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Healthcare Logistics in Canada: What You Need to Know About GMP Compliance

Healthcare logistics in Canada plays a crucial role in ensuring the safe and efficient distribution of pharmaceutical products, medical devices, and other healthcare-related items.

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3PL Fulfillment for Natural Health Products (NHPs) and Nutraceuticals in Canada – Overview

The popularity of natural health products and nutraceuticals has grown exponentially in the past few years as consumers focus on their health and wellness. The nutraceutical market itself in Canada is expected to grow by 5.62% in the upcoming five years.

Natural health products (NHPs) are naturally occurring substances that are used to restore or maintain good health, such as:

  • Protein powders
  • Supplements
  • Vitamins and minerals
  • Herbal remedies
  • Homeopathic medicines
  • Probiotics

Nutraceuticals is a term also often used in the health and wellness industry. It is a broad term for substances or food that can provide medical or health benefits; many of which fall under the category of NHPs.

Natural health products and nutraceuticals

Natural health products have many special requirements to be able to be sold in Canada. They are regulated by Health Canada, a federal department, so that Canadians can have confidence that the products they use are safe, effective and of high quality. Due to these regulations, as well as the unique intricacies of the Canadian health and wellness market, selling natural health products and nutraceuticals in Canada can prove challenging.

That’s why it’s important for brands to partner with an experienced 3PL who can provide end-to-end Health Canada compliant fulfillment operations.  Below is a list of ways a 3PL partner can support the fulfillment of your natural health products and nutraceuticals in Canada:

1. Health Canada Licensed and GMP Facilities:

NHPs are sensitive products that often have special storage and handling requirements. For example, some vitamins and supplements need temperature-controlled warehouses, or to be stored in clean, dry spaces. Not having your goods protected from environmental factors can lead to issues with the product’s medicinal properties or shelf life, which can then impact your sales or the health of your customers.

To ensure the safety and efficacy of these products all Canadian importers, packagers, and labelers of NHPs must have site licenses. To have a license, these sites must:

  • Maintain proper distribution records
  • Have proper procedures for product recalls
  • Have procedures for the handling, storage, and delivery of their products
  • Demonstrate that they meet good manufacturing practice (GMP) requirements.

SCI’s extensive supply chain network includes Health Canada licensed and GMP certified facilities. This includes temperature-controlled facilities with humidity monitoring, and specialized handling procedures to ensure products are never crushed, stacked too high, etc. Additional regulations and quality assurance standards will be covered in the sections below.

2. Regulatory Compliance & Robust Quality Assurance Systems:

Ensuring the quality of NHPs falls to the license holders, who should employ Quality Assurance and Quality Control personnel to help fulfill requirements set out by the Natural Health Products Regulations.

Natural Health Products fulfillment

SCI provides in-house Quality Assurance. We also have relationships with Regulatory Compliance companies who are well-versed in Health Canada policies, processes, and language to help your company meet Health Canada requirements. Additionally, SCI has robust quality management systems and inbound inspections, as well as segregated returns and quarantine areas to guarantee your operations are fully compliant in Canada.

3. In-house kitting, packaging, and labeling of Natural Health Products:

Labels are an important tool to assist users in making informed health choices when selecting and using NHPs. Supplement labels in Canada must contain specific information, including:

  • Product name
  • Recommended dosage
  • A list of ingredients
  • The Natural Product Number (NPN)

The label must also include any warnings or precautions, as well as any potential side effects. The label should be clear and easy to read, with all information presented in both English and French.

SCI provides in-house kitting and holds NHP, and Drug Packaging and Labelling Licenses. We are also licensed for repacking, relabeling, and detailed inspections. For US brands, we can re-label or re-package your US products to make them sellable in Canada. This includes rework projects where ink-ed items are reprinted directly onto and re-packaged into new boxes. This is commonly done to meet bilingual packaging language requirements in Canada.

SCI’s in-house licensed labeling and packaging activities help streamline operations, cutting out additional handling and transportation costs, and reducing the risk of product loss or errors.

4. Tracking and Monitoring of Natural Health Products:

Natural Health Product fulfillment partners must have sophisticated lot tracking to properly manage the NHP lifecycle. Lot tracking is a technology that is implemented to trace ingredients and products back to a manufacturer. It is a vital component of the NHP supply chain in case there is a need to remove expired ingredients or if there is a product recall.  It is also important to have real-time visibility into your shipments, so you can track their progress and ensure that they arrive on time.

Tracking and Monitoring Natural Health Products

SCI’s warehouse management system (WMS) meets Health Canada requirements including recall reporting and retention sampling. Tracking lots and expiration dates help SCI deliver high-quality goods to consumers with every order.  You can also see dynamic, up-to-date reports of your business metrics with SCI’s easy to use, intuitive business intelligence reporting, including on-hand inventory, order status, percentage of fulfilled orders, and shipment tracking.

