Track and trace

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In the distribution and logistics of many types of products, track and trace or tracking and tracing concerns a process of determining the current and past locations (and other information) of a unique item or property. Mass serialization is the process that manufacturers go through to assign and mark each of their products with a unique identifier such as an Electronic Product Code (EPC) for track and trace purposes. The marking or "tagging" of products is usually completed within the manufacturing process through the use of various combinations of human readable or machine readable technologies such as DataMatrix barcodes or RFID.

Contents

The track and trace concept can be supported by means of reckoning and reporting of the position of vehicles and containers with the property of concern, stored, for example, in a real-time database. This approach leaves the task to compose a coherent depiction of the subsequent status reports.

Another approach is to report the arrival or departure of the object and recording the identification of the object, the location where observed, the time, and the status. This approach leaves the task to verify the reports regarding consistency and completeness. An example of this method might be the package tracking provided by shippers, such as the United States Postal Service, Deutsche Post, Royal Mail, United Parcel Service, AirRoad, or FedEx.

Technology

An example of a generic RFID chip. RFID Chip 004.JPG
An example of a generic RFID chip.
Some produce traceability makers use matrix barcodes to record data on specific produce. Semacode-fr-wikipedia-org-wiki-pomme.png
Some produce traceability makers use matrix barcodes to record data on specific produce.

The international standards organization EPCglobal under GS1 has ratified the EPC network standards (esp. the EPC information services EPCIS standard) which codify the syntax and semantics for supply chain events and the secure method for selectively sharing supply chain events with trading partners. These standards for Tracking and Tracing have been used in successful deployments in many industries and there are now a wide range of products that are certified as being compatible with these standards.

In response to a growing number of recall incidents (food, pharmaceutical, toys, etc.), a wave of software, hardware, consulting and systems vendors have emerged over the last few years to offer a range of traceability solutions and tools for industry. Radio-frequency identification and barcodes are two common technology methods used to deliver traceability. [1]

RFID is synonymous with track-and-trace solutions, and has a critical role to play in supply chains. RFID is a code-carrying technology, and can be used in place of a barcode to enable non-line of sight-reading. Deployment of RFID was earlier inhibited by cost limitations but the usage is now increasing.

Barcoding is a common and cost-effective method used to implement traceability at both the item and case-level. Variable data in a barcode or a numeric or alphanumeric code format can be applied to the packaging or label. The secure data can be used as a pointer to traceability information and can also correlate with production data such as time to market and product quality. [2]

Packaging converters have a choice of three different classes of technology to print barcodes:

Uses

Serialization facilitates supply chain agility: visibility into supply chain activities and the ability to take responsive action. Particular benefits include the ability to recognise and isolate counterfeit products and to improve the efficiency of product recall management. [3]

Consumers can access web sites to trace the origins of their purchased products or to find the status of shipments. Consumers can type a code found on an item into a search box at the tracing website and view information. This can also be done via a smartphone taking a picture of a 2D barcode and thereby opening up a website that verifies the product (i.e. product authentication).

Serialization has a significant and legally endorsed safety role in the pharmaceutical industry. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Authentication</span> Act of proving an assertion

Authentication is the act of proving an assertion, such as the identity of a computer system user. In contrast with identification, the act of indicating a person or thing's identity, authentication is the process of verifying that identity. It might involve validating personal identity documents, verifying the authenticity of a website with a digital certificate, determining the age of an artifact by carbon dating, or ensuring that a product or document is not counterfeit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barcode</span> Optical machine-readable representation of data

A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly referred to as linear or one-dimensional (1D), can be scanned by special optical scanners, called barcode readers, of which there are several types.

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder called a tag, a radio receiver, and a transmitter. When triggered by an electromagnetic interrogation pulse from a nearby RFID reader device, the tag transmits digital data, usually an identifying inventory number, back to the reader. This number can be used to track inventory goods.

Traceability is the capability to trace something. In some cases, it is interpreted as the ability to verify the history, location, or application of an item by means of documented recorded identification.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electronic Product Code</span> Universal identifier for physical object

The Electronic Product Code (EPC) is designed as a universal identifier that provides a unique identity for every physical object anywhere in the world, for all time. The EPC structure is defined in the EPCglobal Tag Data Standard, which is a freely available standard. The canonical representation of an EPC is a URI, namely the 'pure-identity URI' representation that is intended for use when referring to a specific physical object in communications about EPCs among information systems and business application software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Label</span> Material affixed to a container or article with printed information

A label is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed directly on a container or article can also be considered labelling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barcode printer</span> Computer peripheral to print barcode labels or tags

