written by: John Sell, President & CEO
As President and CEO of MD Logistics, my job is to lead the organization through changes in the industry. To be successful, I must have a great understanding of current trends and events and their impact on the logistics industry or our client’s business. As a result, the leadership team at MD Logistics spends a great deal of time at the end of the year and the beginning of the new year, planning for the year ahead. With the end of the first quarter quickly approaching, I am again reflecting on some of my predictions for 2024.
First and foremost, geopolitical impacts to the supply chain are greater now than the industry has seen for some time. As we look to the global supply chain, these events pose a great threat for those of us who operate within it. As geopolitical events continue to impact on the flow of goods, globally, supply chain professionals and logistics providers must remain nimble in response to disruptions in the global supply chain.
Over the last couple of years, the supply chain industry has experienced a shortage of readily available, compliant warehouses. Shifting consumer preferences in recent years have only exacerbated the lack of warehousing options available. As a result, logistics providers across the country have scrambled to bring additional facilities online to help meet this need. As a result, I predict that 2024 will see a leveling of the demand for general warehousing needs. As we look to the life sciences and pharmaceuticals industry, I think we will continue to see growth and demand for complex cold chain solutions. The sensitive nature of these products creates additional requirements for storage and distribution, making compliant warehousing options more complicated to find and in short supply. This is a problem within the industry that we have identified and are actively working to alleviate in 2024. Continued growth within the life sciences and pharmaceuticals industry is on the horizon for MD Logistics this year as we embark on a sizeable expansion and conversion of an existing facility to help serve our clients in this space. We are actively planning for additional expansion of the MD Logistics warehousing network as we continue to field requests from new and existing clients, alike. 2024 will be an exciting year.
The life sciences and pharmaceuticals industry will continue to see increased complexities in their supply chain as requirements for serialization dictated by the Drug Supply Chain and Security Act (DSCSA) become more mainstream within the industry. This is one area where we are proud to be at the forefront, having already lead multiple clients to a fully compliant, end-to-end serialized supply chain. The complexity of data handling requirements and increased data flow as a result of the DSCSA mandate is another area that I predict will be challenging for logistics providers and clients alike in the coming year. Like many in the space, we too have foreseen this coming and as a result are in the early stages of an update to our Warehouse Management System (WMS) to ensure we can support all of our client’s data handling requirements, moving forward.
From a transportation perspective, we have seen increased requests for stricter security requirements to include compliance with Transported Asset Protection Association (TAPA) standards. The nature of goods in the life sciences and pharmaceuticals industry is that they not only demand strict quality controls to remain safe for consumption, they also demand a great deal of security. As it pertains to security, MD Logistics facilities uphold TAPA FSR standards as it relates to facility security and has procedures in place at each facility to ensure our client’s product is protected. Our in-house transportation group, MD Express, is hard at work to ensure that each of the contracted carriers within our network can adhere to TAPA TSR standards as well. Securing our client’s products is top of mind and of the upmost importance for us.
As we look ahead to the rest of the year, we are excited for the opportunities to come for the industry and remain poised to respond to trends. If you are in the life sciences and pharmaceutical industry and are looking for a 3PL provider, reach out to our team of logistics experts, today!
