Category: Traceability

What is the Global Supply Chain?

Global supply chains (GSC) are the network chains spread across multiple continents and countries for sourcing and supplying trade items to minimize overall cost and increase customer satisfaction. They involve government bodies, legal and regulatory intermediaries, local traders, and political parties with the added complexity of different import and tariff duties, custom services, and fiscal systems.

How are they different from the domestic supply chain?

Contrary to the local or domestic supply chain, which has the parties within the national boundaries, the global supply chain has its suppliers, producers, distributors, and customers spread across the globe for cost-effective and responsive deliveries. Compared to the local supply chain, GSCs provide various benefits that include reduced price due to low labour and material cost, better opportunities for innovation, higher market share, better suppliers in the competitive market, and better quality of products and services.

What are the major challenges of GSC?

GSC comes with increased managerial difficulties. The involvement of foreign firms demands a higher degree of mutual coordination. In GSC, information flow, material handling, inventory management, warehouse management, and transportation become more complex because of wider geographic scope, international laws, different languages, higher lead time, different time zones, more number of supply chain partners, quality issues, environmental standards, and socioeconomic issues.

Besides, increased globalisation and competitiveness have changed the nature of customers. Today, they demand more transparency with fast and steady deliveries. This has created an environment of innovation and technological adaptation all over the world. Moreover, supply chains have started to charter deliveries of products which seemed impossible previously. Now, products with smaller shelf life are also being transported from one corner of the world to another. All this has forced GSCs to become more resilient by making smarter investments with organizations like GS1 India for better traceability. 

What is Product Traceability?

Product traceability is the ability to identify, track and trace the items or products throughout the supply chain. As the product moves from one trading partner to another, traceability system captures the information on What (is the product), When (at what time?), Who (With whom), Where (with which trading partner), and Why (why was it scanned?) about the product, and allows authorized users to securely access this information whenever they want.  Product traceability is an important tool to troubleshoot product or logistics-related problems. It offers continuous monitoring, quality control, waste minimisation, systematic information sharing, and increased transparency between different parties. Product traceability also ensures accurate records of product history, which can be used to eliminate internal and external non-value-adding activities. Internal traceability refers to tracing the product within the house. For example, keeping track of products during different stages of production activity or tracing the storage location within warehouse(s). External traceability helps to know where the product is currently located between various supply chain parties. For example, it will tell if the product is being shipped from India to the USA or is received by a warehouse in Texas. 

How GS1 India’s traceability services are contributing to GSC management?

With numerous advantages, the global marketplace also imposes many challenges on its supply chains, and organisations actively seeking support from global standards for tackling these issues. GS1 India is helping organisations to overcome these challenges that include longer delivery time, complexity in handling extensive product portfolio, difficulties in data gathering and drawing significant business insights, imposing security, loss of control over the supply chain, non-compliance with local norms by bringing supply chain visibility. GS1 organisations have gained trust worldwide in providing efficient product traceability services.

International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) has defined Traceability in the ISO 9001 standard, which also complies with the GS1 traceability standard. With its standards-based traceability services, GS1 India helps brand owners comply with governmental regulations, global quality certifications, social and environmental accreditations by keeping track of the product, raw materials, and processes it went through. Currently, all the leading organizations have either made traceability part of their system or working towards it. According to a news article published by Forbes in 2019, Subway has 98% of its products traceable using GS1 barcodes.

GS1 India’s traceability service provides infrastructure that enables MNCs to make data-driven decisions, taking competitive advantages, and building a sustainable business environment. By providing Global Trade Item Number (GTIN), GS1  helps you overcome barriers by ensuring a single code of universal product identification. The unique identification facilitates global chains to trace their products effortlessly. 

Few products such as drugs and medical ingredients are highly expensive. They need a temperature-controlled environment for shipment for which traceability is inevitable. GS1 India’s traceability service offer 24×7 visibility to troubleshoot issues with products and shipments.

