The ability to track the precise location of your product at any given point of time and trace the entire journey of the product from “Farm to Fork” or from “Factory to the Consumer “ poses a unique challenge to the industry’s supply chain teams.
Numerous articles/blogs /white papers have been written till date about using solutions that enhance the visibility of the supply chain. Theoretically, this process looks essential to all brands of Foods, Pharma, Industrial products, Automotive etc. However, the real issue is that when you try to implement the same in your existing supply chain, processes become cumbersome & inefficient thus slowing down the supply chain.
Compliance of the systems then starts to become an issue. Systems get circumvented thus creating loopholes that the counterfeiters exploit to inject fakes into the system. An additional point to be noted is that more often than not, an existing actor in the supply chain is involved with counterfeiters due to higher monetary benefits accrued by the activity. A smart Track & Trace system should be able to provide the necessary intelligence to the brand owner to identify these actors quickly and accurately and then allow them to deploy their limited resources at these focus areas instead of spreading them too thin across the entire supply chain.
A good Track & Trace system should focus on the following:
Asset light: Simple Apps on Smart phones and tablets, which allow ease of scanning and data entry. Light on expensive hardware that causes maintenance issues. Simple UI/UX that requires the least amount of data entry to enable users to focus on the process at hand.
Speed of Scanning: A key point for a program to be effective is the speed of scan. Whether it is a customer in a retail store or a warehouse professional scanning hundreds of codes a day, slow speed or a faulty scan can frustrate the individual’s efforts and hence circumvent the process. The scanning speed of the application directly affects the business operations and hence the faster the application takes to scan a product’s label/ barcode, the faster the supply chain moves.
Geo Tagging and Geo Fencing (Detecting Stock Diversions): Using smart locations devices, Geo Tagging each scan at the every point of transfer of ownership ensures no supply chain diversion. It enables the supply chain teams sitting in their head offices to be able to track their products moving all over the world providing enhanced visibility.
Geo fencing the sold products gives very accurate insights to Stock diversions as well as location of higher counterfeit densities providing real time insights into the counterfeit market.
Incentivising stakeholders:
Whenever you ask a person to make an additional effort of scanning a product, especially a customer, you need to incentivise her/him to increase compliance. In many cases, a loyalty program running on top of a track and trace solutions ensures much better results.
Interoperability with ERP’s : Since the Track & Trace Solution has to continually exchange data with the ERP, the interoperability is terms of speed, frequency of Sync, band width consumption are all key to make the process efficient.
Needless to say, each Track & Trace solution needs to be customised for
a) The Industry Type and
b) For the unique organisation
A generic one-size fits all does not exist. Organisations need to choose the Track & Trace vendor and then spend considerable time customising the solution to their individual needs. A well implement program can bring huge benefits of Authenticity, Visibility & Interactivity.
Authenticity because it ensures that your customer receives the best of your products and don’t fall prey to counterfeits.
Visibility so that your teams are able to track and track your products throughout the entire supply chain
Interactivity so that your customers are given an opportunity to engage with your brand.
Our team of professionals at Fasiculus are well versed in the domain of track & trace. We have implemented these solutions for some Multi National Organizations and can help you do the same.
Contact Us:
+971 50 281 4039 Dubai : +44 7982 639082 London : +91 999 904 4534 New Delhi
