Hanmi Pharmaceuticals RFID technology maximizes supply chain efficiency

Pharmaceuticals are one of the most sensitive and regulated product categories in the world, which means any pharmaceutical tracking and management system must be completely reliable and prevent theft, fraud or counterfeiting. One of the world's largest RFID-based drug management systems has successfully adopted RFID tags to ensure supply chain integrity.

Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co., one of South Korea's largest pharmaceutical companies, uses RFID to improve efficiency, monitor product shipments and help it meet government-imposed quality management requirements. The company has fully deployed RFID tags to track everything from packaging, picking to shipping, automating the process of receiving orders and shipping boxes of products to wholesalers for 60 million items a year.

Since 2009, the company has been demonstrating supply chain management of sensitive pharmaceuticals. Hanmi installed an Automated Picking System (APS) to work with RFID, using EPC Gen 2 passive UHF RFID tags and readers to identify products, allowing these items to be collected, packed and shipped without human intervention. In fact, because each box is packed for an order, the only manual aspect of the process is inspection by Hanmi employees.

Break with tradition

In the Korean pharmaceutical industry, the distribution structure (direct transactions and wholesale transactions) is complex, and the pharmaceutical production and distribution processes are mainly handled manually. In addition, during the distribution process, there are many difficulties in managing the appropriate amount of inventory and drug expiration dates due to the inability to properly use the POS system in every pharmacy across the country.

On the contrary, Hanmi's RFID-based traceability system can effectively manage the production history, inventory status and logistics traceability of products in this complex pharmaceutical environment, thereby protecting the owner's rights and reducing unnecessary inventory management in the logistics process. cost.

Although the new system encountered some initial resistance in the face of the industry's conservative attitude and insufficient understanding of RFID technology, after the introduction phase, the Hanmi system was rapidly adopted nationwide and covered the entire country within nine years of its launch.

Complete verification of each drug

Hanmi's Pedigree system is more than just a drug distribution management system, used to manage the process between various drugs being produced by pharmaceutical companies and distributed to Hospitals and pharmacies before being sold to patients. It can also prevent counterfeit drugs with deadly threats from appearing on the market and solve the problem of unlicensed drugs flowing into the pharmaceutical supply chain.

Use of the latest tracking system has also been accelerated by South Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare's Drug Affairs Act, which required manufacturers to attach RFID or Code 128 barcodes to prescription drugs six years ago. Hanmi uses RFID for prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs.

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Customized labels for specific needs

Hanmi uses RFID tags in its solution. To meet Hanmi's requirements, dedicated RFID Inlays and tags were developed for inventory and supply chain management, including small sizes from 35x18mm to 15x11mm and special specifications of 97x13mm.

These custom labels and inlays meet Hanmi's specific needs (including labeling very small vials and ampoules) and feature Impinj Monza IC. The RFID system used is based on Impinj reading and writing equipment and the channel gate antenna system developed by Hanmi.

Smart products create smart factories

Hanmi is working hard to solidify its international leadership position as a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO).

The company's next stage of development will be to use the "big data" accumulated from its existing RFID-based manufacturing system, which it began installing in Hanmi's "smart factories" in 2009. Existing RFID systems will track and record product information at every step of the supply chain, from production to sales, and this information will be used to create new analysis Tools.

This new investment will be used to more efficiently produce batches or small quantities of a variety of experimental drugs, such as double-layer tablets, film-coated or uncoated tablets, hard gelatin capsules and multi-capsules. Using this data to streamline production processes in "smart factories" will allow Hanmi to maximize efficiency and competitiveness.