Product Serialisation in the Supply Chan is happening now. Progressive Manufacturers have to be prepared for the next steps the Industry must take to move forward with this approach. Serialisation the widely recognised benefits are:
It enhances patient safety.
It ensures regulatory compliance.
It enhances visibility into product movement within the Supply Chain.
It helps to make better business decisions around SC-integrity, inventory management, returns and rebates.
It exchanges Serialised information, financial processes like chargeback administration.
Refund processing and pricing of returned goods can also be streamlined.
It protects product authenticity and lowers healthcare costs.
It can track units.
It can track individual unit serial numbers and better identify the incorrect returned product.
It reduces the impact of higher healthcare costs for individuals and the system.
No doubt, there is a rise of Internet pharmacies and an increasing purchasing of products from other countries causing great risk. Serialisation Data helps to more quickly identify where the recalled product is in the Supply Chain and efficiently remove that product before it reaches patients, enhancing patient safety. Besides, in the case of in-transit cargo theft, the manufacturer would know what serial numbers were involved in the stolen shipment and may avoid the need to recall an entire lot of product. If only a portion of the lot is taken, and could also help prevent product shortages that may come as a result of a full lot recall.
Serialisation can track individual unit serial number, and it also reduces the impact of healthcare cost for the patient and the institute. Manufacturers foresee that improved business processes will likely result from widespread Product Serialisation Data access.
Better data access can also help streamline accuracy of orders and returns processing because manufacturers will be able to verify data about delivered shipments.
When it comes to sharing Product Serialised data, there are two options:
Point-to-point - the starting point for manufacturers who begin the data-sharing process, but it has limitations. Use point-to-point on pilot projects and get familiar with its restrictions. They are not likely to be a natural alternative and could lead to issues with master data downstream. Point-to-point has proven to be time-consuming and laborious to manage.
Cloud-based solutions – Emerging as the next step for many companies, they offer a repository and communication hub to receive analyse and transmit data between trading partners; it enables Supply Chain visibility, chain of custody reporting and tracks and traces functionality; Cloud solutions is seen as a real opportunity moving forward. The Cloud will allow to post information and push it to trading partners seamlessly. Data will be more secure in a Cloud across the Supply Chain.
Another benefit of a Cloud-based Solution is that it does not require a massive footprint at the customer level, and its flexibility opens up opportunities for other services like track-and-trace and product authentication.
The Industry partners must build trust among trading participants. They need to struggle to make product Serialisation happen. If they are involved at the same time, finds solutions together, potential issues will be eliminated, focusing mainly on sharing it to benefit healthcare as a whole.
To avoid facing technology barriers, a shareholder must make extra efforts first to develop a Serialised data in pilots, which will be transmitting to the entire Industry. There is a significant concern that lack of tech skills, particularly with small, independent pharmacies, could obstruct the widespread use of Serialised data.
Who needs these Serialised data?
A culture of scanning and utilising product data must be entirely accepted within the SC, because all parties, sooner or later, will need access to this information. The investment in the technology to allow shared data may be too high for some providers, so, there’s a need to develop lower cost answers for pharmacies, and a culture among all parties to obtain and use scanner technology within the SC.
Those who ships and sells products directly will need to access the data, including wholesalers and pharmacies with direct relationships with your company. It must be a two-way exchange, which requires security measures viable through a Cloud-based service that can segment customers to varying levels of data access.
Participants must follow regulation, federal compliance initiative, working along with law enforcement, providing product data to assist in investigations or to enforcement bodies, specifically regulators who may need this information. A trend on the rise is to involve the consumer in this processes through the use of mobile phone services that access Serialisation Data to authenticate products.
Teamwork is critical when conducting pilot projects, try to tackle pilots on your own, and implicate other industry participants to work together, weight one another’s work and best practices to collaborate in the development of data exchange.
Summing up: cutting-edge manufacturers are already improving their Product Data Sharing efforts, while others have not yet started on this journey. They recommend first pilot projects their companies have already run. It’s important to test not only small volumes, but real-life commercial quantities, get the expert-management team on aboard, establish a budget, and engage other Industry parties with the comprehensive knowledge necessary to extend this process resource to help participants understand requirements and capabilities. The entire Supply Chain must embark on to guarantee that data can be exchanged to enhance patient safety and advance the Healthcare Supply Chain. There is no time to waste, start as now!
Dave Food