 Hello and welcome back to the supply chain digitization course by NPTEL, I am Professor Sushmita Narayan from the Indian Institute of Management Mumbai. In the last lecture, we were looking at some of the popular technologies that are being used in track and trace systems, one of them being barcodes and the other being QR codes. In this lecture, I am going to continue upon the various types of popular technologies that are being used, their application potential and then we look at how the technologies can actually be integrated with supply chains, what will be the role of people as well and we will conclude with a summary of the benefits and challenges associated with implementing track and trace systems. So, in the last session, we were looking at the application potential of QR codes where we saw that QR codes can be applied on secondary packaging, pallets, cartons, even on facilities, let us say you have visited a theater and you wanted to provide a review of the theater. Then you can scan the QR code associated with the theater, it is going to directly link to a website where you can give your feedback. It can be also associated with let us say restaurant dining experience. Similarly, when it comes to equipment, suppose you want to assign equipment for maintenance activities to certain personnel, they can be provided the QR codes in which the personnel have to just move to the kind of products, scan it and then figure out what are the associated issues and complaints that could be relevant to that equipment and what kind of activities need to be carried out. It can also be used in a variety of software applications. We very commonly use this in our messaging systems, let us say you want to use WhatsApp on any kind of device, then you can quickly scan the QR code and link the WhatsApp on your phone with the WhatsApp in the device. So, we see a lot of application potential for QR codes these days both in hard format, hard copy format as well as in digital formats. In that way, it is much more flexible when compared to using barcodes. Then we have more advanced technologies that are used when it comes to labeling and tracking systems. One of them is called as RFID, RFID tags are very popular as well. These are basically radio frequency identification tags that actually have embedded chips in them which can store information and relay this information basis signals that they receive from a reader. So, RFID readers which are used in order to capture the information related to the product or whatever system that we are discussing. Now what is the main benefit of having RFID tags? In comparison with let us say barcodes and QR codes which require that the scanner needs to be quite close to the code and that the you know the code is actually being printed on a specific surface that is not the case in RFID tags. The RFID tag used for tracking basis the chip which is present in the tag and there is no requirement for too much close proximity between the RFID tag and the RFID reader. So the product which is going to be tracked can be embedded deep inside that specific location and we can still track that the product is present over there. So for that purpose, this is quite useful when we are scanning items that are moving on conveyor systems where we do not necessarily require too much of static presence of the product as well as that of the scanner. The product can keep moving and the RFID tag gets scanned as it moves through the zone where the signals are going to get captured. So this is one of the benefits of having this that is why they are quite popular in manufacturing and assembly systems where items are going to move on the line one after another and we need to be ensuring that they move to the right kind of workstation as they proceed through various steps. They are also used for large storage systems like containers and pallets especially when we are talking about import and export or long distance travel of objects. We would not want to stop the items and then scan the items one by one instead what we could do is we would want to just scan the container and see that it has located at what particular place, what time it has been received so on and so forth. Again this can be done in a dynamic fashion as the container moves through different locations rather than stopping at different places. So once it moves into a zone where the RFID signals can be captured or the radio frequency signals can be captured then it gets tracked very easily. It can be embedded into a variety of systems. So RFID tags are also present in vehicles a very popular example of this is in toll collection many of you who have vehicles and if you have ever moved on a road where toll collection plazas are going to be present you will see that there are separate lanes. One lane is meant for making the payment using cash or credit card or any other such paper based technologies you can also use nowadays apps for making payment. There will be another dedicated lane where cars having that specific tag in India it is called as fast tag are allowed to move through the toll plaza. Now what is the benefit of doing this is that the vehicle can move to the toll plaza there is no requirement for manual intervention in terms of making payment and the gates are automatically opened once that particular RFID tag has been identified with respect to that vehicle and once it has been identified that you know the toll has been collected from that specific vehicle for that distance. So you can see here there is no requirement for manual intervention as well. So RFID tags are quite helpful that way and they are also used to track pets they can be embedded within the skin of the animal and they can be used to track the animal especially when we are traveling with our pets we would not want to lose them or if the pet has run away from home to find the pets these tags can be easily scanned without harming the animal as well. So we see a huge amount of application when it comes to product as well as person and people as well as animal tracking when it comes to RFID tags. The last example that I am picking up for technologies that are popularly used are wireless sensors. If we want to capture information in real time which is let us say I am interested in knowing what is happening to a certain product