How MODsense Works

MODsense was designed to handle the challenges of last-stage logistics: it can monitor a high volume of shipments and is easily integrated into existing ERP, warehousing, and track-and-trace solutions to provide immediate and automated validation of pre-programmed quality requirements. The temperature data collected is uniquely authenticated, immutable on the blockchain, managed securely, and easily accessible. It is a powerful but affordable way to extract valuable supply chain data for business process automation and optimization.

Who it Helps:

MODsense can support a wide range of industry needs. Its first application focuses on the last-stage distribution of medicinal products, offering an easy to integrate and scalable monitoring solution for pharmaceutical distribution. Within healthcare, MODsense can be used for monitoring medical supplies, vaccines, clinical trials, and medical or perishable foods. 

How it helps: 

MODsense provides several benefits to its users.

• It minimizes handling time per shipment for involved stakeholders, from sender to receiver.
• It is an effective and efficient shipment deviation management tool for quality managers, providing reliable, secure, and immediate access to data. It also reduces efforts to demonstrate GDP compliance in audits.
• It simplifies setup and integration efforts through a step-wise process compatible with existing logistics processes and IT systems.

How MODsense Works in Detail

Monitoring a shipment with MODsense happens in five general steps: setting the shipment-specific requirements, pairing the logger with the shipment, collecting data en route, reading out the logger to retrieve the data, and working with the data after the shipment has been received. Depending on the step, users interact with the MODsense Dashboard, Commissioning App, and Data Logger.

Setup:

Using the Dashboard, shipment-specific quality requirements such as temperature alarms and logger parameters can be set in advance by a quality manager. Setting up shipment profiles increases efficiency down the line: it enables the automated pairing of loggers with a shipment, without any manual programming of the logger.

Setup occurs on the Shipment Profile screen. Here, a qualified person overseeing temperature monitoring can set all parameters to create a shipment profile. With specific settings for alarm criteria, measurement characteristics, and notification recipients, each type of shipment that is sent can be monitored to the specific quality standards of their organization.

Pairing

Once a shipment profile has been set by the quality team it is very easy for the operations team to pack and send shipments containing product. The Dashboard will generate a barcode for each Shipment Profile that has been created during setup. Before packing the parcel, a member of the operations team can simply scan this barcode and the shipment ID label. MODsense data loggers can then be activated using NFC pairing stations with a single tap or by scanning the QR code on the logger using a mobile application or SDK. The logger is now recording temperature data and can be packed with the product.

When the logger is activated a smart contract is created on the blockchain. This smart contract contains the temperature range established by the shipment profile to measure the collected data against the quality requirements. It also contains the private key of the logger to prevent another source of data from validating the smart contract. 

Data Collection En Route

While in transit, the MODsense data logger measures the temperatures that the shipment is subject to. Stored locally, this valuable data is secure from physical manipulation because the sensor casing is tamper-evident. It is also secure from data manipulation, because if the private key of the logger is compromised then the smart contract cannot be fulfilled.

Readout

When the package is received, the shipment ID on the parcel can be scanned by the end user or a third-party logistics provider. The sensor uses BLE to connect via the scanning device to a secure back-end, where the data is stored and then verified in the blockchain.

The readout process can be completed with as little as one scan to the shipment ID. It provides secure delivery because it does not require the logistics provider to open the parcel or even know that they are performing a readout. The commissioning app can be integrated into a 3PL provider’s track-and-trace application by mobile SDK for simple and seamless interaction.

Analysis

After a shipment has been received, data is immediately and globally available and visible in the Dashboard.

The dashboard screen provides a clear overview of the shipment status after it has been delivered. In combination with immediate SMS/email notifications, members of a quality team understand immediately where action needs to be taken. Whether it is temperature excursions that need approval or significant shipment delays, the dashboard makes it easy for a user to detect deviations and resolve them.

Shipments that have been received successfully with no temperature deviations, will not appear in the dashboard. However, all shipments can be viewed chronologically in the shipments list. From the shipment list, by clicking on any shipment ID, a detailed shipment overview can be accessed. The shipment detail page shows shipment information, alarm criteria, measurement results, and analytics. The overview page also includes a change and comments log that tracks approvals, actions items and internal messages, so that entire teams can manage shipments. Finally, the Dashboard also allows reports to be generated to fulfill mandatory record keeping and demonstrating compliancy with regulations in the case of an audit. A user can select the shipments and corresponding information that they would like to include in the report to customize output depending on needs.

MODsense is a temperature monitoring solution that simplifies the process of regulatory reporting. Its trusted data can be used in the case of an audit to validate compliance. However, this data can also be used for internal quality measures and increasing supply chain intelligence, so that logistics processes can be continually optimized and automated.

After several rounds of shipments have been sent, the first and last steps of the process outlined above — setup and analysis — will inevitably merge. Quality teams will be able to take data from previous shipments and better understand bottlenecks, risks, and sources for deviation. They can immediately adjust parameters for upcoming shipments to ensure quality is being continuously improved without any additional burden being placed on the operational team.