Berlinger pioneers smarter medication shipments with IoT

• Enhanced safety: SmartMonitor ensures the integrity of pharmaceuticals, reducing spoilage risk and ensuring effective patient treatments.
• Sustainability: The devices are designed for repair, refurbishment, and recycling, reducing environmental impact significantly.
• Operational efficiency: Real-time data and detailed insights from SmartMonitor improve decision-making and logistics management.

The challenge

Berlinger is a global leader in cold chain management solutions. Its solutions and processes ensure that critical pharmaceutical products are kept within the specified temperature ranges – from production through the supply chain to the end consumer.

Pharmaceutical logistics is a rapidly changing and highly demanding field. The advent of novel pharmaceutical products, like mRNA vaccines and cell and gene therapies, brings additional stringent requirements around temperature control to prevent product spoilage. Pharma customers increasingly expect comprehensive ‘monitoring-as-a-service' solutions that ensure the safe delivery of these sensitive products. And growing sustainability requirements demand a new approach that minimises environmental impact.

To proactively meet these evolving needs, Berlinger wanted to pioneer a smarter, more sustainable way to monitor and ensure the safe and timely delivery of critical medications. The new solution needed to:

• Enhance patient safety
• Ensure product efficacy, with real-time monitoring and measurement
• Reduce environmental impact and waste by using modular, reusable devices
• Integrate seamlessly with Berlinger’s existing IoT platform

The solution

To realise this vision, Berlinger partnered with Zühlke to develop SmartMonitor, IoT-enabled device platform designed to meet these challenges sustainably. Our integrated teams began by gaining reliable market insights through rapid prototyping and customer feedback. This was critical for ensure alignment with market needs and customer expectations from the outset.

The collaboration was multidisciplinary, combining expertise in cybersecurity, electronics, plastics, requirements engineering, embedded software, and UX design. The product management, R&D, and cloud development teams worked together closely to ensure the new devices integrated seamlessly into Berlinger’s IoT platform, SmartSystem.

Ensuring a sustainable design was key. The SmartMonitor devices were engineered for repair, refurbishment, and recycling, significantly reducing their environmental impact. They feature radical low-power designs and are constructed from reusable materials, aligning with Berlinger’s commitment to sustainability.

Together, the SmartMonitor devices and supporting IoT infrastructure deliver a real-time, end-to-end condition monitoring system for critical medication. Connected to Berlinger’s cloud solution SmartView, these devices provide reliable and sustainable monitoring capabilities, enabling Berlinger to transition towards a future-ready monitoring-as-a-service business model.

Impacts and benefits for Berlinger and their customers

The SmartMonitor system profoundly impacts both Berlinger and its customers. For Berlinger, the partnership facilitates its transformation into a sustainability and innovation leader within the pharma logistics space. The new platform allows Berlinger to offer more comprehensive services, addressing real-time monitoring and sustainability needs.

Customers benefit from reliable real-time monitoring that ensures the safety and efficacy of pharmaceutical products, reducing spoilage risk and ensuring effective treatments. The modular design allows easy upgrades and maintenance, reducing long-term costs and environmental impact.

Integration with SmartView provides detailed insights and data analytics, enhancing decision-making and logistics management. This transparency helps customers meet regulatory requirements and improve operational efficiency. The sustainability aspects of SmartMonitor devices enable customers to achieve their sustainability goals while ensuring product safety and efficacy, adding significant value to Berlinger's offerings.