1. Coverage and Continuity

Manual checks only tell you what’s happening at the moment someone looks. A lot can go wrong in the hours in between.

• Is temperature monitored continuously, 24 hours a day, rather than through periodic manual checks?
• Are humidity, differential pressure, CO₂ and oxygen levels also monitored where relevant, not just temperature?
• Does the system keep recording during a power cut or network outage, rather than losing data?
• Can it scale as your storage needs grow, without a full system replacement?

2. Audit-Ready Records

An unannounced inspection shouldn’t mean scrambling through spreadsheets or downloading data from individual loggers.

• Are your records timestamped, complete and ready to present at any time, with very little preparation?
• Is data stored in a tamper-proof format that protects its integrity?
• Can you filter records by timeframe, equipment, department or event type in a few clicks?
• Would your current system support a GLP, GMP or FDA 21 CFR Part 11 audit today, without gaps?

3. Alarms and Escalation

A threshold breach is only useful information if the right person finds out about it in time to act.

• Are alerts sent automatically by more than one channel, such as email, SMS and phone?
• Is there a clear, documented process for acknowledging alarms?
• Is a comment or reason recorded every time an alarm is accepted, so there’s evidence of what happened and how your team responded?
• Would you know within minutes, not hours, if a fridge or freezer started to drift out of range?

4. Access and Visibility

Your team needs to see what’s happening across your whole monitoring environment, not just one unit at a time.

• Can authorised staff view live and historical data remotely, from any web-enabled device?
• Is there a single dashboard view across all monitored equipment, rather than separate logs for each unit?
• Can you access a full audit trail going back to when the system was first switched on? 

5. Scalability and Flexibility

What works for a single fridge doesn’t always work for a multi-site facility, and the reverse is also true.

• Can your system support additional sensors as you grow, without unexpected licensing costs?
• Does it offer wired, wireless or hybrid configurations to suit different environments?
• Would it still perform reliably across a multi-site laboratory or manufacturing operation?

6. Regulatory Alignment

Different products and processes carry different regulatory requirements. Your system should be built with these in mind.

• Does your system support the specific standards relevant to you, such as GLP, GMP, MHRA, WHO or FDA 21 CFR Part 11?
• Has it been reviewed or validated against these requirements recently?
• Are you confident it would meet the expectations of your next inspection, not just your last one?

Next steps

If a few of these questions left you unsure, that’s a good sign it’s time for a closer look. A system that’s falling short in one area often falls short in others too.

Contronics help pharmaceutical companies maintain compliance and protect their temperature-sensitive products with continuous, automated monitoring designed around the standards your team needs to meet.

If you would like to arrange a review of your current system and see how it compares against the points above, we would be glad to help.

Contact our expert team at 01260 298383 or click here.