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What Happens If Your Manufacturing Plant Compromises on Track-And-Trace?

As supply chains adapt to accommodate more unique stock-keeping-units (SKUs), tracking individual products from production to shipping has become more complex. Studies suggest that 8 in 10 manufacturing facilities struggle to capture and leverage meaningful data within their operations. Moreover, while a vast majority of decision-makers emphasize the importance of end-to-end traceability, 70% of businesses still operate with incomplete visibility into their vital operations. Lack of clear traceability ultimately contributes to:

  1. Wasted resources
  2. Sudden equipment failure
  3. Recurrent need for rework
  4. Failure to meet deadlines
  5. Unclear demand forecasting
  6. Broken customer loyalty
  7. Unmet compliance standards
  8. Jeopardized consumer safety

For the food industry, estimates show that improper visibility costs $10 million per recall, while other manufacturers in the pharmaceutical and automotive industries have seen upwards of 4.85 billion in losses and facility closures. Put simply, compromised track-and-trace can be devastating to a business.

Optimizing Traceability in the Manufacturing Plant

When trying to improve operational visibility, track-and-trace experts recommend defining required data within your operations. Although unique industries may track additional data points, a proficient traceability system should track:

  • Supplier lot numbers
  • Serial numbers
  • Storage status
  • Delivery dates
  • Raw materials used
  • Compliance notes

Tracking these data points for multiple SKUs has proven challenging, especially during high-demand seasons. Current labor shortages pose additional obstacles to ensuring every workflow is accounted for accurately. To fit seamlessly in today’s fast-paced operations, track-and-trace systems must allow quick adoption, leveraging user-friendly interfaces and streamlining workflows. Consequently, two types of technologies have become essential when developing end-to-end visibility.

  1. Digitized Barcode Scanning
    Automated data capture solutions eliminate the probability of errors and missed touchpoints. Furthermore, they allow workers to focus on more important tasks, minimizing stress from manual data input. Next-generation mobile computers and ultra-rugged tablets combine data capture with data processing, updating traceability logs as products move throughout the facility. These same devices can also be used for work-in-process reporting, push-to-talk communications, and cycle counting, thus consolidating multiple workflows through one easy-to-use terminal.For facilities with multiple conveyors and complex loading docks, businesses can fully automate quality checks with fixed industrial scanners, installed in high-influx areas. Scanned data can be transmitted to other IoT devices for immediate action, and into your reporting system for future use.
  2. Real-Time Locationing Systems
    Taking barcode scanning a step further, real-time locationing systems can consolidate several data points with fewer tags while also providing in-motion tracking. For example, RFID systems utilize wide-range antennas to locate stored inventory and finished goods. By tracking incoming materials in real-time, facilities may also optimize just-in-time delivery, reducing the risk of overstocking.However, RFID isn’t your only option when developing real-time locationing systems. Intelligent visibility software such as Zebra MotionWorks supports material replenishment systems, safety checklists, and call triggers to connect workers to crucial data anywhere in the four walls

How to Get Started

Before deploying any modernization solution, businesses should run a workflow evaluation to target blind spots and possible challenges. Once your goals and challenges are outlined, our teams work with you in consolidating workflows through technologies that support end-to-end visibility, including:

  • Flexible connectivity options
  • Seamless app integration with Android
  • Push-to-talk communications
  • Automated data capture and sharing

To learn more about Zebra’s in-stock devices, contact us here.

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This is How One Smart Label Improves Food Safety.

Research from Zebra’s most recent Food Safety Study suggests that only 2 in 10 consumers actually trust food manufacturers and distributors to ensure complete food safety within their operations. Inaccurate track-and-trace systems have played an integral part in major recalls, foodborne illnesses, and crippled brand identities over the years, contributing to the requirements for dependable visibility solutions. Future-forward systems leveraging RFID and wireless data have risen in popularity, spearheading many modernized track-and-trace solutions; however, for growing businesses seeking to place a strategic focus on food safety, these large-scale changes may be more difficult to achieve due to the time and costs involved to implement.

