Cold Chain Logistics Management Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Cold Chain Managers, Logistics and Distribution Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-LD-192

Before you join: Participants should have practical exposure to logistics, warehousing, transport, quality assurance, procurement, food operations, pharmaceutical distribution, or supply chain management.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Cold-chain failures can destroy product value, interrupt patient treatment, create food-safety exposure, and trigger claims, recalls, or regulatory action. Temperature-sensitive products pass through warehouses, airports, vehicles, cross-docks, customs points, and final delivery locations, often with several parties responsible for handling and records. Managers need control systems that protect product quality while maintaining service, capacity, and cost discipline.

This course examines the design and management of temperature-controlled logistics for food, pharmaceuticals, vaccines, biologics, clinical materials, and other sensitive products. Participants learn to map cold-chain flows, define product-specific storage limits, assess lane risks, select packaging systems, manage cold-storage operations, qualify carriers, and control transport handovers. The programme also covers temperature-monitoring technologies, sensor placement, data integrity, thermal mapping, excursion investigation, CAPA, traceability, audit readiness, and cold-chain performance measures.

Teaching combines short instructor briefings with sector cases, group analysis, operational simulations, and structured application planning. Participants work with shipment records, logger data, warehouse scenarios, carrier scorecards, and excursion reports representative of real cold-chain operations. They leave with reusable templates for lane risk assessment, temperature-control planning, monitoring-data review, excursion investigation, and a 90-day improvement plan applicable to their own operation.

The course is suited to professionals who manage, procure, assure, monitor, or improve cold storage and temperature-controlled distribution. It is relevant to food and beverage supply chains, pharmaceutical and healthcare distribution, humanitarian logistics, laboratory networks, retail distribution, and specialist third-party logistics providers.

What you will be able to do

  • Map cold-chain flows and critical control points using HACCP principles
  • Specify temperature-control requirements for storage, packaging, transport, and handovers
  • Conduct lane risk assessments using product, climate, transit, and custody data
  • Select monitoring technologies and define sensor placement, alarm thresholds, and data rules
  • Interpret logger data, thermal-mapping results, and mean kinetic temperature indicators
  • Investigate temperature excursions using root-cause analysis and CAPA methods
  • Measure cold-chain performance using service, quality, loss, and energy KPIs
  • Produce a 90-day cold-chain improvement plan with owners, milestones, and controls

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Make defensible decisions on packaging, carriers, monitoring, and temperature-control procedures
  • Interpret logger files and thermal-mapping reports with greater confidence
  • Lead structured excursion investigations and corrective-action discussions
  • Build stronger audit evidence for temperature-sensitive distribution activities
  • Prepare a practical improvement plan for a cold-chain lane or facility

For your organisation

  • Fewer temperature excursions, spoilage events, rejected deliveries, and product losses
  • Better control of carrier, warehouse, and packaging-provider performance
  • Stronger traceability, records, and audit readiness for regulated products
  • More targeted spending on monitoring, packaging, storage capacity, and contingency measures
  • Improved service reliability across sensitive-product distribution lanes

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can map a cold-chain system and define the controls required for different product profiles.

  • Map end-to-end product flows, custody transfers, and temperature-control responsibilities
  • Differentiate chilled, frozen, controlled ambient, and ultra-low temperature product profiles
  • Translate product stability data into storage and distribution control limits
  • Identify thermal hazards at receiving, staging, loading, and last-mile delivery
  • Define critical control points using HACCP hazard-analysis principles
  • Assign shipper, carrier, warehouse, and consignee accountabilities through quality agreements

Participants can establish quality-system controls and risk documentation for cold-chain operations.

  • Apply HACCP decision-tree logic to temperature-control hazards and preventive controls
  • ISO 22000 prerequisite programmes relevant to cold storage and transport
  • WHO GDP expectations for pharmaceutical distribution quality systems
  • Quality agreements defining release, escalation, records, and audit access
  • Risk registers scored by severity, occurrence, detectability, and control effectiveness
  • Supplier qualification criteria for carriers, warehouses, pack-out vendors, and laboratories
  • Document control, training records, and change-control approval routes

Participants can select and assess thermal packaging systems for product and lane requirements.

