Solid User Requirements Is First Step in Supplier Selection

Did you know there are at least 30 different suppliers of thermal packaging and insulated shippers available globally? Those are just the ones that I personally have worked with and have a relationship with. While this number is shrinking over the past couple years due to mergers and acquisitions, there also always seems to be the next big, “disruptive technology” from a new supplier. That is just too many for any one company to sift through to find the best supplier to meet your needs.

With over 30 different suppliers of all offering a wide range of cold chain solutions how do you choose? Which is the best shipper, which is the best supplier for you? You could just wait years for mergers and acquisitions to dwindle the number of suppliers down or you could develop objective methods and tools for weeding through the piles of foam.

The first step is to develop a solid set of user requirements, and then rank those user requirements on importance to you. Once you have your user requirements you can now evaluate suppliers in the following 3 areas:

• Engineering Requirements o Packaging Qualification methods and process o Thermal Profile used • Cost • Supply base

By looking at these three areas objectively you can remove the emotion of supplier and insulated shipper selection.

Brian Wallin Principal Modality Solutions LLC