Risk in the Pharmaceutical Industry and How You Can Safeguard Your Firm With GS1 India

Traceability is an indispensable need of supply chain in the pharmaceutical industry. The challenges faced by pharmaceutical organizations during the recent COVID pandemic have exposed the importance of traceability even further. According to a report by LogiPharma and BSI, Supply chain visibility stands out as the major challenge faced by the pharmaceutical industry. This is followed by issues with Goods distribution practices, Data integrity, Supplier quality, and supplier compliance management. The same report suggests that in the next three years, cost pressure, supplier compliance management, and regulatory policy changes will be the major challenge for the pharmaceutical industry. All these challenges impose greater risk of product recall which can be solved by ensuring an effective traceability system in the supply chain. Pharmaceutical products are quality sensitive and hence need continuous monitoring as they move in the supply chain. Traceability also helps to ensures that all the quality and regulatory guidelines set by governing authorities like WHO, DQSA, and FDA are complaint. Traceability helps to prevent the entry of fraudulent enterprises that can counterfeit products of any legitimate drug manufacturer. Having an end-to-end traceability helps drug manufacturers to have better control on their supply chain. This article highlights the challenges faced by pharmaceutical industry due to lack of product traceability and how GS1 India is changing the face of pharma supply chains with its traceability solutions.

DataKartTrace is the track-and-trace solution of GS1 India, a non-profit organization set up by the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India, to authorize barcodes in India. According to GS1, Traceability is defined as a process that “enables you to see the movement of prescription drugs or medical devices across the supply chain. You can trace backwards to identify the history of the transfers and locations of a product, from the point of manufacture onwards. And you can track forwards to see the intended route of the product towards the point of care.”

Today, people are not just looking for transparency in terms of product quality, but they are also seeking answers to the questions like what is the place of manufacturing, when was it produced, how was the product tested, and what all ingredients does it contain. With transparency, it is easier to answer all these questions to the consumers and keep a record of how efficiently operations are happening in the supply chain.

Let us look at how GS1 India’s traceability service is helping the pharmaceutical industry safeguard its supply chain network.

Adherence to Compliance requirements:

GS1 India complies with GS1’s Global Traceability Standard for Healthcare (GTSH), a process standard that provides a foundational framework that describes the traceability process and defines the minimum requirements for all stakeholders, independent from technologies, organization size, or operational sophistication. GS1 India also adheres to EPICS, a GS1 standard, which enables trading partners to share information about the movements and whereabouts of products and assets through the supply chain. Besides, GS1 India ensures compliance with the quality and legal requirements of the local government, FDA, FSSAI, etc. GS1 India helps comply with the track and trace guidelines issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) that help avoid the entry of spurious drugs at any point in the supply chain while exporting the drugs in foreign markets. DGFT mandates pharma manufacturers to mark their export consignment with GS1 authorized barcodes. The barcodes help the authorities cross-check the drugs’ manufacturing details at any point in the supply chain. GS1’s DataKartTrace is driven by various EU regulations and international safety laws.

International acceptability:

GS1 India’s DataKartTrace helps organizations get international acceptability for their products. GS1 India follows global standards for identifying, capturing, and sharing supply chain information; hence it meets the compliance requirements of various countries. DataKartTrace helps increase security, visibility, and control in the supply chain. Thus, by adopting GS1 traceability services, enterprises don’t need to stress their resources for managing numerous international regulations and licenses. GS1 India eases their work. With product GTINs, GS1 India helps trace the product back to its manufacturing plants, production lines, and production batch. It empowers the business owner to keep an eye on their contract manufacturers and suppliers.

Product recall:

Product recall is the process of calling your products off the market in case of safety, legal or regulatory breach. Recall happens when an organization fails to comply with the guidelines and requirements set by the regulatory bodies such as FDA, FSSAI, or local government that can cause the consumer to suffer. Visibility, smooth and accurate flow of information across the supply chain, infrastructure availability, responsive information sharing, and logistics network are some of the necessities of an efficient product recall system. GS1 India’s traceability service helps the organization be recall-ready by ensuring a smooth flow of information, visibility, and responsiveness in the system. The pharmaceutical industry is more susceptible to product recall because stringent compliances are issued on them, owning to the question of public safety. GS1 India helps organizations prevent product recall by monitoring their product quality and legal licenses and safeguards them with traceability if product is recalled.  

