Supply chain managers and marketers are forever on the lookout for optimizing the challenges of SCM coming their way. If you are in the same boat, then in all probability, you are scouring all possible resources to ensure a responsive, streamlined, agile, and secured supply chain. You may also want to fill up the gaps in your supply chain security to prevent diverted, adulterated and counterfeit products from entering the system.
It’s time to figure out how to align your anti-counterfeiting strategies with existing (and future) corporate supply chain tracking strategies to incorporate the best anti-counterfeiting measures. The answer lies in attaining end to end traceability and visibility in your supply chain software system. The need of the hour is to invest in effective serialization programs to develop key differentiators and the much-needed competitive advantage for your organization.
Read on to know the need and benefits of track and trace serialization technology to protect the quality and reputation of your goods, brand integrity and revenues from counterfeiters.
Product serialization: Key to securing sour brand and supply chain tracking
All manufacturing businesses are concerned about losing control of their supply chain. Along with facing a loss of revenue and market share through damaged, defective, defunct and unaccounted products, companies are worried about the effects of counterfeiting on their brand reputation. Be it the industries linked to food and beverage, consumer goods or pharmaceuticals, manufacturers are facing huge losses in stock ratings, customer loyalty and revenues because of cases of defective, tampered or unsafe products.
Therefore, companies across the world are fighting the challenges of better collection, tracking, and tracing products/information across their supply chains.
Serialization technology has become the key to integrating track-and-trace capabilities in supply chain software systems.
It prevents counterfeiting from creating further mischief and develops faster response strategies to enable traceability solutions.
Role of traceability in supply chain analytics
Traceability helps supply chain managers verify the location, history, or status of products through documented identification. The aim is to merge serialization, by assigning different and unique identifiers, with traceability and smart manufacturing solutions. The act paves the way for end-to-end visibility across supply chains. Effective tracking of products provides huge repositories of data and information that supply chain analytics, customers and companies can start using for better decision making.
Traceability solutions in contemporary times
Supply chain management and data analytics systems are banking on different disruptive technologies to add their benefits to traceability systems. Artificial Intelligence (AI), blockchain, the Internet of Things and various other collaborative platforms are providing detailed reports to track the status and movements of products in the supply chain. Direct links are being created between various SCM elements and stakeholders – from manufacturers to end-users – to increase the efficiency of all related processes, analytics, and data management.
Today, data-centric traceability systems are helping stakeholders to collect and share data to make the entire supply chain secure and more powerful. Besides, traceability systems and solutions are enabling information cross-referencing with varied systems, anywhere across the supply chain, to bring in richer returns.
Application of traceability systems
Traceability solutions are gradually finding their way into all industries, specifically the pharmaceutical and consumer goods industries, to create safer and more streamlined supply chains.
1. Pharmaceutical industry – Traceability optimizes the process of recalls by acting on counterfeited, damaged, deemed unsafe, contaminated, or the tampered with products. Serialized data and items reporting allows for the accurate identification of product locations. It helps in retrieving the faulty products only and not the entire batch. The results are a sharp decline in monetary losses, faster recall management, and more efficient notification of non-conformities, expiry date, status confirmation, counterfeiting alerts, etc.
2. Medical device industry – Traceability software applications can detect whether medical devices are counterfeit or defective by providing all-round visibility to all events in the supply chain. These solutions alert users at critical stages of the supply chain to eliminate potentially lethal or dangerous situations even before their occurrence.
3. Food & beverage industry –The complex supply chain in the F&B industry is vulnerable to the challenges of visibility. Traceability mitigates the potential risks of food-borne illnesses of the likes of E. coli, listeria, salmonella, etc. Organizations can attain complete transparency in preparedness, prevention, corrective actions, etc. in public health by using traceability.
NeuroTags – Track and trace serialization technology
Reach out to NeuroTags to get researched data and analytics for better management of your supply chain information. Our traceability solutions can capture product status information related to all scan points prevalent in the supply chain tracking to verify the path of your products. Ask for custom-defined, easy-to-deploy, NeuroTags track & trace solutions as per your immediate and future requirements to get the best returns, right away!