With GS1 India’s traceability service, you can manage your business activities and logistics using its efficient dashboard management. You can check the required data in visual and other desirable formats using the cloud-based traceability platform.

Worldwide demand for vaccine production has escalated exponentially since the vaccines for the ongoing coronavirus pandemic were developed. Multiple stakeholders including government and private organisations, NGOs, healthcare institutions, pharmaceutical companies, and more have come together to supply vaccines to the population. However, the global demand is extremely high and with the need for speedy and large-scale production and administration of vaccines, countries are facing the challenge of securely procuring, storing, and transporting the vaccine to thousands of healthcare facilities.

The two COVID-19 vaccines primarily being administered in India right now are Covishield and Covaxin, and both need to be taken in two doses. The time interval between the two doses varies for both vaccines. A third vaccine, Sputnik, has recently been introduced as well. The logistical complications of safely storing and distributing these vaccines are many, and a system that can identify each unique consignment supplied through various channels is the need of the hour.

Tracking vaccine movement accurately, creating end-to-end visibility at each stage of the supply chain and diligent record-keeping is important as it will help manufacturers and distributors keep track of their consignments in the supply chain. Keeping consistent records will be a great help to all key stakeholders in the vaccine supply chain, from distribution partners to healthcare workers.

To enable this, a standardised process to identify and track vaccines in the supply chain is required because every single consignment of vaccines changes many hands before reaching its final customer/patient, i.e., an individual to whom the dose will be administered. With each new stage of the supply chain, there is a new level of complexity that is added. In the past, vaccines have lost in transit, substandard product entered into the chain, or consignments reaching their destination with damaged or expired vials of the vaccine.

The present high vaccine demand and low supply offers a fertile ground for vaccine counterfeiters to try and make a quick profit. Several fakes have been identified, and even fake versions of drugs like Remdesivir have been found. Present circumstances are such that vaccines are not just prescribed to young children for illnesses dino tube that have already been eradicated – the coronavirus vaccines are one of the most important resources in the world right now. This makes the need for a clear supply chain that is traceable from the point of origin to the final stage in the process, an urgent and crucial one.

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Manufacturers or importers of vaccines should take the necessary steps to ensure that product labels carry standardised markings and utilise an end-to-end traceability system. Each record should also have key information like the batch number and expiry date, to enable validation of vaccines. 

UNICEF has suggested a specification for a minimum basic traceability system to support countries avoid counterfeit or falsified medicines. Barcoding is vital in maintaining traceability, as each barcode is unique and can be identified as such. Unique identification encoded in barcodes is recommended by WHO on all levels of pinay flix vaccine packaging used for transit by manufacturers, except for the primary packaging of the product. A system that can lend ease and convenience to the tracking process, such as simply scanning a barcode, is very much required. It can facilitate efficient tracking of data and provides visibility in the supply chain so that recalling a consignment, for any reason, can be made easily.

GS1 India offers traceability service that meets global requirements, such as UNICEF standards, and has a host of benefits:

• It can help validate product barcodes, detect fraudulent consignments of vaccines and protect brand image and identity
• Provides accurate product information and control over product movement
• Batches in the supply chain can be efficiently tracked
• Helps reduce operational costs over an extended period of time
• Manual errors are eliminated and operations can run smoothly
• Provides better expiry management with First-In, First-Out (FIFO) system
• Identifies when stocks are low and need to be replenished
• Provides data insights to gain a better understanding of on-ground problems with the supply chain

Traceability, in the case of vaccines especially, is vital to ensure transparency across the supply chain and to ensure that the end consumers are safe. An end-to-end vaccine traceability helps perform recalls efficiently as and when required, from any stage of the supply chain.

Public Procurement’ to carry barcoding at the primary package level in 2019

With the production of vaccines constantly being accelerated to be able to keep up with global demands, traceability of vaccines and the capability for healthcare stakeholders to validate them at the point of administration is a pressing need. To enable this, each vaccine must be labelled with a 2D barcode and equipped with standardised information capture so as to fast-track logistical processes and track vaccines accurately no matter how far from the point of origin they have to be transported. Covert or forensic technologies can also be introduced on product packaging to add an extra layer of increased security to safeguard important resource from counterfeiters and fraudsters.