Product visibility:

DataKartTrace helps enhance visibility in the supply chain. Visibility is essential for fight product counterfeiting and ensuring consumer safety. It also helps to make strategic decisions for improving the efficiency of logistics and supply chain operations. Product visibility helps pharmaceutical organizations plan their cold supply chain where the drugs, consumables, and other medical supplies are highly sensitive to temperature and other environmental conditions. GS1 India ensures that the information is available to all the stakeholders well in time and inconsistent manner. GS1 India promises an affordable solution for maintaining precision and accuracy in the product information.

DataKartTrace is easy to implement and ensures interoperability by sharing the information in standard format overcoming geographical, jurisdictional, and language limits. The solution is customizable and are flexible as per the needs of customers and the complexity of the supply chain. To know more about DataKartTrace, contact us.

Benefits of GS1 India’s DataKart Trace: A Case Study of Indian Army Supply Chain

Indian Army faces many challenges in managing its operations that ranges from ammunition management to food supply chain management, it continuously strives to beat those challenges by bringing in innovative solutions. In the recent times, one of the challenges Indian Army faced was the lack of traceability in the movements of arms and ammunition during peace and wars. It faced a similar challenge in tracking its frozen and dry ration items from its manufacturing units to Army unit canteens situated at diverse locations in the country. To counter these traceability issues, Indian Army consulted GS1 India, a non-profit organization established under Ministry of Trade and Commerce, Government of India.

k availability, ensuring safe operations, and seamless ammunition movements in times of peace and war. GS1 India, through its traceability services, Datak

The volume of ammunition inventory the Indian Army handles is enormous. These inventory items are stored in lots in hundreds of storehouses of explosives. Keeping lakhs of ammunition in stacks not only makes them susceptible to accidents but also makes their tracing difficult. Real-time location visibility to this ammunition inventory is critical for effectively monitoring stocartTrace, helps the Indian Army keep track of its ammunition inventory which otherwise is very difficult to identify and locate at the (Central Ammunition Depot) CAD.

GS1 India undertook a comprehensive study of CAD’s logistics and warehouse management processes and systems. To ensure end-to-end traceability of ammunition movement, GS1 India suggested using automated data capture technologies like RFID with GS1 global standards for facilitating real-time asset tracking and stock management. Traceability enables identifying, tracking, and tracing the ammunition items throughout the supply chain as they move from different locations to the central Ammunition depot.  Indian Army accepted the suggestions given by GS1 India and adopted the use of RFID tags on all ammunition prior to their dispatch to CAD. DataKartTrace, in alignment with GS1 traceability standards, also helps to reconcile physical stocks with the system inventory.

DataKartTrace also helps the Indian Army manage its food supply chain in compliance with FSSAI’s guidelines on product recall and traceability. DataKartTrace helps maintain the quality of the food supplies, which was one of the challenges faced by the Indian Army. By enabling tracking and tracing at the unit and batch levels, DataKartTrace enables product freshness by allowing easy FIFO implementation. DataKartTrace also helps the Indian Army reduce manual intervention and human errors with handling product data. GS1 India follows Electronic Product Code Information Services (EPICS) standards for creating and sharing visibility event data. This gives better visibility on shelf life by providing real-time and accurate product data making Indian Army recall ready in the event of contamination in food at any point in the supply chain.

GS1 India is an ISO 27001 certified organization. With DataKartTrace, GS1 India has gained high value and trust among many private and government organizations. Indian Army is using DataKartTrace extensively to ensure food and ammunition traceability. The successful results of the consulting of the Indian Army by GS1 India indicate how efficient DataKartTrace is in bringing traceability in the supply chain.  To know more, Visit GS1 India.   

Is Your Business Ready for Product Recall?

No organization wants its product to be recalled from the market, however, it is always recommended to have your supply chain recall ready, in case of exigency. This is because product recall, if not handled properly, is no less than devastation and has the potential of bringing any organization to bankruptcy. The loss is not just financial, but it also questions the trust and integrity of the business in the market.

Let us look at some of the household names that faced the biggest product recalls in global history. In 2016, Samsung was forced to recall its 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 phones after the striking news of battery explosions from across the users that costed Samsung a loss of $5.3billion. In 2005, Pfizer suffered a product recall loss of $3.3billion when the Foods and Drugs Administration ordered it to pull an arthritis painkiller, Bextra, off the market because of its life-threatening side effects. In the case of pharmaceuticals and consumable products, product recalls are ever more trickier as the threat to life can put the companies to risk and grind them in the legal and criminal allegations for decades.

Hence, it is the urgent need for businesses to have a recall ready supply chain to handle the situation with speed and accuracy in times of exigencies. For this, the supply chain should have the visibility to its product at all times.

Organisations today face challenges in terms of lower visibility throughout their supply chain, which results in poor performance during product recall. In this article, we will discuss the process of product recall and what are the problems one might face during an effective product recall. This article will also help you find if your organisation is recall-ready.