  • Select active, passive, and hybrid packaging against lane risk profiles
  • Packaging system components: insulated shippers, PCM, dry ice, and data loggers
  • Calculate payload duration from qualified pack-out configurations and thermal profiles
  • Summer and winter qualification protocols using worst-case seasonal conditions
  • Interpret thermal-mapping results, acceptance criteria, and requalification triggers
  • Dry-ice handling limits, ventilation requirements, and dangerous-goods documentation
  • Pack-out instructions controlling conditioning, assembly sequence, and closure checks

Participants can manage warehouse controls that protect temperature-sensitive inventory during storage and handling.

  • Design warehouse temperature zones, segregation rules, and product-flow layouts
  • Thermal mapping protocol for empty, loaded, and operational warehouse states
  • Receiving inspection checks for temperature evidence, seal integrity, and damage
  • FIFO and FEFO rules linked to expiry, quarantine, and release status
  • Alarm-response procedures for refrigeration faults, power loss, and door alarms
  • Calibrate sensors under traceable schedules, tolerances, and out-of-tolerance actions
  • Maintain sanitation, pest control, and condensate prevention in cold rooms

Participants can assess transport modes, carrier controls, and handover risks across cold-chain lanes.

  • Compare road, air, ocean, and rail cold-chain operating constraints
  • Route-risk assessments covering transit time, climate, border holds, and handoffs
  • Carrier selection scorecards combining capability, lane performance, and quality evidence
  • Loading plans protecting airflow, pallet stability, and refrigeration capacity
  • Airport handling controls for tarmac exposure, ULD build-up, and handover
  • Contingency routing for delays, vehicle breakdowns, customs holds, and strikes
  • Last-mile delivery windows, proof-of-delivery, and recipient temperature checks

Participants can select monitoring systems and review temperature data for operational and quality decisions.

  • Compare USB loggers, Bluetooth sensors, cellular trackers, and IoT platforms
  • Sensor placement based on payload geometry, airflow patterns, and risk points
  • Set sampling intervals, alarm thresholds, and transmission rules by product profile
  • Data-integrity controls covering timestamps, audit trails, access rights, and backups
  • Review dashboards using excursion duration, MKT, and lane-temperature distributions
  • Electronic records interoperability through APIs, EPCIS events, and shipment identifiers
  • Cybersecurity risks affecting connected sensors, cloud platforms, and mobile applications

Participants can investigate temperature deviations, determine disposition actions, and prevent recurrence.

  • Classify temperature excursions by magnitude, duration, product, and shipment stage
  • Use stability data and MKT cautiously within approved quality procedures
  • Quarantine workflow from alarm notification through disposition and product release
  • Root-cause analysis using 5 Whys, fishbone diagrams, and event timelines
  • CAPA records linking containment, corrective action, preventive action, and effectiveness checks
  • Escalation matrices for quality, operations, customers, insurers, and regulators
  • Claims evidence assembled from logger files, photographs, manifests, and custody records

Participants can maintain traceable, secure, and auditable cold-chain distribution records.

  • Build traceability records from batch release through final consignee receipt
  • Chain-of-custody controls using seals, scans, signatures, and exception codes
  • Food fraud and pharmaceutical theft risks at vulnerable custody points
  • Recall readiness: product location, contact trees, evidence packs, and communications
  • Audit preparation using SOPs, training files, calibration certificates, and deviation records
  • Data retention schedules aligned with product, customer, and regulatory requirements

Participants can plan cold-chain capacity and assess performance, cost, and loss drivers.