during transportation is it undergoing a period of huge amount of temperature spikes in temperature spikes in humidity I would be interested in knowing what is happening to that particular product not just what was happening to that product at a specific point in time. Knowing this information is very useful because this will give us an idea as to how well the product is actually handled during transport and what would be the final condition of the product at the end of it before it can be used either for another process let us say manufacturing or for consumption directly. So, to know the status in real time is also very important in many cases. In such cases we can have wireless sensors that are used to monitor in a real time basis and capture information with respect to the product as it moves through the system and this is directly connected to IoT devices internet of things devices where this information is being captured in real time and transmitted via the internet to a local storage system or a cloud system using IoT platforms and this helps us get give us a visualization of what is happening as the product keeps moving. So, it is not happening as the product gets scanned, but it is a real time information that we are actually capturing over here and a variety of information can usually be captured. Usually such sensors are used to capture climatic conditions like I mentioned humidity, temperature, location information we might also be interested in knowing what is the speed of movement of the item which can be captured by mapping it on to the speed of the vehicle instead in which it is travelling. Now over here again the it is not so much that we are scanning the item as such, but the item is actually placed in a zone where sensors are present. So, we would be wanting to ensure that the products which are being present in that system are close to the place where the sensors are actually located. Otherwise the sensors will be capturing information that is not relevant to the products environment right. So, we want the product to be located in the environment where the sensors are there. The application as we see over here is in cold chain management where we want to let us say transport medicines, drugs or we want to transport let us say fluids such as IV fluids, blood over large distances it can also relate to cold chains for food items and food products, meat and vegetables so on and so forth. So, we would be very much interested in capturing real time information and information related to not just the climatic conditions, but also the information related to the environment as such. And the environment during transportation could be the nature of the vehicle itself the status of the vehicle. So, is the vehicle facing a breakdown is the you know vehicle going to have some kind of an issue with respect to fuel consumption. Is there going to be some kind of wear and tear are there some kinds of vibrations which are cause going to cause issue as the vehicle moves through very remote locations where the roads are not good. So, all of this information also we would like to capture and the wireless sensors actually help us do that. This application area is called as telematics where we are tracking the parameters with respect to vehicle movement. And in this the products can actually be present which are moving along with the vehicle or being transported with the vehicle. So, as you can think the cost of implementation is actually going to increase as we move from barcodes, QR codes to RFID tags and wireless sensors. Because the nature of information that we require is more in real time when it comes to the sensors rather than in terms of barcodes and QR codes where the data is being captured only at certain points in time. Similarly RFID tags can help us get information for even far away located products very easily. So, the cost of implementing these technologies are high which can actually prevent them from being implemented when it comes to product tracking. So, one of the things that we need to keep in mind is what is the cost of implementation versus the returns that we get in having these track and trace technologies. Is it so important to capture this information or can we make do without it is a question that the organization needs to always ask itself. So, let us look at the levels of product labeling that could happen when it comes to attaching the barcodes and the tags. So, one of the levels that we can see is on the primary packaging which is in this case I am taking let us say some kind of cosmetic which is placed in a bottle. So, the bottle becomes primary packaging because it holds the liquid or the powder which is going to be present and we can scan it at that level at a very basic level. We can also scan the carton in which the item is going to be present. So, the label can be present on the carton itself which we call a secondary packaging, but when we are doing transportation we might not just send one carton if we are doing business to business transportation and storage we would be sending many cartons together. So, in such cases we might put together many cartons on to another transport equipment. Usually we call this as pallets which look like something like this usually wooden boards which are quite heavy and strong not very heavy, but quite strong on which we are going to stack several cartons containing the products and we want to know the location of the pallet. We are not interested in knowing the location of a carton we would be interested in knowing the location of the pallet. So, the label which has to be attached can be attached on the tertiary packaging itself. And as you can think this kind of labeling can be applied on to a container, on to the ship, on to the vessel or on to the vehicle which is moving. So, we can apply these labels and these QR codes or bar codes or RFID tags at different levels of the product basis what kind of packaging it is actually embedded within. So, let us look at now how we connect the process as well as the technology aspect. Now in this case we can have a very complex supply chain network which looks like this. How does product tracing really get captured over here? How do we trace the product which is present over here? So, let us say we are interested in knowing for a specific