Product recall is basically the process of calling your products off the market in case of safety, legal or regulatory breach. Visibility, smooth and accurate flow of information across the supply chain, infrastructure availability, responsive infrastructure for information sharing, and logistics network are some of the necessities of an efficient product recall system.

The process of product recall is tedious and needs detailed monitoring in each stage, owning to its criticality. In any product recall, preparation starts with setting up a target on what products need to be recalled and from where.

The information needs to be shared with all the nodes of the supply chain to check the preparedness of the recall. This information sharing is bi-way, and the set of actions are decided with mutual discussions. All these processes are done within the constraints of time and legal compliance. Hence, it is necessary to have a dedicated platform, set of regulations, and team to ensure the completion of the entire recall life cycle.

Here are the common product recall problems that will help check your readiness for product recall.  

Lower Visibility:

Visibility is the ability to oversee what is happening within the system at the granular level. If you can answer questions like what quantity of product you have at any point in time, their location across the supply chain, their remaining shelf life, their legal and quality compliance reports, etc., then you can say your supply chain has visibility. Many organisations lack this end-to-end traceability. They cannot tell where their products are located at any point in time. In such cases, they cannot act upon the recall order because they don’t know what to retrieve, in what quantity, and from where. Without setting the objectives and target, actions cannot be taken, and hence, such organizations face major failure in case of the product recall. 

Ineffective communication:

Communication is always the most important part of any result-oriented process. Without effective communication, product recall cannot be successful. The objective of communication is to initiate the retrieval process by communicating the goals for recall, notifying the importance and repercussions in case of recall failure, checking up on the progress, getting frequent feedback from different supply chain nodes, help them resolve their individual product recall issues and then finally communicating the success once the recall is completed. Here, the global language of business comes handy to ensure that effectiveness of communication.

Information accuracy:

Sharing accurate information is one aspect of communication that requires special attention. Many organizations face the issue of information mismatch due to inaccurate information sharing.

Consider a situation where inventory stock level at a particular location is very high, but the data shared through excel files show only a small amount. Based on this data, the recall team plans to retrieve the small amount of inventory but, upon arrival at the site, encounters the huge pile of stock for relocation. Such a situation will not only increase pullback cost but also raise tension within the organization that will ultimately reduce its effectiveness.    

Compliance issues:

Legal compliance is one of the significant factors that need to be considered during recall planning. The time sensitiveness of the recall operation makes it difficult to manage and comply with the regulatory norms. Hence, it is beneficial to have a facility to keep track of all the legal licenses and quality agreements. It helps prevent product recalls and makes product recall easier to process when it remains the only option.   

Having an effective product recall ensures the ability of the supply chain to quickly respond to recall situations, reduce the cost associated with a product recall, reduce legal risk due to timely withdrawal of recalled products, and increased consumer safety.

DatakartTrace, a traceability solution of GS1 India, can help you deal with all the product recall problems and achieve effectiveness in the product recall process.

Traceability: Backbone of an Efficient and Targeted Product Recall

Product recalls can be a nightmare for any company. With markets becoming extremely competitive, it can damage the brand image and customers may lose trust in your products. There could be questions about the product’s safety and, in extreme situations, recalls can even bring a company to bankruptcy.

Heard of the Maggi case? In 2015, Nestle was ordered by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India  to recall its certain batches after detecting the excess level of lead and MSG, declaring them hazardous. In absence of any targeted recall mechanism, Nestle India decided to destroy 37,000 tonnes of Maggi noodles worth Rs. 500 crore. For the next quarter, company’s net profit was down to 60% compared to the profit recorded in the same period the previous year.

Hence, a company’s ability to manage product recall, in case it happens, is a prime question for the leadership team. This article briefly talks about product recalls and how DataKart Trace, GS1 India’s traceability service, can assist in easing if not preventing recalls, especially for consumables and pharmaceutical products where product safety is a prime concern.    

A product recall calls for the removal of marketed products because of issues like design or production defects, non-compliance to safety standards, government regulations, or other quality issues. With respect to F&B and the pharmaceutical industry, product recalls usually happen when the consumable item is declared unsafe or it does not in compliance with the standards set by regulatory authorities. The objective of a recall is to halt the sales and distribution of the product in question and retrieve the concerned batches from the market for public safety.

A product recall can be a very tedious task as it involves huge paperwork and demands efficient end-to-end supply chain traceability. Without knowing where your products (concerning batches) are, actions cannot be taken further. This real-time knowledge on the location of batches/products is made available with DataKart Trace. It ensures keeping a record of all such details relating to the product, besides avoiding recall situations by continuous monitoring of quality and product safety.