Your Trusted Health and Wellness 3PL Partner:

Whether you’re selling vitamins, supplements, herbal teas, greens powders, or any other health related product, it’s important to partner with a 3PL that has extensive experience in the health and wellness industry.  By partnering with a trusted and reliable 3PL provider like SCI, your natural health product or nutraceutical brand can expect seamless order processing, safe handling, efficient inventory management, and timely delivery to customers. Furthermore, with our stringent quality assurance processes you can be assured your products meet the standards and regulations needed to be sold in Canada and to maintain the trust of your loyal customers. To learn more and request a consultation with one of SCI’s health, beauty, and wellness experts, click here. 

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6 Distribution Challenges Facing Health and Beauty Supply Chain Leaders

From apparel to toys to the latest gadgets, leading brands trust SCI’s experts to build and deliver an end-to-end omni-channel retail solution.

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Top Six Supply Chain Challenges Solved

In an era defined by uncertainty, it can be harder than ever for supply chain teams to operate efficiently, let alone capture competitive advantages. In addition to facing down changing regulations, trade disputes, climate change and labour unrest, leaders need to take a more holistic, strategic view of the supply chain. This means supply chain strategies must closely align with the overarching goals of an organization, as well as with the more specific priorities of the procurement, sales, marketing, manufacturing, customer service, and product management teams.

This e-book examines six key challenges facing supply chain leaders today and provides ways an expert 3PL partner can help organizations approach these challenges with end-to-end solutions to become more strategic and resilient. The six challenges covered are:

  1. Empowered consumers
  2. Market and social volatility
  3. Talent shortages
  4. Growing complexity
  5. The need for analytics
  6. The need for digital maturity

Download the e-book now to learn more about each challenge to assist in your planning.

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Webinar: Tips on Developing a Resilient North American E-Commerce Strategy

COVID-19 has forced millions of consumers to shop online and consequently created and reinforced new buying behaviors.  In both Canada and the USA there has been a significant increase in online commerce since the beginning of the pandemic.

As a result, brands are focusing on their online presence creating direct-to-consumer (DTC) strategies, further transforming the e-commerce landscape. In this evolving space, brands are taking advantage of the opportunity to increase their international presence, while still trying to meet customer service levels and navigate cross-border tariffs and taxes.

In this informative webinar, a panel of e-commerce experts from SCI, Canada Post, Saysh, and 6 River Systems share current customer buying habits, how brands are managing their cross-border logistics, and where retailers play a role in the new DTC market. The speakers include:

Mamta Dogra – Director, Parcels & E-commerce Enterprise Marketing, Canada Post

Dwayne Johnson – Sr Director, Business Development, Omni-Channel Retail, SCI

Dave Mack – Vice President of Omni-Channel Retail & Marketing, SCI

Austin Cooper – Head of Supply Chain, Saysh

Callie Moriarty – Solutions Executive, 6 River Systems

Salosan Soundhararajah – Senior Manager, Product Development, SCI 

Leveraging data on the latest trends, as well as real-world scenarios, our panel covers a variety of topics including:

  • What direct to consumer growth opportunities are there in North America?
  • What can businesses to do enhance their North American e-commerce strategy?
  • What does the Canadian cross-border shopper look like and who are they buying from?
  • What challenges are businesses facing with their direct-to-consumer strategies?
  • What can businesses to do create a more resilient and adaptable e-commerce strategy?
  • What is Section 321 and how can DTC use it to create a more competitive supply chain?
  • How will the relationship between brands, retailers, and consumers change moving forward?

Click the video link to watch the full webinar with tips on developing a resilient North American e-commerce strategy.

 

 

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Self Service Kiosks Grow in Popularity Across Canada with No Signs of Slowing Down

SCI and Signifi Proprietary Research: Half of Canadian Organizations Have Increased Investment in Kiosk Technology Since 2019

TORONTO, October 7, 2021 – New proprietary research from SCI Group Inc. (SCI) and Signifi Solutions Inc. (Signifi) reveals that investment in self-service technologies is exploding as Canadian businesses seek safe distancing, touchless transactions and a simple, intuitive user experience for employees and customers during the pandemic. Half of respondents say their organization actually increased investment in kiosk technology prior to the pandemic, with three-in-ten saying their investment level has increased by more than 15 per cent since 2019.

As part of this research, SCI and Signifi commissioned a survey with Angus Reid to explore actual and planned investments in kiosk technology among Canadian organizations, in several sectors, to identify key trends. It uncovered three significant insights: 1) the pandemic propelled short-term kiosk investment; 2) a focus on digital transformation will continue to drive long-term investment; 3) user satisfaction is the primary motivator for investing in kiosks, which include self-checkout terminals, interactive maps, vending machines and employee check-in devices.

