Florida-based Carrier is working with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to transform how food, medicine, vaccines and other perishable goods are moved and monitored globally

Carrier’s Lynx digital platform aims to provide more connectivity, visibility and intelligence across the cold chain to improve safe transport of temperature-controlled items.

Carrier, a provider of healthy, safe and sustainable building and cold chain products, announced the multi-year agreement to co-develop its Lynx digital platform. This suite of tools will provide Carrier customers around the world with enhanced visibility, increased connectivity and actionable intelligence across their cold chain operations to improve outcomes for temperature-sensitive cargo, including food, medicine and vaccines.

The collaboration builds on Carrier’s selection of AWS as its preferred cloud services provider in February 2020.

The Lynx platform will combine AWS’s IoT, analytics and machine-learning services with Carrier’s refrigeration and monitoring, extending Carrier’s digital offerings for managing the temperature-controlled transport and storage of perishables. Users of the Lynx platform should benefit from end-to-end tracking, real-time alerts, automated processes and predictive analytics to help them deliver temperature-controlled cargo more efficiently, in turn decreasing the cost of cold chain operations by optimising resource use and reducing cargo loss and spoilage.

“Carrier is committed to delivering a healthier, safer, and more sustainable cold chain,” said David Appel, president of Carrier Refrigeration. “Through this collaboration with AWS, we are developing a uniquely powerful ecosystem to give our customers greater flexibility, visibility and intelligence across the cold chain. The Lynx platform will help our customers make faster, data-driven decisions to improve the effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of their supply chains. This will enhance connectivity across the cold chain, decreasing delays for cargo that is critical to global health and well-being, while reducing cargo damage, loss and unanticipated costs.”

Leveraging AWS IoT services to collect, integrate, organise and analyse data from Carrier’s large installed base of refrigeration equipment and monitoring products, along with sources such as traffic and weather reports, the Lynx platform will provide a comprehensive view of cargo location, temperature conditions and external events that could impact cold chain operations.

This information will feed into a data lake built on Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) where Carrier can use AWS machine-learning services to identify potential issues that could impact cargo, as well as run analytics to develop recommendations for improving outcomes.

For example, by analysing historic and real-time performance data from Carrier’s cloud-connected equipment, the Lynx platform could suggest proactive maintenance to increase a piece of equipment’s availability.

Looking ahead, Carrier and AWS plan to introduce a capability for the Lynx platform to provide recommendations related to cargo routing and improved fleet use, adding greater resilience into the cold chain that will help Carrier’s customers manage costs, schedules and resources.

“Carrier and AWS are tackling the complexity and fragmentation of the cold chain to give supply chain customers the transparency, flexibility and insights they require to reduce risk and deliver food, medicine and vaccines when and where they’re needed,” said Sarah Cooper, general manager for IoT at AWS. “This project, which combines Carrier’s cold chain expertise with AWS’s digital experience and unparalleled portfolio of services, highlights how entire industries stand to benefit from digital transformation through increased efficiency, reduced costs and greater dependability.”