DataKart Trace-based recall solution involves planning the entire course of action for recall. It addresses questions like which specific SKU to be recalled, the urgency of public health, recall scheduling, needs for public warning and communication, health hazard evaluation, the likelihood of future occurrence, recall status report, etc.

Product recall is a highly cost-effective process and distracts the business from its normal routine. The efforts required are tremendous to pull the product from the market and regain consumer trust. Hence having an efficient traceable system can never go wrong. DataKart Trace helps to define your recall management framework irrespective of your organization type. It gives senior leaders power to manage product recall ethically, efficiently, and effectively by adopting global standards for seamless data flow among the supply chain partners, and a single storage solution for all the parties. DataKart Trace recall solution is based on GS1 traceability standards (EPCIS) is a response to stringent regulations on product recalls for sustainable trading practices.

Blockchain Offers Next-Generation Traceability Solutions for Supply Chain Management

Blockchain is the new buzzword we are all aware of. Bitcoin and cryptocurrency are the most talked-about applications of blockchain that have raised many eyebrows in the financial sector. But beyond that, blockchain has wide applications in different fields. Supply chain management is one of them. Before going into the details of how blockchain based traceability is revolutionizing supply chain, let us understand what blockchain is and how it works.

Blockchain is an encrypted ledger of digital data that is continuously authenticated with every new change by linking transactions in the form of a chain. The entire process is automated and hence transparency and efficiency are ensured for various parties involved including – dealers, distributors, suppliers, and third parties. The information or data is stored digitally in blocks, spread over thousands or millions of computers through an integrated network having algorithms to authorise/ check the authenticity of transactions.

With each scan, a new block gets added to the chain, automatically updating the information in the distributed ledger network spread across multiple stakeholders. Hence, you don’t have to manually add information, worry about manipulation or falsified information, plan against the bullwhip effect, or stand in the queue for information updates from other parties.

With this clarity on how blockchain works, let us see what it has to offer in supply chain management (SCM). The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) defines SCM as planning and management of sourcing, procurement, conversion/production, and management of logistics activities. It includes collaboration and coordination with multiple parties such as suppliers, distributors, stockists, other intermediaries, third-party service providers, and customers. With supply chain management becoming more complex due to globalization, competitiveness, increased number of SKUs, quality standards, etc., traceability is gaining traction.

With the help of GS1 standards and GS1 India’s traceability solution, DataKartTrace, you can determine information of product in the supply chain, such as its location, source, destination, manufacturing details, expiry date or shelf life left, etc. GS1 is a trusted and authorized body founded by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, along with apex trade bodies, to help Indian manufacturers adopt global barcoding standards. GS1 India’s DataKartTrace enables continuous monitoring of a product as it moves from one node of the supply chain to another, and thus, helps in taking tactical, strategic, and real-time operational decisions. Having visibility helps make the system flexible and agile. It helps reduce time and effort by removing activities like manual recording, inaccurate pickups, inaccurate deliveries, etc., thus making the entire process much more accurate and faster.

In 2013, as per the Deloitte Global Supply Chain Risk survey, companies highlighted issues of low visibility with respect to their extended supply chains. Without traceability, one can encounter numerous challenges, such as difficulty in gathering product information, lack of product history, difficulty in complying with Regulatory norms, unstandardized information, etc. GS1 traceability standards when used along with blockchain technology help you record transactions faster and enables instant authentication.

Traceability using blockchain alone does not ensure a fool-proof solution to SCM problems. For example, if the data ingested is inaccurately fed by the user, then the results will be of no use. GS1 standards can enable automatic data capture using AIDC technology and hence, making the data capture accurate. They allow users to ingest incorrect information through a simple scan. Barcodes capture unique identification of products/consignments and links the same with relevant data, such as location, temperature, etc., for effortless sharing.

Blockchain provides a distributed ledger that catalogues transactions in an immutable, time-ordered manner whereas GS1 standards record and share the accurate data in a structured format, enabling interoperability between systems.

GS1 standards for identification and structured data enable blockchain users to have scalability and integrity in their supply chain. GTINs, coded into barcodes, also enable the linking of additional product information in shared/ individual systems, which can be stored securely and shared anytime.

The foundation of blockchain-enabled supply chains governed by GS1 standards promises success in the product journey from supplier to customer.    

Recently, UNDP Accelerator Lab India, along with GS1 India and Spices Board have joined hands to develop a Blockchain-based Traceability, Quality Assurance, and Trading System for Indian Spices. This will enhance eSpice Bazaar platform by ensuring food safety and improved quality. The project is supported by the Cabinet Office of Japan under the Japan SDGs Innovation Challenge 2020​.

