Track & Trace

In 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.

This 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 United Parcel Service or FedEx.

Uses

High speed conveyor with bar code scanner for tracking transport packages

Examples of start points might include completion of manufacturing, packaging, or an individual posting a letter, package, or parcel, or a manufacturer making and dispatching a product.

Identification by shipment documentation (delivery order, bill of lading, etc) , package labeling, bar codes, and RFID tags are commonly used.

For postal items, it is the informal name for the international S10 standard for tracking and tracing parcels via 13-character reference numbers. The term can generally refer to any system for tracking shipping containers, such as the 18-digit Serial Shipping Container Code.

Product diversion away from intended customers and (parallel importing), are increasing problems: Track and trace technologies are employed to help stop this. These procedures also help prevent and identify the incidence of counterfeit consumer goods.

Track and trace technology is used to help locate and identify items for product recall, often by specific product production lot number, date code, manufacturing location code, etc. This capability is required by regulation for certain food, pharmaceutical, and other sensitive products.

Products and industries

Examples include:

• Parcels shipped by postal or express couriers
• Intermodal containers
• Explosives
• Blood supply
• Food including produce, frozen foods, processed foods, meats, drinks etc
• Toys
• Pharmaceutical, vaccine, and drug products
• Medical devices
• Hospital supplies
• Weapons
• Chemicals
• Livestock
• Documents
• Software
• etc

Technology

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. Theses standards for Track 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 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.

An example of a generic RFID chip.

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.

Some produce traceability makers use matrix barcodes to record data on specific produce.

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.^[1] Packaging converters have a choice of three different classes of technology to print barcodes:

• Inkjet (dot on demand or continuous) systems are capable of printing high resolution (300 dpi or higher for dot on demand) images at press speed (up to 1000fpm). These solutions can be deployed either on-press or off-line. Companies such as Domino, MARKEM, VideoJet and EFI/Jetrion provide these technologies.
• Laser marking can be employed to ablate a coating or to cause a color change in certain materials. The advantage of laser is fine detail and high speed for character printing, and no consumables. Not all substrates accept a laser mark, and certain colors (e.g. red) are not suitable for barcode reading.

Thermal Transfer and Direct Thermal. For lower speed off-press applications, thermal transfer and direct thermal printers are ideal for printing variable data on labels.

Leveraging new advancements in mobile technology, food brands are now incorporating mobile messaging and QR codes on product labels. Consumers can text or scan the barcode with smartphones for immediate retrieval of product information. FoodLogiQ launched a mobile messaging solution that provides traceability and brand information about products to consumers via their mobile phones.^[2] YottaMark also announced the availability of the HarvestMark Traceability application for the G1-Phone which uses the phone camera to perform the traceback.^[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 of an item into a search box at the tracing website and view information.

References

External links

• EPCglobal EPC Information Services standard