Reinventing cold chain logistics for Pfizer

The vaccine needed to be stored between minus 112F and minus 94F to retain its efficacy, and with only a 5-day shelf-life following transfer from ultracold storage units, there was no room for error in logistics and delivery.

"This is the largest mass vaccination campaign and the most rapid one in human history. The first hurdle standing between these life-saving vaccines and the general public are a myriad of supply chain complexities – from manufacturing to transportation to storage". Andrew Heinrich, Yale School of Public Health.

Controlant’s real-time temperature monitor and data logger offered the solution they needed; however, two key components for the temperature data logger proved costly and complex to manufacture at scale. 

Controlant needed a partner to help value engineer their designs and accelerate production to meet global demand:

• Components needed value engineering

• Manufacturing process was manual

• Manufacturing costs were excessive

• Labour shortage was impacting delivery

ESCATEC were bought in to value engineer costly and inefficient product designs. The NPI team at ESCATEC applied DfM (Design for Manufacturing), to isolate multiple product enhancements and improve the effectiveness of the data loggers.

Modifications were shared with the client and designs were prepared for the next stage. The entire turnaround time from receiving the initial designs to making recommended changes took less than two weeks.

ESCATEC were able to lever decades of expertise to scale up production in record time:

• Setting up new, additional production lines

• Intensive training programme for the newly recruited staff

• Preparing multiple new workstations

• Preparing jigs and fixtures

• Identifying, implementing and validating process

• Full testing 

• Overseeing quality improvements

• Ensuring regulatory and quality standards are met

ESCATEC also invested in cutting-edge machinery to automate the soldering, gluing, and screwing processes for the product to scale up production and accelerate delivery time:

• The Inertec soldering machine reduced cycle time by 1.44 minutes per board, requiring half the number of operators compared to manual soldering.

• The labor-intensive gluing process is now robotic, reducing total cycle time by 1.2 minutes per board, while needing 22 fewer production operators.

• The auto screwing capability has also reduced cycle time by 0.85 minutes per board, replacing the previous manual screwing process that required ten operators per shift.

The start of mass production was hugely challenging. Further modifications of the designs were required, some processes had to be revamped while machinery and equipment had to be further calibrated.