A barcode printer is a computer peripheral for printing barcode labels or tags that can be attached to, or printed directly on, physical objects. Barcode printers are commonly used to label cartons before shipment, or to label retail items with UPCs or EANs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bag tag</span> Ticket attached to luggage for identification

Bag tags, also known as baggage tags, baggage checks or luggage tickets, have traditionally been used by bus, train, and airline carriers to route checked luggage to its final destination. The passenger stub is typically handed to the passenger or attached to the ticket envelope:

  1. to aid the passenger in identifying their bag among similar bags at the destination baggage carousel;
  2. as proof—still requested at a few airports—that the passenger is not removing someone else's bag from the baggage reclaim hall; and
  3. as a means for the passenger and carrier to identify and trace a specific bag that has gone astray and was not delivered at the destination. The carriers' liability is restricted to published tariffs and international agreements.
<span class="mw-page-title-main">GS1</span> Organization for barcode standards

GS1 is a not-for-profit, international organization developing and maintaining its own standards for barcodes and the corresponding issue company prefixes. The best known of these standards is the barcode, a symbol printed on products that can be scanned electronically.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tracking system</span>

A tracking system, also known as a locating system, is used for the observing of persons or objects on the move and supplying a timely ordered sequence of location data for further processing.

Mobile tagging is the process of providing data read from tags for display on mobile devices, commonly encoded in a two-dimensional barcode, using the camera of a camera phone as the reader device. The contents of the tag code is usually a URL for information addressed and accessible through Internet.

The IBM RFID Information Center (RFIDIC) software solution is based on EPCglobal's Electronic Product Code Information Services (EPCIS) standard specification. RFID Information Center enables tracking of uniquely identifiable (serialized) product throughout the supply chain. Despite the name, the RFID Information Center is sensor agnostic, meaning it recognizes product serialized with RFID, barcode and/or 2D barcode. This IBM WebSphere middleware offering is a software product that falls within IBM's broader IBM Information Management Software line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Omni-ID</span> American company

Omni-ID is a vendor of passive UHF Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags. Founded in 2007 as Omni-ID, Ltd., its products are a range of RFID tags designed to operate in all environments, including on metal and liquids.

The terms active packaging, intelligent packaging, and smart packaging refer to amplified packaging systems used with foods, pharmaceuticals, and several other types of products. They help extend shelf life, monitor freshness, display information on quality, improve safety, and improve convenience.

Produce traceability makes it possible to track produce from its point of origin to a retail location where it is purchased by consumers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ucode system</span>

The ucode system is an identification number system that can be used to identify things in the real world uniquely. Digital information can be associated with objects and places, and the associated information can be retrieved by using ucode.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transparent Prototype</span>

The Transparent Prototype is a project in the automotive industry to track and trace test vehicles and prototype parts using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology.

Codentify is the name of a product serialization system developed and patented back in 2005 by Philip Morris International (PMI) for the verification of authenticity and production volume, as well as supply chain control of tobacco products. In the production process, each cigarette package is marked with a unique visible code, that allows authenticating the code against a central server.

Barcode library or Barcode SDK is a software library that can be used to add barcode features to desktop, web, mobile or embedded applications. Barcode library presents sets of subroutines or objects which allow to create barcode images and put them on surfaces or recognize machine-encoded text / data from scanned or captured by camera images with embedded barcodes. The library can support two modes: generation and recognition mode, some libraries support barcode reading and writing in the same way, but some libraries support only one mode.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Jarrett Collins</span> American inventor and businessman (1936–2022)

David Jarrett Collins was an inventor and businessman whose career was focused on bringing barcode technology into the mainstream. While at Sylvania in 1960, he led a team that developed the first functional barcode system for tracking railroad cars, and subsequently worked on developing laser barcode systems.

References

  1. ↑ Apte, Aditi; Ingole, Vijendra; Lele, Pallavi; Marsh, Andrew; Bhattacharjee, Tathagata; Hirve, Siddhivinayak; Campbell, Harry; Nair, Harish; Chan, Sarah; Juvekar, Sanjay (2019). "Ethical considerations in the use of GPS-based movement tracking in health research – lessons from a care-seeking study in rural west India". Journal of Global Health. 9 (1): 010323. doi:10.7189/jogh.09.010323. ISSN   2047-2978. PMC   6596313 . PMID   31275566.
  2. ↑ Traceability: Giving every product an authentic identity, Package Printing, June 1, 2008
  3. ↑ McCutcheon, S., Manufacturers are Seizing Opportunities across the Supply Chain, IndustryWeek, published 6 November 2008, accessed 15 August 2023
  4. ↑ Tiga Health, What Serialization Means for Pharma Manufacturing, accessed 30 July 2023
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