If you stand on a vaccine filling line on a Monday morning in Pune or Hyderabad, you feel the week before you see it. QC has cleared the first lots, labels and cartons are queued, and the logistics plan is already stitched to the docs. By Friday, those pallets become bookings, and by Sunday they’re in the air. This is how India keeps vaccine promises—every week, for most of the world.
A week in the life of a dose
Lots are staged over the weekend. On Monday, filling and inspection start against a fixed QA cadence. Midweek is for stability checks, batch record closures, and packaging. By Friday, clearance hits the dock: cartons, manifests, and a final chain-of-custody check. Saturday/Sunday are for linehaul to airports and customs windows. The rhythm matters as much as capacity.
Scale with rhythm: 3.8B doses/year across 170+ countries is a promise kept one predictable week at a time.
Capacity, cadence, and QA you can trust
- Staggered shift plans avoid single-point slowdowns
- Electronic batch records cut batch release time
- Risk-based sampling speeds low-variance lots
- Exception libraries reduce repeat hiccups
| Metric | Top quartile | Median | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| First-pass QA acceptance | 98–99% | 96–97% | Fewer reworks, steadier flow |
| Batch release lead time | 3–5 days | 6–8 days | Docs predictability = faster departures |
| Cold-chain stability | 99.8% | 99.5% | Less spoilage, fewer disputes |
| On-time delivery (OTIF) | 95–97% | 92–94% | Confidence for immunization drives |
Choosing lanes, avoiding surprises
Lane selection blends demand windows, customs frictions, and cold-chain reliability. EU lanes are fast and clean on paperwork, US lanes are thorough with compliance, APAC and Middle East lanes often need contingency buffers and clear escalation paths.
Export Performance by Region
Buffers aren’t waste; they’re risk insurance. One extra storage day near an airport, one alternate carrier ready if temp logs spike—the small decisions keep national programs on schedule.
The cold chain is the story
- Telemetry beats assumptions—alerts over anecdotes
- Training handlers matters more than buying more data loggers
- Packaging integrity saves more doses than heroic recoveries
- Short dwell times at borders are worth paying for
Every lane has a character. Some borders love to open boxes, some insist on printouts. The best teams plan for the character of the lane, not the ideal in the SOP.
Bottlenecks and how teams beat them
- Last-minute label changes → lock label data early; change windows only mid-week
- Docs mismatch at customs → structured data + pre-clear checks
- Power blips during hold → validated backup packs and “no-surprise” drills
- Carrier switches → pre-approved alternates with tested EDI
What buyers really ask
| Question | Answer (plain) |
|---|---|
| How steady is your weekly cadence? | We release lots twice a week; docks run Thu–Sat; swings are <±8% most weeks. |
| What happens if a logger shows an excursion? | We isolate, investigate, and ship the protected buffer. No dose leaves without a clean trail. |
| Can you pivot lanes on short notice? | Yes. We hold flex slots and have pre-cleared alternates for priority programs. |
Looking ahead (12–24 months)
Expect steadier cadence, tighter variance, and more buyer transparency. Digital batch records will become universal. Border delays will shrink where pre-clear APIs go live. The work doesn’t get easier—it gets more predictable.