October 13, 2005
RFID and the cold chain
The cold chain is a supply chain of temperature sensitive products. The products can be perishable items like meat and dairy products or pharmaceutical products that can have their properties affected by temperature changes. Cold chain does not imply refrigeration but maintaining a constant temperature.
RFID helps the supply chain to maintain product temperature in accordance with the various compliance requirements. RFID-enabled monitors can be used to corroborate the temperatures at every stage of the supply chain. The RFID sensor also provides the participants in the supply chain with a standard reference; thereby eliminating confusion over using either the ambient temperature or the product temperature.
RFID provides improved tracking and tracing capabilities which allow pinpointing the stage in the supply chain where exceptions occur. However, in a cold chain, the real benefit of implementing RFID lies in being able to share the information generated at any point in the chain.
At present most of the integration work required for implementing RFID in the cold chain is being managed by small companies that are nimble enough to adapt to the technology changes that involve expertise in handling real-time changes. In the pharmaceutical industry, RFID provides the opportunity for platform convergence. This would imply using a single technology platform to track the product through the supply chain, monitor temperature, and verify hand-offs.
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