What Are the Differences Between Item Level Tagging, Case Level Tagging and Pallet Level Tagging? (Episode 008) at RFID Radio by Academia RFID

What are the differences?
How do you do it?
What are the benefits?
Is RFID just a barcode replacement?
How is RFID changing business models in the pharmaceutical industry?

John Beans, Blue Vector
Photo : John Beans, Vice President of Marketing, Blue Vector

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Show Notes (below)

Interview Details

Blue Vector is a network appliance company. Its plug & play appliances make it easy to implement AIDC at different packaging levels namely the item, case and pallet level. Blue Vector specialises in the pharmaceutical industry where it help its clients perform automatic replenishment by using a “Smart Cabinet” placed in a hospital (it works like the Smart Fridge we’ve all heard about).

In the podcast, we talk about how McKesson uses Blue Vector Smart Cabinets for Pfizer’s Viagra and for GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK’s) Trizivir in order to monitor the item usage of each vial. The Smart cabinets use both HF and UHF frequencies.

RFID tagging can occur at different packaging levels. Here are just a few examples that John Beans discusses:

Pfizer uses RFID at the item level: a HF RFID tag is affixed to the bottle and emits at a short range (less than 1 foot).

Pfizer uses RFID at the case level: a UHF RFID tag which emits up to 12 feet.

Other companies can also use pallet tags: If they want to locate a product at a very far distance, within an entire distribution center for example, it can use an active RFID tag that sends its signal up to 300 feet away.

Monitoring life critical drugs is serious business. Using RFID in the hospital’s Smart Cabinet enables the distributor to monitor the exact item usage of each bottle as its being deployed. This means real time knowledge that allows Just-in-Time on demand replenishment. This can save lives.

Additional reading

This image illustrates the technical challenges of RFID in the pharmaceutical industry

A hospital tracks the usage of supplies with a Smart Cabinet similar to one John Beans was telling us about

McKesson Starts RFID Pilot for Viagra

GlaxoSmithKline Tests RFID on HIV Drug

Pfizer is putting HF tags on its Viagra bottles

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3 Responses to “What Are the Differences Between Item Level Tagging, Case Level Tagging and Pallet Level Tagging? (Episode 008)”

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1 Mike Sep 26th, 2007 at 10:01 pm

Hi everyone.

Thanks for the informative podcast. I just read an article on RFID Journal about how approximately 50 hospitals are using units that monitor the quantity and temperature of refrigerated medicines provided on consignment. Does this system use the type of RFID fridge discussed in the podcast?

The article is here :
http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/3632/1/1/
2 John Beans Oct 3rd, 2007 at 1:54 pm

Mike,
Yes, the medical refrigerators are manufactured by Helmer, and are retrofitted with RF Code RFID readers and Blue Vector appliances. Our appliances handle the reader control, temperature monitoring, networking, and back-end integration.
Kind regards,
–John
3 vijay kumar Nov 11th, 2009 at 6:36 am

hi, i am student i really got so much information about RFID and the where its going.

Keep posting the new podcasts

I am glad to you all who r helping this blog

Thanking you
vijay