Optimized pharmaceutical supply chain management solution based on RFID technology

1. Social background and challenges

As the severity of the global counterfeit drug problem becomes increasingly prominent, the traceability and management of medical products has become increasingly important. According to the World Health Organization, the global counterfeit drug rate has exceeded 10%, and at least 200,000 people die from counterfeit drugs and improper use of drugs in China every year. Internationally, the traceability system of medical products has become the focus of regulatory agencies, and the US FDA has passed legislation to strengthen the application of drug transportation, sales, access and traceability systems.

At present, the supply chain management of pharmaceutical products in the medical field mainly relies on barcode recognition technology. Although barcode technology is relatively mature and widely used worldwide, it also has some insurmountable defects:

1. The same barcode encoding can only be defined as a category of products, and individual products in the same category cannot be identified.

2. The barcode scanning operation is visualized, and only one barcode can be identified at a time, and the batch operation efficiency is low.

3. Barcodes are easily damaged or contaminated, resulting in difficulty or inability to identify.

4. Barcodes Store limited information and cannot change printed barcodes.

5. Barcodes cannot penetrate non-metallic materials such as wood, paper and plastic.

6. Barcodes are easy to forge and cannot be used as a basis for anti-counterfeiting and traceability.

With the development of information technology, the efficiency and level of supply chain management have become the decisive factors for business success. Barcode-based information systems can no longer meet the needs of informatization. Problems such as lagging information collection methods and untimely data collection have led to the inability to ensure real-time synchronization and accuracy of information in all links of the supply chain. The pharmaceutical supply chain urgently needs a new generation of information technology systems.

2. Application of RFID technology

RFID wireless radio frequency identification technology is an automatic identification technology that has been widely used in recent years. It can quickly and accurately complete the original data collection required for computer information processing. RFID technology has the characteristics of large storage capacity, long-distance penetrating batch reading, and a globally unique ID number. These characteristics enable the application of RFID technology in pharmaceutical supply chain management to completely change the traditional supply chain model, maximize resource sharing, and improve the operating efficiency of the entire supply chain.

The application of RFID technology in pharmaceutical supply chain management can achieve all-round real-time monitoring of pharmaceutical products from production, warehousing, sales to consumption, avoid public medical safety issues, and play an important role in rectifying and standardizing the medical product market. At each node, RFID can not only make the collection of pharmaceutical product information more efficient and realize real-time information sharing on the supply chain, but also make the entire supply chain transparent, reduce inventory and reduce costs.

Based on the new generation of RFID information technology, a pharmaceutical supply chain management traceability platform is built to achieve full-process tracking and monitoring of drugs from raw materials, processing, production, storage to sales, standardize the pharmaceutical production and sales market, reduce unnecessary intermediate circulation links, fully control product inventory, improve production efficiency, establish the company's brand image, and increase market share. The platform will provide a real-time, transparent and accurate information management platform for enterprises, consumers and government regulatory departments.

3. System Design

3.1 System Framework

The pharmaceutical supply chain management system based on RFID technology is a comprehensive platform that covers all links of pharmaceutical products in the supply chain, including procurement, manufacturing, logistics and transportation, distribution, warehousing, distribution, retail and customers. The system uses RFID tags, RFID Readers, RFID middleware and regulatory information platforms to achieve rapid and automatic collection and identification of pharmaceutical products.

3.2 Process Analysis

3.2.1 Manufacturing Link

In the manufacturing link, RFID tags are attached to the outer packaging of drugs, which contain basic information about the drugs, such as type, batch number, expiration date and wholesaler. Through the RFID reader, drugs can be put in and out of the warehouse during the manufacturing process, and relevant information can be uploaded to the system server to establish an electronic File of the drugs. At the same time, handheld readers can be used to count the drugs in the warehouse to improve the accuracy and efficiency of inventory management.

3.2.2 Distribution Link

In the distribution link, RFID technology realizes the automatic identification and tracking of pharmaceutical products. The label information of the pharmaceuticals entering the distribution enterprise is automatically read by the RFID reader, and it is checked with the pre-arrival notice to realize a fast receiving and inspection process. When the drugs are shipped out, the corresponding drugs are selected according to the order information, and the inventory information is updated. These outbound documents arrive at the lower-level retail institutions with the drugs, and confirmation operations are performed to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of drug circulation.

3.2.3 Retail Link

In the retail link, RFID technology provides fast and accurate drug sales and traceability functions. The label information of the medicine is read through the handheld reader and writer, and it is checked with the delivery note to ensure the accuracy of the medicine. When the medicine is sold, the drug information, quantity information and user information are uploaded to the server to form an electronic document for outbound delivery, so as to realize the statistics and traceability of sales data.

3.2.4 Terminal Link Users

The terminal user can read the label information of the medicine through the handheld reader and writer, and check it with the sales list to ensure the authenticity and effectiveness of the medicine. At the same time, the user can also query the relevant information of the medicine through the network, understand the production and circulation of the medicine, and improve consumers' trust in the medicine.

3.3 Implementation Benefits

The application of RFID technology has brought significant implementation benefits in the management of the pharmaceutical supply chain. Compared with traditional manual scanning, RFID technology is not limited by visible light and can identify tags in a wider range, thereby reducing costs, improving the efficiency of supply chain automation, and reducing the error rate and inefficiency caused by human factors.

RFID tags have the characteristics of long-distance identification and large-capacity storage, so they have attracted much attention in various industries. After applying RFID tags to pharmaceutical products, enterprises in the entire supply chain can achieve rapid information sharing and interconnection, thereby significantly improving the efficiency of goods in and out of the warehouse, quickly and accurately obtaining feedback information on items, and optimizing the operation of the entire pharmaceutical supply chain.

The application of RFID technology has greatly improved the efficiency of warehousing and inspection. When pharmaceutical products with radio frequency tags arrive, the warehouse entry channel equipped with RFID readers can automatically identify radio frequency tags and complete the product warehousing operation based on the acquired tag information. This process simplifies traditional manual operations, saves a lot of human resources, and improves efficiency.

The application of RFID technology can also improve inventory accuracy. By using RFID tags to quickly count pharmaceutical products, it not only improves efficiency, but also makes data management more accurate and timely, and also improves the accuracy of pharmaceutical product inventory.

The application of RFID technology has greatly improved the speed of pharmaceutical product delivery. The warehouse exit channel equipped with RFID readers can automatically identify the information on pharmaceutical products with RFID tags and complete the delivery operation without manual scanning, thereby improving the delivery efficiency.

The application of RFID technology can also effectively improve the real-time nature of information data. Through close connection with the flow of goods and data, RFID technology eliminates the lag phenomenon that goods have arrived but the information system has not yet processed them. It is beneficial for upstream and downstream enterprises in the supply chain to understand the current status of goods in real time, while also saving labor costs and improving the operating efficiency of the supply chain.

RFID tags also have anti-counterfeiting functions, which can effectively prevent the influx of counterfeit products. Since RFID tags have the characteristics of encryption and are not easy to be imitated, the use of RFID tags on pharmaceutical products can effectively play the role of product anti-counterfeiting and protect the rights and interests of consumers and the safety of medication.