 

While modernized track-and-trace systems benefit businesses of all sizes, there are simpler, supporting solutions to help improve visibility without deploying a completely new system. Developed to react to shifting temperatures, Zebra’s temperature-indicator labels provide at-a-glance insights, so distributors and manufacturers can track temperature exposure and ensure product quality.

 

How They Work

 

Engineered with temperature-sensitive technology, Zebra’s intelligent indicator labels react to the environment and change colors depending on heat or cold exposure. Plus, TransTracker indicators contain strong adhesives to remain applied during cold chain transport, ensuring product integrity once it leaves the facility.

 

Temperature indicator labels are not limited solely to distribution operations. Manufacturers and retailers have also leveraged freshness indicators on perishable items, which can be easily interpreted by shoppers directly at the storefront. Businesses have reported up to 30% more sales when using freshness indicators, which can influence purchase decisions on the spot. Compared to larger systems, freshness indicator labels are relatively inexpensive and easy to use since they are read by both businesses and consumers alike.

 

Is Temperature Sensing Enough?

 

At-a-glance temperature checks empower teams to spot potential spoilage and prevent illnesses, and when it comes to creating a proactive plan, they serve as a great start.  However, a more robust plan may be needed if your facility still experiences…

  • Idle shipments waiting to be refrigerated at the loading dock
  • Wrong shipments sent to your customers
  • Time-consuming audits
  • Complex and/or inaccurate product locationing
  • Recalls that force a complete productivity halt

Because these issues compromise product integrity, they may require a more sophisticated track-and-trace solution that can view and report on all product movement in real-time.

Whether you’re just starting with food traceability or your current product tracking system needs modernization, set up a preliminary evaluation with one of our cold chain specialists.  Learn how you can build or update a food safety solution that grows with your operations without overextending your budget.

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When facing higher demands to dependable track and trace, RFID is your best option. Here’s why:

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Counterfeit medications have been responsible for at least 290,000 deaths annually worldwide. Material shortages, tariff changes, and labor shortages have all contributed to recurring drug shortages across the world, costing drug companies over 8.6 million hours to remediate, risking the lives of millions, and creating space for counterfeits to enter the market. Unfortunately, minimizing counterfeits remains a challenge, especially during the transportation process.

New regulations under the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) aim at minimizing counterfeits by requiring serialized identification numbers for individual products; however, distributors would then have to scan individual barcodes to verify medications, increasing delays and costs on an already-strained system. To stay ahead of shortages, hospitals and pharmacies tend to overstock medications, holding an average of 180 days’ worth of finished goods that may not get used, ultimately resulting in wasted storage space, costs, and medication – further contributing to shortages that feed the vicious cycle of medical counterfeits.

How are pharmaceutical supply chains reacting?

By 2023, the FDA will require all medical products to contain a second 2-D barcode specifying a unique serialized identification number. While warehouses can disassemble pallets to individually scan medications, RFID technology is currently being enhanced to simplify the process. Although traditional RFID applications are incompatible with metals and liquids– both normally present in pharmaceutical supply chains – Zebra’s adaptable RFID solutions tackle the challenges of medication tracking by integrating…

  • Custom-built lags and RFID labels – Every operation is unique, which is why RFID labels should be tailored to meet the obstacles of your facility such as poor lack of air space inside containers, metal shelves, etc. In doing so, businesses can better track in-transit products.
  • On-demand RFID printing and encoding – Modern Zebra printers like the ZT411 are equipped with optional RFID encoding, allowing operations to streamline enterprise printing from one all-encompassing system. 
  • Highly secured mobile computers – Lastly, to ward off counterfeit behavior and stock tampering, mobile computers should be equipped with security-focused tools, recurring security patches, and higher encryption levels. Android handhelds like the MC3330xR maximize data security with varying authentication levels to enable safe data sharing, so T&L teams, distributors, and hospitals/pharmacies know when and where to expect shipments as well as how many products they will be receiving.

From metal-compatibility to challenging small sizes, protect pharmaceutical tracking with an RFID solution dedicated to expanding visibility no matter the costs. Reach out to Avalon to carefully assess your workflows and bottlenecks alongside an RFID specialist and see how you can enhance track and trace to protect your bottom line, and most importantly, your customers.

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