During the pilot, farms and crops are being identified uniquely using GS1 identification and capture standards. The project is aimed at providing visibility to farmers in the spices value chain and their direct access to potential buyers, which will enhance their bargaining power and profits.

In another project, GS1 India has worked with NITI Aayog, the apex policy think-tank and change catalyst of the Government, on its pilot project that is aimed at ensuring the authenticity of pharmaceuticals using blockchain technology.  The technology is used with unique identification standards of GS1.

The scope of the project enabled track and trace beyond traditional methods by allowing users to verify whether prescribed conditions for the transportation of drugs were maintained throughout the journey or not (through IoT sensors), and status was made available to stakeholders through a mobile application. 

The project report titled: ‘Blockchain: The India Strategy –Towards Enabling Ease of Business, Ease of Living and Ease of Governance’ analyses the value of blockchain in facilitating trust in government and private sector interactions, followed by considerations for evaluating the blockchain use case for implementation. It also highlights possible challenges and lessons from NITI Aayog’s experiences in blockchain implementation and showcases potential use cases that the ecosystem may consider.

Is Product Traceability Becoming a Need to Survive in the Global Supply Chain Market?

What is the Global Supply Chain?

Global supply chains (GSC) are the network chains spread across multiple continents and countries for sourcing and supplying trade items to minimize overall cost and increase customer satisfaction. They involve government bodies, legal and regulatory intermediaries, local traders, and political parties with the added complexity of different import and tariff duties, custom services, and fiscal systems.

How are they different from the domestic supply chain?

Contrary to the local or domestic supply chain, which has the parties within the national boundaries, the global supply chain has its suppliers, producers, distributors, and customers spread across the globe for cost-effective and responsive deliveries. Compared to the local supply chain, GSCs provide various benefits that include reduced price due to low labour and material cost, better opportunities for innovation, higher market share, better suppliers in the competitive market, and better quality of products and services.

What are the major challenges of GSC?

GSC comes with increased managerial difficulties. The involvement of foreign firms demands a higher degree of mutual coordination. In GSC, information flow, material handling, inventory management, warehouse management, and transportation become more complex because of wider geographic scope, international laws, different languages, higher lead time, different time zones, more number of supply chain partners, quality issues, environmental standards, and socioeconomic issues.

Besides, increased globalisation and competitiveness have changed the nature of customers. Today, they demand more transparency with fast and steady deliveries. This has created an environment of innovation and technological adaptation all over the world. Moreover, supply chains have started to charter deliveries of products which seemed impossible previously. Now, products with smaller shelf life are also being transported from one corner of the world to another. All this has forced GSCs to become more resilient by making smarter investments with organizations like GS1 India for better traceability. 

What is Product Traceability?

Product traceability is the ability to identify, track and trace the items or products throughout the supply chain. As the product moves from one trading partner to another, traceability system captures the information on What (is the product), When (at what time?), Who (With whom), Where (with which trading partner), and Why (why was it scanned?) about the product, and allows authorized users to securely access this information whenever they want.  Product traceability is an important tool to troubleshoot product or logistics-related problems. It offers continuous monitoring, quality control, waste minimisation, systematic information sharing, and increased transparency between different parties. Product traceability also ensures accurate records of product history, which can be used to eliminate internal and external non-value-adding activities. Internal traceability refers to tracing the product within the house. For example, keeping track of products during different stages of production activity or tracing the storage location within warehouse(s). External traceability helps to know where the product is currently located between various supply chain parties. For example, it will tell if the product is being shipped from India to the USA or is received by a warehouse in Texas. 

How GS1 India’s traceability services are contributing to GSC management?

With numerous advantages, the global marketplace also imposes many challenges on its supply chains, and organisations actively seeking support from global standards for tackling these issues. GS1 India is helping organisations to overcome these challenges that include longer delivery time, complexity in handling extensive product portfolio, difficulties in data gathering and drawing significant business insights, imposing security, loss of control over the supply chain, non-compliance with local norms by bringing supply chain visibility. GS1 organisations have gained trust worldwide in providing efficient product traceability services.

International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) has defined Traceability in the ISO 9001 standard, which also complies with the GS1 traceability standard. With its standards-based traceability services, GS1 India helps brand owners comply with governmental regulations, global quality certifications, social and environmental accreditations by keeping track of the product, raw materials, and processes it went through. Currently, all the leading organizations have either made traceability part of their system or working towards it. According to a news article published by Forbes in 2019, Subway has 98% of its products traceable using GS1 barcodes.