The ability to trace a product’s journey to its source is intangible yet priceless. Tracing has already helped identify forged batches of Covid-19 vaccines.

The positive traceability results are a testament to the tools and technologies that are readily accessible to us in the current times. In the same vein, the traceability mechanism has been applied in today’s world trade markets, but it hasn’t yet been used to its complete potential because of many confusions and doubts amongst brand owners. ‘How will this help me?’, ‘Will it really make a huge difference?’. Such questions plague the minds of many brand owners who eventually decide to forgo the traceability option altogether.

Traceability: The Road to supply chain traceability

In case of perishable goods, brand owners usually face challenges when it comes to expiry date management of their products. A good traceability system allows them to manage their products distribution through the FIFO model. This helps brand owners distribute those products to the retailers whose expiry date is nearing and thus avoid business loss.

There are several actors one needs to consider before opting for a traceability system. Factors such as different costing models, vast catalogs of products with different types/shapes/sizes, varying regulatory compliances across countries/states, and distinct health safety rules need to be accounted for. So, if you are tracing products, even for a single manufacturer, you need to process numerous dynamics and create a seamless platform that accounts for everything. And, you need to do all that while keeping the expense manageable.

Despite these seemingly insurmountable challenges, traceability is essential if you want to succeed in today’s highly competitive business world. The good news is that there are organizations that have already implemented the traceability process successfully, and allowed manufacturers/brand owners to function transparently with complete accountability of every product.

Employ Registered Traceability Options for Best Results

The vast scope of the traceability process in retail makes it hard to be implemented by an isolated vendor, reseller, aggregator, or product manufacturer. The good news is that GS1 India a standards body already has a readymade platform in place for traceability. All the complexity of the process is eliminated through a layer of abstraction, and you get to build a bond of trust with your clients effortlessly.

Key attributes of a dedicated traceability platform are:

• Ability to track the location of a particular product at any given time
• Better inventory management by keeping track of expiry dates
• Global acceptance of products within local and international markets
• Integrated with various relevant databases for quick product information access
• Compliance with major national/international rules and regulations

A dedicated, well-established, and more importantly – internationally recognized – platform becomes hugely important when you are entering new markets. GS1 India provides your brand with an unmatched level of transparency, which in the long run has many amazing benefits for your business.

Indian agricultural sector is considered as the backbone of our country. Two-third of our population is dependent on agriculture directly or indirectly. The sector is not merely a source of livelihood but it is the main source of food, fodder and fuel.

This is the only sector that contributed to the growth of not only itself but also of the other sector of the country as well which makes it a basic foundation of our economic development.

India is the leading producer of spices, fish, poultry, livestock, plantation crops and ranks as the world’s largest producer of milk, pulses and jute. It is the only sector that has led to the growth of not only of itself but of the country’s other sector as well.

Indian companies produce everything required as agricultural inputs, starting from seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation equipment to farm machinery and plant health technologies.

However, there are still several obstacles that need to be tackled to keep the country self-reliant in fulfilling its food needs and increase exports of agricultural produce, besides contributing to the Prime Minister’s mandate of doubling the farmers’ income and revamping agricultural economy by 2022.

One of the major obstacles that have come to the forefront from the past several months is the quality of seeds reaching to farmers.  A seed particularly has an important input into agriculture, which has a major responsibility for crop production and contribution of all other inputs are largely depends on the quality of seeds. It is estimated that the direct contribution of quality seed alone has a positive impact on overall production by approximately 15-20 percent.

Sub-standard seeds affect farming and impact livelihood of farmers. Over the past few years, farmers have reported that the poor quality of seed impacted their crops and their overall livelihood. This is despite the fact that India has approximately 135 seed testing laboratories and 25 seed certification authorities.

