What’s on the TIPS 2024 agenda?

The Pharma Logistic Club Office has set itself three areas of reflection for 2024 around which we have built the program:

• The first axis targets pharmaceutical compliance.
  This involves focusing on French, European and international regulations having a significant impact on players in the health product supply chain. We are working for a supply chain that is compatible and complies with current regulations: reminder on the serialization of medicines, positioning of the responsible pharmacist in Europe with the notions of Qualified Person (QP) versus responsible pharmacist, the importance of data integrity with the authorities , etc. This introduction is essential as many players enter the health products supply chain sector, and must take into account qualification requirements to be respected at all levels: warehouses, suppliers, materials, personnel, etc. In this sense, An important point is to base decision-making on a risk analysis.
• The second axis targets the environment and the decarbonization of the Supply Chain of health products, which covers the flows that go from production to patients. Attention is focused on the environmental and energy quality of our logistics buildings, this having an impact on calls for tenders from our principals and on the investments of our groups. These developments are part of the new Breeam certification (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) which qualifies sustainable real estate.
  An additional subject concerns storage temperatures: ambient (+15°+25°C), positive cold (+2°+8°C) and negative cold with the aim of making our infrastructures energy efficient and more virtuous thanks to temperature control systems. This also includes temperature-controlled transits.
• The third subject concerns intercontinental or land, maritime or air transport/transit, with the development of new energies and new types of fuels. Today, for example, there are attempts to use hydrogen on certain types of roads by combining river and road transport.
  Third axis: innovation in the Supply Chain of health products
  A first point concerns artificial intelligence (AI) with a pioneering application in improving order preparation according to logistical constraints - a real aid to daily optimization based on history and volumes to be processed. We will also discuss the progress of common platforms for providing means of transport managed by AI. We will also follow up on the subjects raised in 2023. Regarding logistical constraints, this year we will focus on urban logistics (LU) and urban logistics establishments (ELU), as part of the implementation of the low emission zone (ZFE). As less and less space is available with the scarcity of land, it becomes crucial to densify, which requires the verticality and modularity of infrastructures close to or in city centers, focused on last mile logistics. We will take stock of the various projects in progress, often near a river, aimed at bringing together in one place the different actors who will have to supply and deliver the city in a virtuous way, using different types of innovative transport ( cargo bike…). During our congress, we will also review the news on the pillar themes of TIPS and the Supply Chain of health products: air transit, maritime transit (ocean and river), land transit (road and rail ), Contract Logistic (CL) and the cold chain for temperature-sensitive medicines.

Do you want to highlight a highlight of your conference?

In line with our previous meetings, we organized a premium “Think out of the box” conference during which we will talk about technical and business topics, gaining perspective. This year, we invited the philosopher André Comte-Sponville to discuss the notion of “common good”. The opportunity to discuss the notions of peaceful capitalism, Supply Chain in the life of the city, or even the relativity of time and urgency. The idea being to highlight the new virtues of the supply chain as part of our social and environmental responsibility (CSR) aimed towards the patient, who we will all be at one point or another in our existence.

In what context and what dynamics does this new TIPS 2024 take place?

There are two drivers that specifically drive the activity of the health products Supply Chain: compliance and efficiency. We have underlined this in our reflections, within the PLC, which form the basis of our conference program for this TIPS 2024. Compliance is also a lever for the efficiency and performance of our organizations in a globalized world marked by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA)*.
Among current trends, the challenges of reindustrialization are leading Europe, and France in particular, towards an evolution in modes of production (expansion of production plants, circular economy) and modes of transport. The new production capacities will bring significant additional logistical needs with the need to develop a network of intermodal-multimodal platforms which makes it possible to get the best out of each type of transport, in particular combined rail-road and river-road. This must also be linked to new IT solutions giving pride of place to artificial intelligence, which will play a determining role in the search for efficiency, robustness and sustainability of our Supply Chains.
Our investments will continue while respecting CSR: buildings, renewable energies, etc. The battle in the future will therefore be fought over compliance, decarbonization and innovation with consideration of the associated risks, to guarantee a fluid, efficient and virtuous Supply Chain focused on the patient!

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