GS1 India’s traceability service provides infrastructure that enables MNCs to make data-driven decisions, taking competitive advantages, and building a sustainable business environment. By providing Global Trade Item Number (GTIN), GS1  helps you overcome barriers by ensuring a single code of universal product identification. The unique identification facilitates global chains to trace their products effortlessly. 

Few products such as drugs and medical ingredients are highly expensive. They need a temperature-controlled environment for shipment for which traceability is inevitable. GS1 India’s traceability service offer 24×7 visibility to troubleshoot issues with products and shipments.

With GS1 India’s traceability service, you can manage your business activities and logistics using its efficient dashboard management. You can check the required data in visual and other desirable formats using the cloud-based traceability platform.

Is Investment in RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) Justified Over Standard Barcodes?

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) uses the electromagnetic field for data collection. The radio-based wireless technology is used in commercial and industrial applications to track, match items, or even identify individuals. The system can be divided into Tags & Readers. The reader emits radio waves and gets signals from the RFID tag to communicate its identity. These tags can tell a lot about the products ranging from their identity, source of origin and destination, transportation history, product specifications, order status, price, etc., based on what data is encrypted in a tag.

For more than a decade, RFID technology is making rounds in the industry think tanks. While many of us know what it is, its utilization is largely disregarded in the supply chain environment in favor of less expensive unique barcode labels. But in recent items, RFID has been gaining more importance in inventory management – ID badging, prevent pilferages, counterfeit prevention, etc. RFID is particularly useful in the case of high-value articles and sensitive products that require a high degree of safety, such as the food and healthcare sectors. Also, another use of RFID can be seen in high-tech stores having counterless checkouts, etc.

In today’s global supply chain environment, the question that most businesses ask themselves is between investing in the (RFID) or going the old school way using barcode labels.

To decide on this, it is pertinent to learn about the differences between RFID and barcodes.

So what is the difference between these two technologies:

RFID tags and barcodes present some degree of similarity in that both can store the unique number for an individual item that can be deciphered by a reader/scanner and uploaded to a database.

Barcode scanners use a beam of light to read the black and white pattern printed on the label/tag. On the other hand, RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) chips transmits data to the readers through radio waves. This makes it possible to read even from a distance (say, up to 10 meters), reducing the Non-Value Time; be read within seconds; allow for a more flexible system design, and be used across a wide variety of formats.

Benefits of RFID:

With RFID, it is possible to scan multiple items at the same time, ensuring speedy and reliable tracking. Besides error-proof delivery, RFID facilitates cost saving through improved inventory management, labor reduction, minimized product handling, and advanced security.  Further, unlike a barcode, RFID technology does not require scanning under the light or inline scanning.

RFID is potentially capable of changing the way business is done. It pulls the supply chain towards intelligent automation and reduces the need for manpower. IBM consulting services, in association with Auto-ID center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has estimated a total labor-saving up to 36% in order picking warehousing operation and a 90% reduction in verification cost for the shipping process. They also estimate a 60-93% reduction in receiving check-in time with RFID technology. RFID can also track the motion of items in the assembly line. 

RFID technology ensures safety. It helps reach areas where humans fail to enter because of constraints such as limited space, vertical storage shelves, high temperatures, hazardous gases, etc. RFID can significantly replace human intervention in temperature-controlled supply chains by giving real-time data such as moisture content, temperature, etc., for sensitive or perishable products.

Among many advantages of RFID technology is the reusability of its tag. Besides, barcodes are used on products, and cannot be reused. However, RFID technology is not limited to objects. It can be used to detect humans and can help monitor their motions, temperature, etc. This can enhance labor safety.    

RFID is a boon in the modern business environment. With the increasing network complexity, it can increase product visibility in both storage and transit. RFID can turn an average-performing supply chain into an efficient one by keeping track of incoming and outgoing SKUs, reducing process cycle time, and enhancing scalability.

Benefits of Barcodes:

Bar codes are printed on labels and are cheaper to generate than RFID tags. Two-dimensional (2-D) bar codes, especially, can carry all the necessary data and are more than sufficient for manual scanning. One thing to consider is that bar codes are already being used in healthcare, so the infrastructure is currently in place.”

Conclusion:

It is thus clear to us that one needs to take their pick based on the goal and scale to be achieved. For example, smaller outfits such as grocery shops selling perishable goods tend to use barcodes, while manufacturing entities offering high-value items with large inventories may tend to prefer RFID for real-time information. Moving forward, we can expect that solutions will not necessarily be exclusively barcode or exclusively RFID, but rather a combination of various sensor and auto-ID technologies that best solve the business challenge.