This hints at the bigger problem of counterfeiting of seeds, leading to low-quality of seeds reaching to market, and then to farmers. The problem calls for the immediate adoption of such a system that will prevent the counterfeiting of seeds and ensure only genuine and high-quality seeds reach to farmers.

The best way to enhance Indian agricultural sector is by introducing global standards of barcoding and effective end-to-end traceability system to ensure that Seed Corporations and the agricultural departments in the Centre and State governments can keep a check on supply chains and ensure that no infiltration is happening in between. This will result in high-quality seeds reaching to farmers.

With this objective, the government is developing a portal where information on seed could be captured digitally, including grower’s details, lot number, production data and seed testing laboratory codes.

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This would help users (farmers and retailers selling seeds) decode it with the scan of a barcode to validate information on the seed packet. However, this solves the counterfeit issue just on the surface as most counterfeit products copy entire product labels, including barcodes, which will still pose validation problems.

To tackle that, we need to uniquely identify each unit that is being sold, so that we know that a product once sold, could not be sold again. This would act as an effective mechanism to detect and arrest counterfeits at the point of sale. GS1 global supply chain standards enable this and have proved effective in controlling counterfeits and enabling product authentication at point-of-sale.

Additionally, the adoption of global identification standards would help uniquely identify each seed packet. Also, its adoption enables compliance with global regulations, providing seed manufacturers with a competitive edge in the global market. And most importantly, this will increase farmers’ income by ensuring they have access to high-quality seeds. Traceability system help farmers in track, trace and identify seed’s origin such as from where the seed has arrived or been produced during the purchase of seeds.

Some other benefits of adoption of Global Traceability Standards include: 

• Enhanced operational efficiency in distribution, transport and logistic processes
• Ability to react faster to incident or crisis and more targeted recalls
• Ability to authenticate the origin of seeds by capturing its supply chain journey
• Detecting counterfeit
• Increased transparency between business-to-business and business-to-consumer transactions, enabling trust

To avail the benefits of GS1 India’s Traceability service for a transparent supply chain process, visit us at https://support.gs1india.org/traceability-service-consultation

Today, almost every product in the market comes under the perishable category, as every product has a shelf life. But when we talk about perishable goods, we usually mean the items with shorter shelf life, such as food items, medicines and other consumables. These perishable goods require faster response time for recalling them in case if any damage or problem detected. Traceability can help minimize the distribution of harmful items to the consumers by ensuring faster response rate and quicker product recalls. Let us understand how.

Why is traceability important for perishable goods?

Traceability gives brand owners visibility of their products along the supply chain – from its origin till the point of sale.

At every point in the supply chain journey, there are multiple trading partners responsible for moving the product till it is sold to the consumers. Moreover, each finished product usually has several components like raw materials, ingredients, etc., which may have been provided by different suppliers.

Traceability helps trace each of these elements from across the upstream supply chain, amongst multiple trading partners, ensuring any issue is detected easily and as early as possible. Hence, traceability establishes a relation between upstream and downstream supply chain. Let us get an idea how traceability does the job of establishing this link.

Upstream and Downstream Traceability

Upstream Traceability is the journey of a product from farm to the manufacturer, while Downstream Traceability is the journey of a product from manufacturer to the consumer. Every product is made of various components. Every component has its shelf life. And this stands true for food items as well. Consumable such as food, beverages, etc., usually have a shorter life span. With traceability, not only can product batches be tracked in the downward supply chain but even its components that has gone into those batches can be easily traced in the upward supply chain.

Does traceability help in quick recall to ensure consumer safety?

Yes, traceability helps in quicker product recalls for all categories, but it is much more critical for perishable goods. Faster recall can also help in safeguarding a brand’s reputation in the market. It is also especially helpful in case of pharmaceutical drugs where delays can result in fatality.

Want to know more about product traceability and how it can add value to your operations? Read more about GS1 India’s traceability solution.