  • Forecast refrigerated capacity using demand profiles, seasonality, and service-level targets
  • Calculate total landed cold-chain cost across packaging, storage, transport, and losses
  • Lane segmentation by product sensitivity, volume, volatility, and risk exposure
  • Inventory placement balancing shelf life, service coverage, and cold-storage capacity
  • KPIs for OTIF, excursion rate, spoilage, energy use, and claims
  • Supplier performance reviews supported by scorecards, audits, and corrective-action trends
  • Energy-management options: refrigerant choice, door discipline, insulation, and load consolidation

Participants can prepare a practical improvement plan for a selected cold-chain operation or lane.

  • Diagnose a selected lane using flow mapping, risk scoring, and data evidence
  • Prioritise improvements through impact-effort matrices, owners, milestones, and resources
  • Draft a temperature-control plan covering controls, monitoring, escalation, and records
  • Define implementation KPIs, baseline measures, review cadence, and acceptance criteria
  • Stakeholder communication plan for quality, operations, procurement, and commercial teams
  • Change-management actions addressing procedures, training, supplier alignment, and governance
  • Present a 90-day cold-chain improvement plan for workplace application

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Cold-chain lane risk assessment template
  2. Temperature-control plan template
  3. Carrier and warehouse qualification scorecard
  4. Temperature-monitoring and sensor-placement checklist
  5. Excursion investigation and CAPA record
  6. 90-day cold-chain improvement plan

Who should attend

  • Cold Chain Managers — need to control product quality across storage and transport networks
  • Logistics and Distribution Managers — need to reduce temperature excursions and service failures
  • Quality Assurance Managers — need defensible controls, records, investigations, and CAPA
  • Warehouse Managers — need reliable cold-storage processes, mapping, alarms, and stock controls
  • Procurement and Category Managers — need to qualify carriers, packaging suppliers, and cold-storage providers
  • Pharmaceutical, Food and Healthcare Supply Chain Professionals — need product-specific distribution controls

Skills and tools covered

Cold-chain risk assessmentTemperature monitoringExcursion investigationThermal packaging selectionQuality systems managementCold-chain performance measurement

Tools and standards

HACCP, ISO 22000, WHO Good Distribution Practices, GS1 EPCIS

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short technical briefings followed by facilitated case work, group exercises, operational simulations, and application planning. Participants assess cold-chain scenarios involving food, pharmaceuticals, healthcare products, and specialist logistics services. They review lane data, shipment records, temperature traces, packaging options, warehouse controls, carrier evidence, and excursion reports. Instructor feedback links each method to realistic operating decisions, including product release, escalation, supplier management, claims evidence, and improvement priorities.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical exposure to logistics, warehousing, transport, quality assurance, procurement, food operations, pharmaceutical distribution, or supply chain management. They should understand basic shipment flows, inventory terms, supplier relationships, and operational performance measures. Experience with temperature-sensitive products is useful but not essential. The course does not require engineering qualifications, prior knowledge of refrigeration design, specialist data-analysis software, or previous HACCP certification. Participants benefit most when they can relate the material to a current product, lane, warehouse, carrier, or distribution challenge.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should understand basic logistics, warehousing, transport, procurement, quality, or supply chain processes. Prior cold-chain experience is useful but not required, and no refrigeration engineering qualification is needed.

Bring a laptop if possible, together with non-confidential examples of a product profile, shipment lane, warehouse issue, carrier problem, or monitoring report. Course materials and templates are provided.

It suits managers and specialists responsible for temperature-sensitive food, pharmaceuticals, healthcare products, laboratory materials, vaccines, or specialist logistics services. It is also relevant to procurement and quality teams managing external carriers and storage providers.

General logistics courses focus on flow, cost, inventory, and service. This course concentrates on product stability, temperature controls, thermal packaging, monitoring data, excursion management, quality records, and regulated distribution requirements.

Participants can use the templates to assess a lane, review carrier controls, improve warehouse alarm procedures, investigate excursions, or prepare for an audit. The final module converts course methods into a 90-day improvement plan.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. The five days move from product requirements and quality controls through storage, transport, monitoring, excursions, performance management, and workplace application.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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