Hitesh Jain

RFID is a short form of Radio Frequency Identification. RFID Technology is used in many commercial and industrial applications like keeping track of supply chain, inventory management, keeping track of items, and also ins & out of items in the malls. Now we get the question of what exactly is RFID technology? It is a form of wireless communication that incorporates the use of electromagnetic or electrostatic coupling in the radio frequency portion of the electromagnetic spectrum to uniquely identify an object. There are two main types of RFID tags: i)Active RFID ii)Passive RFID. RFID Technology is composed of three main elements: - The RFID Tag which contains data that uniquely identifies an object - A RFID Reader which reads and writes the data on the tags - A backend database is used to record the data collected by the tag readers. Why do we use RFID Technology, and what are its benefits? It is not new technology we can track back to the 1940s, but it has become more frequent and updated since 1970. As we know, how costly and time-consuming it is to create tags, manage inventory, manually data entry, tracking objects. At first, we were not completely dependent on this technology but nowadays, mainly in the healthcare industry, supermarkets, manufacturers, supply chain management, and agriculture. The most common RFID applications in the Healthcare industry like hospitals are inventory tracking, control access, staff and patients tracking, tracking tools, tracking disposable consumables, tracking large/expensive equipment, laundry tracking, etc. we know that in the healthcare sector if we do not manage properly it can lead to a huge impact on public health and also one of the causes that lead to death. So this RFID Technology has a huge impact on the healthcare industry. Lack of information and access, inventory tracking and management, staff and patient tracking, tools tracking, and medicine tracking are major concerns in the healthcare industry. But RFID technology provides various solutions to these problems by automatically identifying, tracking, and recording RFID tags attached to objects. The need to secure and authenticate pharmaceutical products has increased tremendously with the emerging counterfeit product market. The motivation to introduce counterfeit pharmaceutical products in the supply chain could be to gain rapid economic benefits or affect the reputation of strong brands in the pharmaceutical industry. RFID technology can be used to deter counterfeiting attempts. RFID Technology Applications in the Pharmaceutical Industry The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare department and worldwide are interested in knowing materials used in the preparation of medicinal products, equipment, and the areas used for manufacturing, distribution, tracking, etc. They require and demand documentary evidence for all these parameters; RFID Technology can be a good candidate to address this problem. Let’s discuss some of the major areas of application of RFID technology in the pharmaceutical industry: Inventory and Warehousing Management The pharmaceutical industry handles different types of materials, so the identity of materials and stock management is a critical activity. The materials handled are categorized in different categories, and their identification and movement tracking are essential for the management of the pharmaceutical unit. To do these manually, we need much human effort and, most importantly, time, which we don't have nowadays in the industry. These more time-consuming are documentaries and recording. Tracking all these materials is a big task and a challenge that RFID technology can address. There are two main areas in inventory & warehousing management and control where RFID Technology can be useful, firstly, tracking entry and exit of raw materials and finished goods, and secondly, smart shelving and smart searching. Access Control In pharmaceutical manufacturing operations, many activities, areas, materials, and documents are required to be handled by several people with different positions. Some of these documents are critical and confidential, and hence not everyone is allowed to access them. So, this is required to maintain a level of secrecy and operational safety. One approach to address this issue is providing selective access to who is authorized to access them. RFID technology may be used here to restrict access to authorized resources. Some areas in the pharmaceutical industry where RFID Technology can be used for access control: ○Sterile Product Processing ○Critical Process Areas ○Documentation Room ○Entry and Exit to Building ○Machine Operation Access Anti-Theft Theft is one of the major issues faced by almost all pharmaceutical industries. The problem arises right from the earliest project stage to the last stage. RFID Technology can be used to track and trace valuable assets, for example, by triggering an alarm to sound or a camera to take a photo when tagged items pass through doorways. This will have improved control over the theft of such items from the plant. Asset Management In the pharmaceutical industry, RFID Technology can also be used to track different assets like furniture and fixtures, medical equipment, analytical instruments, computers, computer accessories, etc. Having these items RFID tagged can help to manage them and it is easy to audit. Item Level Tagging If RFID tags become more cost-effective, today's value ranges from 0.10$ to 1.50$ per tag. Then item-level tagging could be brought in place. This would offer the facility to track products right up to the retail pharmacy level or at least to a transportable shipper or a wholesaler. Dry Diversion Prevention Diversion or Re-channeling means directing an item of medical supply of low price range to the high price range market sector. As we know what happened during the Corona crisis, Remade Sivir injection demand goes up. That many cases came to the daylight of illegal transport, and black marketing. It can be prevented by RFID Technology. RFID enables us to identify and act on diverted products to prevent their re-entry into the supply chain. Counterfeit Drugs Tamper-proof RFID tags can also be used to prevent drug counterfeiting. It is assumed that the pharmacies and hospitals across the globe would have a shared secure database, which would be used to verify drugs. Conclusion As the pharmaceutical industry gets more familiar with RFID technology and as the cost of using this technology also reduces to an affordable level, the scope of application will be even larger and ever-increasing. In the long term, the industry will benefit economically to a large extent. Not only this, but the workload will also decrease by half using RFID Technology.