a mind-set to transform to progress for the greater good. Yes, we have seen rapid D-Transformation last year in the front-end e-commerce, instigated by COVID-19, but alas, the same cannot be said about back-end technical assets. Another important aspect is agility. Just the mindset alone is not important; being agile, as a characteristic, is equally essential. “Speed with precision” is fundamental in this age of business, else companies fall behind their peers and lose the competitive advantage. Agility is achieved when innovation and excellence work together harmoniously. That is it for this month. As we inch closer to the Food Chain conference, we will gain more insights in the May issue, in which we will view the skills required and what more needs to be done to speed up digitalisation in the cold chain.

Raja Subramanyam is an independent cold chain consultant. He is the designated Chairperson of the 10th edition of Food Chain, on 31 May 2021 in Dubai. He may be contacted at rasubra7@yahoo.com.