Ensuring Safety in Food Supply Chain with GS1 India’s Traceability Service

In recent decades, the food industry has faced questions regarding the creditability of food, its source and ability to deliver consumables safely and in desired quality. The outbreak of foodborne diseases, bacteria, viruses has led to more stringent laws and regulations across the world, including those under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

The World Health Organization estimated that the percentage of the population suffering from foodborne diseases each year is up to 30% in industrialized countries. In addition, food scandals such as unhygienic delivery and fraudulent food preparations have raised concerns among consumers over the quality and safety of the delivery system. To integrate quality management into the supply chain network, quality assurance has become an essential need that can be met with effective traceability.  According to ISO 9000 (2005) standards, traceability is defined as ‘‘the ability to trace the history, application or location of that which is under consideration”.

Traceability, built on unique barcoding system is the ability of the system to identify, track and trace the products throughout the supply chain, with scan of barcodes. In the food supply chain, traceability has also turned into a tool for complying with legal requirements, besides consumer safety.  Also, it offers continuous monitoring, quality control, systematic information sharing, and increased transparency between different parties of the food chain.

Food supply chains deal with consumable products like meat, ice cream, dairy, fruits, vegetables, and finished products such as chocolates, packaged food items, etc., that are highly susceptible to quality degradation and their freshness needs to be maintained. These products have a variable shelf life, sensitive to storage and transportation conditions like temperature and humidity. Therefore, they require continuous monitoring to ensure the product meets standard quality requirements.

One of the biggest challenges of any food chain is the intermittent nature of the supply chain. It consists of various stages, each of which has to ensure the exact same product conditions until the product reaches the consumer. For example, the manufacturer has to ensure product delivery in the right conditions to third-party logistics (3PL) providers that maintain the desired controlled conditions throughout the shipment.

Though the operations involved in food chains are similar to any other supply chain, they are much more complex because of their multiple controlling parameters.  Clerical and administrative tasks may slow down the supply chain and affect product quality drastically. Hence, product tracking & tracing, and automation of supply chain are essential to make the entire process faster and flexible. 

GS1 standards have already proven effective in managing food chains by providing cost-effective and fast quality management solutions through its traceability services.  They assist in continuous monitoring, auditing, and compliance to quality standards. They allow backtracking and forward tracking to get into the product history and predict the future delivery issues. Barcodes ensure unique identification of products through Global Trade Identification Numbers (GTIN), which is essential for establishing efficient tracing and recall in case of a breach in safety and quality standards.

Many leading organizations in the food and pharmaceutical industry are already using GS1 standards-based traceability solutions.  High transparency, mobility, cost-effectiveness, effortless tracing has revolutionized food chains using GS1 traceability standards. 

Securing Supply Chain for COVID-19 Vaccine

Worldwide demand for vaccine production has escalated exponentially since the vaccines for the ongoing coronavirus pandemic were developed. Multiple stakeholders including government and private organisations, NGOs, healthcare institutions, pharmaceutical companies, and more have come together to supply vaccines to the population. However, the global demand is extremely high and with the need for speedy and large-scale production and administration of vaccines, countries are facing the challenge of securely procuring, storing, and transporting the vaccine to thousands of healthcare facilities.

The two COVID-19 vaccines primarily being administered in India right now are Covishield and Covaxin, and both need to be taken in two doses. The time interval between the two doses varies for both vaccines. A third vaccine, Sputnik, has recently been introduced as well. The logistical complications of safely storing and distributing these vaccines are many, and a system that can identify each unique consignment supplied through various channels is the need of the hour.

Tracking vaccine movement accurately, creating end-to-end visibility at each stage of the supply chain and diligent record-keeping is important as it will help manufacturers and distributors keep track of their consignments in the supply chain. Keeping consistent records will be a great help to all key stakeholders in the vaccine supply chain, from distribution partners to healthcare workers.

To enable this, a standardised process to identify and track vaccines in the supply chain is required because every single consignment of vaccines changes many hands before reaching its final customer/patient, i.e., an individual to whom the dose will be administered. With each new stage of the supply chain, there is a new level of complexity that is added. In the past, vaccines have lost in transit, substandard product entered into the chain, or consignments reaching their destination with damaged or expired vials of the vaccine.

The present high vaccine demand and low supply offers a fertile ground for vaccine counterfeiters to try and make a quick profit. Several fakes have been identified, and even fake versions of drugs like Remdesivir have been found. Present circumstances are such that vaccines are not just prescribed to young children for illnesses that have already been eradicated – the coronavirus vaccines are one of the most important resources in the world right now. This makes the need for a clear supply chain that is traceable from the point of origin to the final stage in the process, an urgent and crucial one.

