Consider a temperature-sensitive biologic arriving on an international flight into Boston. After landing, cargo is offloaded and staged for customs clearance. Clearance takes longer than expected, and by the time release is granted, available temperature-controlled trucking must be scheduled to transport the shipment to an off-site warehouse located miles from the airport.
Traffic congestion on surrounding highways adds additional delay. Upon arrival at the warehouse, intake procedures require validation checks, pallet breakdown, and placement into appropriate pharmaceutical cold chain storage zones. What might have been a streamlined 30-minute transfer near the airport has now extended well beyond that window.
Each additional step adds opportunity for deviation. While systems may still operate within validated ranges, the safety margin narrows. In cold storage for pharmaceuticals, proximity reduces this margin erosion by shortening the time between aircraft arrival and controlled storage placement.