One of the biggest challenges with supply chains remains the absence of clarity throughout the different stages and the lack of visibility in the end-to-end supply chain process. With the help of digital technology of traceability and serialization, it’s possible for businesses to optimize the supply chain journey and crosscheck the origins, location and status of products as well as to assign specific identifiers for them. Companies have been able to authenticate and track where the problematic resources are through this for fraudulent medicines, unsafe food exposed to contamination and unreliable, faulty medical equipment.
Specifically for the Pharma industry, Traceability and Serialization have proven to be life-saving allowing identifying and tracing of threats towards public health and safety at every step in the supply chain, i.e. items that are counterfeited, damaged, contaminated or tampered with. Traceability also provides crucial alerts, expiration and notifications of faulty pharmaceutical products. This is critical for medical institutions who can optimize workflow, so the focus is on providing care for patients.
Businesses benefit from serialized products as they are efficient, cost-effective and possible to identify. It allows them to retrieve the specific hazardous and faulty items instead of complete batches. One lesser discussed point is that it’s also a way for organizations to take control of the social impact and carbon footprint of their products by reducing wastage and reusing materials. Traceability helps in ensuring there’s fair, sustainable and ethical trade being practised. Through Traceability and Serialization, it’s possible to track and trace the entire end-to-end supply chain lifecycle globally leading to a more connected, safer, efficient, intelligent, and sustainable environment.