Manufacturers or importers of vaccines should take the necessary steps to ensure that product labels carry standardised markings and utilise an end-to-end traceability system. Each record should also have key information like the batch number and expiry date, to enable validation of vaccines.

UNICEF has suggested a specification for a minimum basic traceability system to support countries avoid counterfeit or falsified medicines. Barcoding is vital in maintaining traceability, as each barcode is unique and can be identified as such. Unique identification encoded in barcodes is recommended by WHO on all levels of vaccine packaging used for transit by manufacturers, except for the primary packaging of the product. A system that can lend ease and convenience to the tracking process, such as simply scanning a barcode, is very much required. It can facilitate efficient tracking of data and provides visibility in the supply chain so that recalling a consignment, for any reason, can be made easily.

GS1 India offers traceability service that meets global requirements, such as UNICEF standards, and has a host of benefits:

  • It can help validate product barcodes, detect fraudulent consignments of vaccines and protect brand image and identity
  • Provides accurate product information and control over product movement
  • Batches in the supply chain can be efficiently tracked
  • Helps reduce operational costs over an extended period of time
  • Manual errors are eliminated and operations can run smoothly
  • Provides better expiry management with First-In, First-Out (FIFO) system
  • Identifies when stocks are low and need to be replenished
  • Provides data insights to gain a better understanding of on-ground problems with the supply chain

Traceability, in the case of vaccines especially, is vital to ensure transparency across the supply chain and to ensure that the end consumers are safe. An end-to-end vaccine traceability helps perform recalls efficiently as and when required, from any stage of the supply chain.

Public Procurement’ to carry barcoding at the primary package level in 2019

With the production of vaccines constantly being accelerated to be able to keep up with global demands, traceability of vaccines and the capability for healthcare stakeholders to validate them at the point of administration is a pressing need. To enable this, each vaccine must be labelled with a 2D barcode and equipped with standardised information capture so as to fast-track logistical processes and track vaccines accurately no matter how far from the point of origin they have to be transported. Covert or forensic technologies can also be introduced on product packaging to add an extra layer of increased security to safeguard important resource from counterfeiters and fraudsters.

Why is it Vital to Trace Every Product Back to its Source?

The ability to trace a product’s journey to its source is intangible yet priceless. Tracing has already helped identify forged batches of Covid-19 vaccines.

The positive traceability results are a testament to the tools and technologies that are readily accessible to us in the current times. In the same vein, the traceability mechanism has been applied in today’s world trade markets, but it hasn’t yet been used to its complete potential because of many confusions and doubts amongst brand owners. ‘How will this help me?’, ‘Will it really make a huge difference?’. Such questions plague the minds of many brand owners who eventually decide to forgo the traceability option altogether.

Traceability: The Road to supply chain traceability

In case of perishable goods, brand owners usually face challenges when it comes to expiry date management of their products. A good traceability system allows them to manage their products distribution through the FIFO model. This helps brand owners distribute those products to the retailers whose expiry date is nearing and thus avoid business loss.

There are several actors one needs to consider before opting for a traceability system. Factors such as different costing models, vast catalogs of products with different types/shapes/sizes, varying regulatory compliances across countries/states, and distinct health safety rules need to be accounted for. So, if you are tracing products, even for a single manufacturer, you need to process numerous dynamics and create a seamless platform that accounts for everything. And, you need to do all that while keeping the expense manageable.

Despite these seemingly insurmountable challenges, traceability is essential if you want to succeed in today’s highly competitive business world. The good news is that there are organizations that have already implemented the traceability process successfully, and allowed manufacturers/brand owners to function transparently with complete accountability of every product.

Employ Registered Traceability Options for Best Results

The vast scope of the traceability process in retail makes it hard to be implemented by an isolated vendor, reseller, aggregator, or product manufacturer. The good news is that GS1 India a standards body already has a readymade platform in place for traceability. All the complexity of the process is eliminated through a layer of abstraction, and you get to build a bond of trust with your clients effortlessly.

Key attributes of a dedicated traceability platform are:

  • Ability to track the location of a particular product at any given time
  • Better inventory management by keeping track of expiry dates
  • Global acceptance of products within local and international markets
  • Integrated with various relevant databases for quick product information access
  • Compliance with major national/international rules and regulations

A dedicated, well-established, and more importantly – internationally recognized – platform becomes hugely important when you are entering new markets. GS1 India provides your brand with an unmatched level of transparency, which in the long run has many amazing benefits for your business.

Need Help?

Chat Support