Short-term Kiosk Investment Driven by the Pandemic

The pandemic has been a clear impetus behind investments in self-service technology. Among those who say their investment has increased in the past 12 months, 61% identified the COVID-19 pandemic as a significant or moderate factor in their decision. For the healthcare sector, the primary application of kiosk technologies was for check-in purposes to help improve customer wait times.

Changes in Self Service Kiosk Spending

“The pandemic drove more people to use kiosks, which increased their comfort level with the technology and is leading to even better user-centric design for the next generation of devices,” said Peter Collier, Vice President, Technology, SCI Group. “We expect that increasing user comfort with kiosks and ongoing design improvements by kiosk manufacturers will continue to drive adoption.”

Digital Transformation Driving Long-Term Investment

While the pandemic played a key role in increased interest and investment in the self-service space, there are no signs of this growth slowing down. Nearly half of Canadian businesses are already deploying self-service technologies, and another third plan to deploy kiosks or some form of self-service technology in the next 12 months.

Canadian businesses are including kiosk technology as part of their digital transformation strategies, with 77% of organizations stating kiosk technology to be important to their business in the next five years.

“There’s a new appetite for automation and kiosk technologies, part of which may be attributed to the shift in user habits that has stemmed from the pandemic,” says Jamie McDowell, Vice President of Marketing at Signifi Solutions. “More and more Canadian consumers and employees seem to appreciate the simplicity and interactivity provided by kiosk technologies. Organizations are seeing this shift and including kiosk technology in their digital transformation plans.”

User Experience Fueling Kiosk Investment

Interestingly, the key business drivers for investing in kiosks are all about people, at least in the short term. According to the research, the primary motivator for businesses when investing in self-service technologies is customer and employee satisfaction, with 63 per cent of businesses identifying this as a top driver. This was particularly noted in the retail industry, where 90% of respondents said one of the main benefits they’re seeking from kiosks/self-technology is better customer flow.

Expected Self Service Kiosk Benefits

 

“This research shows that organizations are looking for more than efficiency; they want to reduce customer wait times and improve the flow of people through stores and workplaces. Many are also looking to expand beyond transactional experiences to make kiosks part of an omnichannel infrastructure,” Collier says. “This also marks an important step forward for self-service technologies underscoring the shift away from thinking of kiosks as simply a cost and efficiency play – though both remain important drivers for buyers.”

To learn more about the adoption of kiosk technology in Canada, changes in spending, drivers and key outcomes of investment, The 2021 Canadian Kiosk Market Report is available here: https://www.sci.ca/resources/2021-canadian-kiosk-market-report/

Research Methodology

This research was conducted on the online Angus Reid Forum among 102 business decision-makers for purchasing kiosks/self-service technology, including those whose company/organization or clients have already invested in such technology and those with plans to invest in the next 12 months. The sample includes professionals in the following industries: manufacturing, retail, transportation, healthcare, management consulting, property management and public sector fields.

For comparison purposes only, a sample of this size would yield a margin of error of +/-9.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The research was conducted in English and French between May 27 and May 31, 2021.

About SCI Group

SCI is one of Canada’s leading providers of strategic supply chain solutions that go beyond traditional logistics services. With decades of experience in the technology industry, our experts can help build an end-to-end supply chain solution for your self-service technologies. From ATM installations to POS terminal repairs, we help leading Canadian brands delight customers and stay agile.

Having reliable technology is key to customer experience and employee productivity. Our certified technicians will help you maximize uptime with 24/7 support and repair services. Furthermore, our coast-to-coast warehousing, transportation and parts locations ensures you remain responsive to your business needs no matter the time of day.

Trust our experts to support your kiosk needs with full project management in logistics, compliance, security, maintenance, installation and parts management. Connect with our experienced team to plan for today’s needs and tomorrow’s opportunities. As your trusted supply chain partner, we’ll make you even better.

About Signifi Solutions Inc.

Signifi Solutions is a leader in delivering smart vending, self-serve kiosks, and automated retail solutions globally. Founded in 2005, Signifi designs, engineers, and develops robotic based dispensing kiosks, smart lockers and loss prevention hardware customized for any application. We are steeped in continuous innovation and marketplace collaboration to bring you the most innovative and technologically advanced smart vending hardware and software available.

Signifi’s VISION platform management tool and robust API library give our clients more time to focus on what matters most. VISION manages every aspect of our kiosks and lockers through an intuitive web interface.  Our customers can change prices, user rights, schedule content updates and even remotely access kiosks to support local staff. VISION uses advanced AI techniques and machine learning technology to monitor every aspect of traffic and user input. The powerful analytics tools help optimize operations, merchandising, and forecast sales.

Media Contact:

Hayley Suchanek

Kaiser & Partners

Hayley.Suchanek@kaiserpartners.com

289-681-2477

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