How IIoT and RFID Save Products from Spoilage
Published: 2020-03-09 12:32:21

The supply chain is all about to deals with delicate products likewise medicines, food, nanomaterials, etc, Even a small mistake such as an inappropriate temperature or improper humidity level which is higher than the recommended level may lead to product spoilage. Most of the cold chain inefficiencies are often traced back to enterprises because of not having sufficient visibility into the location and condition of their sensitive cargo. 

RFID and IIoT give an explosion to the crucial data and thus minimize the root cause of cold chain issues. Let’s take a look into how the technologies work. With the help of smart inventory-management solutions, industries can analyze the location and storage environment of perishable inventory to reduce spoilage and related financial losses. 

In the pharmaceutical industry, 20 % of medicine is destructed due to shattered cold chain processes (https://www.hiotron.com/smarter-cold-chain-system/). As per BCG, in the US alone, 1.6 billion tons of food damages every year because of cold chain malfunctions.

RFID and IIoT: Role and Working Principles

Food, pharmaceuticals, nanomaterials and other products with restricted shelf life need continual location traceability and storage-environment monitoring. To acquire better visibility in terms of location and the condition of perishable inventory items, businesses can turn to RFID and IIoT technologies.
 
RFID

Generally, there are three important components in an RFID system: RFID tags, RFID readers and RFID antennas. In the cold chain, mostly passive RFID tags are utilized; they’re tiny, inexpensive and more mobile. These RFID tags do not have a power supply and should be powered by the energy from RFID readers to transfer data. RFID antennas provide the energy for the tags and transfer the data from the tags again back to the readers. RFID readers are utilized to read the data from the tags. 

An RFID reader takes in a radio signal from RFID tags transforms it into digital information and forwards it to the cloud platform for further processing. This is where Industrial IoT takes over a charge. The RFID technology allows the digital data encrypted in RFID tags to be transferred to an RFID reader through radio waves.  Passive tags need power from an RFID reader, while active tags have their own power source, which allows them to continuously transmit the radio signal. 

IIoT

IIoT utilizes a network of connected sensors connected to product packages, warehouse shelves and vehicles to trace the conditions in which sensitive products are restored. Along with it, the cloud platform—the core of an IIoT system—supplies storage and analytics abilities for both RFID- and sensor-produced data. 

The IIoT system gains RFID and sensor readings and runs them via analytics algorithms and predicts the findings in the form of dashboards, real-time product location maps, reports, etc. 

In addition, IIoT systems utilize the web or mobile applications to allow communication with users, for instance, it will send a notification to a warehouse worker’s mobile application if the temperature at a warehouse is going beyond a threshold. Along with describing and visualizing abilities, IIoT systems can be put to alert users about specific events. 

Application areas

To efficiently control products with short shelf lives, manufacturers need data about the locations, statuses and storage conditions of each and every individual inventory item. RFID and IIoT can supply this data, by allowing: 

1. Location and status tracing for every single inventory item

2. Inventory environment monitoring and management

To allow location and status tracking, a perishable item accepts an RFID tag. An organization employee approves a tag with a handheld RFID reader. After tags, approval an employee stores the data about the item i.e. shelf life recommended storage conditions, batch, etc. to a data warehouse through a web app or mobile-user application.

Once the tag's approval finished, a smart-inventory management solution sustains a command to trace labeled inventories at various levels, whether they walk down the processing line inside of the manufacturing facility, sit on the shelves in a warehouse or move from one manufacturing facility to other in a truck, etc.

When a tag comes in the range of an RFID reader, the reader inspects it and moves on its ID (together including reader’s ID and the time of the reading) to the cloud. The cloud processes the data further and by recognizing the location of the reader with the respective ID, which initiates the location of the tag at a specific time.

Along with recognizing the location of perishables, RFID supplies inventory experts with data about the actual status of every labeled object. For example, a warehouse worker utilizes an inventory-tracking app to appeal data on a specific stock-keeping unit, we can say, SKU X. The application removes the data on the SKU X and supplies the following response:

There are 1,000 items of SKU X in stock. Out of the 820 items were constructed 27 days ago; 180 items were constructed 120 days ago. In the case where any specific product’s shelf life is going to end sooner, and inventory-tracking app informs warehouse workers, near about 30 days before the expiry.

Inventory environment monitoring and control

We can say that RFID and IIoT clarify true value for perishable-inventory management when those technologies allow a shift from knowing not only the location and the status of every perishable item but also knowing its transport and storage conditions.

To allow condition tracking, sensors observing the parameters crucial for the products’ lifetime (such as humidity, temperature, disclosure to daylight, etc.) are connected to the innermost side of packages, vehicles or warehouse shelves. Sensor data is transferred to the cloud, where it is processed and examined. 

If any parameter differs from the recommended standard, an inventory-management solution activates an alert, informing inventory managers of the breach of storage or transportation conditions. As a result, a manufacturer gets up-to-the-second data about the parameters affecting the shelf life of perishable products.
	
The Parameters to track

Applied together, RFID and IIoT provide remarkable enhancements in perishable-inventory management. 

Product locations and movements:

With the help of crucial data about the location and the condition of each perishable, manufacturers can spot the intervals of the production process where damage regularly occurs. Inventory experts can track sensor logs and search out when and where, exactly, storage or transportations conditions were damaged. 

Product Storage Conditions:  

Estimation of the inventory volumes, together with the probability to gain alerts when a product shelf life is about to end or when storage conditions are ignored, aids to limit product-decay rates. To stay away from inventory spoilage, in turn, tends to lower financial losses due to inventory termination and a higher level of customer satisfaction.
 
Inventory Management:

With IIoT-based inventory-management solutions, manufacturers realize the status and the location of each tagged product, allowing them to maintain the optimal amount of inventory on hand and reduce the requirement to order various weeks of inventory in advance. 

Moreover, knowing the precise location of a product, material, status and condition of perishables, etc., minimizes search times, which tends to quicker and more effective manufacturing and supply chain operations. 

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