Pharmaceutical Manufacturer Reduces Distribution Costs and Cold Chain Risks
Pharmaceutical Manufacturer Reduces Distribution Costs and Cold Chain Risks
Cost-saving warehouse projects improve visibility, cut waste, and deliver over $1 million in savings
❝They are my on-the-ground, get their fingers dirty, go-to team.❞
Simon Sterck
Serax
A global pharmaceutical manufacturer was facing rising operating costs across its warehouse and distribution operations. The company had long relied on a single third-party logistics provider (3PL) to manage outbound distribution—but that relationship was no longer delivering cost improvements or service enhancements.
SPARQ360 was brought in to evaluate warehouse performance, identify cost-saving opportunities, and lead structured implementation across the highest-impact areas of the operation.
The Challenge
Despite a long-standing 3PL relationship, the company was seeing little return in terms of operational efficiency or cost savings. Cold chain shipments continued to create quality risks, and service-level accountability was unclear.
Key challenges included:
- Lack of cost visibility and poor cost performance from the incumbent 3PL
- Quality concerns in cold chain distribution
- No internal framework to initiate or track warehouse cost-saving initiatives
- Limited insight into process-level waste or operational inefficiencies
The manufacturer needed support not just to analyze the problem, but to implement meaningful, measurable improvements.
SPARQ360’s experienced team deploys a boots-on-the-ground approach and mediate operations and customer’s leadership teams allowing us to make unbiased, objective decisions based purely on what is best for our customers. Our team provided hands on guidance to warehouse staff, documented process changes and enabled inter-departmental communication to maximize their 3PL engagement. This was the missing link for this client.
The Strategy
SPARQ360 began with a comprehensive evaluation of the warehouse operation—focusing on goods flow, cold chain handling, and end-to-end distribution cost drivers. The strategy was to launch a set of distinct, targeted savings projects that would deliver fast payback without disrupting regulatory or operational requirements.
Each project moved through a defined structure:
- Identification and analysis of opportunity areas
- Internal approval through a structured Project Approval Form (PAF) process
- Project kickoff and execution with cross-functional alignment
- Implementation of changes in systems, workflows, or carrier agreements
- Monitoring and reporting of results using monthly KPI reviews
Related SPARQ360 service: Supply Chain and Manufacturing Optimization
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The Implementation
Over six months, SPARQ360 led six parallel savings initiatives addressing different parts of the warehouse and cold chain distribution model. Each was executed in collaboration with internal stakeholders and based on real operational data—not industry averages or theoretical benchmarks.
Notable initiatives included:
- Redesigning cold chain workflows to reduce spoilage and handling errors
- Enhancing shipment tracking with GPS temperature monitoring for international lanes
- Optimizing inventory flows and storage configurations to reduce handling time and labor
- Improving vendor accountability with clearer service-level expectations and performance metrics
Monthly KPI reviews kept leadership informed and enabled fast adjustments where needed.
The Results
- Over $1 million in documented savings achieved in the first year
- Improved cold chain quality, with fewer deviations and better compliance
- Real-time shipment visibility introduced through GPS tracking
- Lower distribution costs without changing the 3PL provider
These results were achieved without introducing new systems or additional overhead. Instead, the work focused on extracting more value from existing relationships, assets, and processes—guided by a team with deep operational expertise.
Staying with the current 3PL was the path of least resistance—but not the path to better performance. The 3PL had no built-in incentive to reduce costs, and internal teams lacked the bandwidth to drive changes on their own.
SPARQ360 helped bridge that gap—providing structure, focus, and execution strength. The result wasn’t just savings, but stronger internal ownership of warehouse and distribution performance.
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