Track & Trace

The connected infrastructure that forms much of the foundation of the Internet of Things has been around a lot longer than many people realize. Manufacturers and supply chain service providers have been putting sensors on things for ages, and now some have implemented IoT logistics technology to save time and money.

From the point of manufacture to the pharmacy, Zetes’ supply chain solutions help you:

• combat counterfeiting
• comply with identification, data-aggregation and traceability regulations
• secure your distribution channels: achieve tight delivery times; trace and fight theft, derivation, parallel market
• ensure swift problem resolution of claims and recalls

Mobile applications for the trucking sector are getting increasingly popular, with more than 70 major apps in the market in North America alone.

"The objective of such regulation would be to ensure availability of right drugs that meet the standards of quality to every person in need of medicines, curbing anti-microbial resistance and also regulating supply of medicines through online/internet," the ministry said.

The pharmaceutical industry now has the power to stamp out counterfeit drugs from entering the global supply chain, an initiative that is collaboratively supported by drug manufacturers, distributors, dispensers, and governments around the world. Track and trace provides full transparency as medicines move from manufacturer to dispenser to patient. It eliminates medicines unfit for distribution and ensures patient safety. But without the right strategy and mindset, it also creates the type of challenges that can sink a company doing business in global markets.

Aiming to curb arbitrary consumption of antibiotics, the health ministry and the central drugs regulator are developing an online platform, where all chemists and druggists will have to register.

Logistics and supply chains have a crucial role in customer service experiences in every industry from manufacturing to ecommerce fulfillment services. Customers expect express deliveries for their uniquely tailored products as soon as they have placed the order. The efficient management of the increased unique product variants, smaller shipment sizes, and increased complexity requires accurate real-time data on all goods along the supply chain. RFID brings the item, asset, and pallet level data available for further optimization of the processes.

More than 3,400,000,000 people worldwide own a smartphone. By 2021, that figure is expected to double. It is no wonder, then, that there is a revolution going on in the world of interactive packaging, with more and more brands and packaging designers establishing a connection between packaging and the consumer and the consumer via the Internet of Things. Slowly but surely, the days of user-unfriendly QR codes and uninspiring content are coming to an end. Instead, packaging designers are placing their bets on second-generation QR codes and near-field communication.

Even as supply chain operations grow steadily more automated and secure in most industries, life sciences still fight an outlying challenge: counterfeit medication. The proliferation of counterfeit drugs has become a major impediment not just for the bottom line, but also to public health and international trade. Thousands of people worldwide die every year from ingesting fake drugs – and it costs the pharmaceutical industry between $70 billion and $200 billion per year in lost profits, by various estimates. What began as a supply chain issue is now a wide-scale brand protection issue.

Adents Seriza comprises two primary tools. At the site level, Adents Supervisor manages and distributes serialized codes. Deployed on a central server at each production site, the module is the key central component of Adents’ serialization and aggregation suite. All line configurations are handled at the site level, leading to quicker implementation and scalability while greatly reducing the effort to revalidate lines when changes are made.

Pay As You Drive (PAYD) or Pay How You Drive (PHYD) insurance is becoming increasingly popular and more sophisticated. Driver performance scoring can be achieved by tracking vehicles and individual driver behaviour which can then be compared with the normal road conditions on a specific route.

“The NotaZone platform streamlines and automates the often complex administration that food legislation requires”, comments Martin Coates. “It allows each business in the supply chain to collaborate in their efforts to produce quality, sustainable food in a competitive global marketplace. “From the consumer perspective, a simple Follow This Food QR code can immediately trace the product back through the supply chain to the source producer, and even to an individual animal.

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Internet of Things offers great opportunities in transportation and logistics but also in the digital transformation of a crucial shackle of many supply chains: retail.

Hungary’s pharmaceutical industry, similarly to other European markets, will soon be facing “tremendous investment pressure” due to serialization becoming mandatory across all EU countries in 2019, according to a press statement sent to the Budapest Business Journal by serialization automation supplier Servicepoint Oy.

The use of this technology by healthcare-related entities, however, offers the potential for a highly secure, reliable, decentralized method to store and share data, reduce fraud, and increase integrity of data and support interoperability. Blockchain can also contribute to substantial cost savings, compliance with regulatory requirements, and ultimately assist in better patient care. As a result, many companies, consortia, and governments are exploring use cases for blockchain in healthcare.

Manufacturers of chemicals, food and beverage, gasoline, and pharmaceuticals have much to gain by employing the use of industrial internet of things technology. Here's a look.

"Our analysis uncovered three major findings. One, there is no such thing as “the” Internet of Things: today’s market is heavily driven by specific use case scenarios. Two, while in the aggregate, companies will spend an incremental €250 billion on IoT in 2020 (over and above their normal technology spending), three industries will account for approximately 50% of that spending. And three, although all layers of the IoT technology stack are poised to grow through 2020, the layers are not equally attractive."