Upgrading the Quality of Cold Storage Monitoring

A leading company that provides specialized products to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, needed a solution to help them improve their process of maintaining product quality and compliance within their cold storage units.

The Situation

Prior to seeking out a new monitoring system, the company was relying on a system of glass bottle sensors that necessitated visual monitoring across numerous refrigerators and freezers, representing more than 30 cold storage units altogether.

This system required a significant time investment from staff devoted to regular checking of monitoring points. It also meant that, should a temperature excursion occur during off hours, there would be a significant lag time before staff could be notified. An upgrade to the system would be necessary to remain compliant with the ISO 9001 standard.

The Solution

The company turned to DicksonOne, which offered them a system that would continuously monitor sensors in all necessary areas and centrally track all cold storage temperatures via a single user-friendly, remotely accessible interface.

The DicksonOne system also provided the company with customizable excursion alerts that would be sent anytime a temperature fell out of range, alleviating concerns about missed alarms during off hours and increasing the speed with which corrective action could be taken. Also, automated tracking and reports meant that less reliance on the laborious process of repeated manual temperature checks.

The Results

• The company has steadily maintained compliance since installation of the DicksonOne System
• DicksonOne has quickly identified and alerted personnel to two temperature excursions in time for personnel to avoid asset loss
• The QA Manager receives regular automated monthly reports with a summary of temperature data for easy tracking and reviewing
• DicksonOne has allowed the company to scale up their continuous monitoring operation, covering their R&D, order fulfillment, and manufacturing, as well as expansion to additional cold storage unit