product in market 1 which has been sold to the consumer and we do not know where it has been sold from yet. So, the consumer has purchased an item and then the consumer actually figures out that the item is of poor quality and would want to make a return for this product. Now obviously, we want to assign the consumer to a specific retail location so that the return can be made, but more importantly for the organization they would be interested in knowing what is the quality issue actually related to? Is the quality issue related to the way the product was handled and hence a packaging issue or a transportation issue? Is it related to the nature of the product itself and hence it is a manufacturing or a design issue and if so, where did all of these issues occur? This could be a concern that the organization has. So, what we know is that this product has been scanned because it has a tag associated with it. So, at the time of checkout at the retailer it would have been scanned and if we were to track the entire series of movements of this product from the points at which the product or its packaging has been scanned we can find out where this product has actually come in from. So, at the very outset we might think that may be this product and its packaging actually came from this particular manufacturer, but we are not sure in the absence of information we are only making a guess. So, what can we do? We can figure out basis the timestamp data with respect to the product code and the labels that this product was actually purchased from a retailer over here from and it was actually fulfilled from a carton placed at the point of retail because of the code which is present in the carton. This carton has actually come from a pallet which was located at this warehouse or distribution center and again this is captured because of scanning the pallet. This pallet was in transportation or in transit from this particular factory to this warehouse or distribution centers. Again this is known to us because it was scanned over here as well as it was scanned at the point of dispatch from the factory and finally this carton has been perhaps obtained from a specific line of production or from a specific batch because at the time of packaging this would have been scanned once at least and as well as the time of dispatch it would have been scanned and we can figure out that this product belong to this carton because it was scanned at this point in time. So, now what we have is the entire trace for this particular product right up till the point of manufacturing and we will know what time what particular process has actually happened. So, we can figure out on this particular day when this manufacturing was occurring what was the status of the system on that day were there any issues associated with other batches as well and we can connect all of these to the quality concerns for the product. If that is not the case then we can find out what happened during transit was there was a huge amount of delay which happened because we have scanned the product here as well as scanned the pallet over here. So, we know how long it actually took we have actual data with respect to this. So, we can figure out if this has led to any kind of deterioration of the item similarly we can find out if there was any damage which happened to these cartons during transit as a result of which there is a damage happening to this product as well. So, we have figured out a trace for the product in a similar way we might have a concern in another market which is market 2 that the retailers are complaining of frequent stock out and delays and that means some processes were getting delayed. So, what can we do we can take sample data with respect to a specific products sold by the retailer figure out where it has actually arrived from and where it has actually been sent to along the way. So, from this retail point we can figure out that the item was dispatched from this particular warehouse on the pallet and then it has been in transit from this factory to this warehouse and further we can figure out what kind of batch and what kind of processing was being carried out. Since we have timestamped information at every point we will know if there was any delays happening in material handling and other issues which were there which were causing subsequent delays in the products being delivered to the customer. So, this trace gets created for the product not only this we can actually go one more step before this and figure out where this product actually originated in terms of the materials used over here. So, if there was any delays which were occurring in procurement of the materials the raw materials such as if this is the liquid and the process being carried out over here was mainly bottling we can figure out if there were any delays in procuring this liquid or the materials and if there were any delays during transport using this timestamped data. So, we see how the trace gets created which for every kind of product very easily and what was once a very complex network of movement of the product is now available in a visual format to us as well as it has been captured in timestamped format. So, it can be analyzed easily. So, when we are trying to integrate process design with the technology we have a few questions to be answered first and foremost we need to know what is the scope of monitoring that we are interested in do we want to do end to end supply chain monitoring of the product or only some stages that is only up till the factory or only up till the warehouse. This would be of interest to us basis the kind of issues that we are interested in let us say we are interested in just delays that are happening in transportation we need to only monitor maybe from the warehouse to the retail point only. So, that will be the scope in which we want to have a track and trace system, but suppose we want to know whether the product being consumed is of good quality we would need to have the track and trace system all up till the point of suppliers. We see this in being applied in food and grocery items where nowadays consumers want to know where their product actually originated from what was the conditions of labor what are the conditions of environment where this manufacturing was done and we can do track and trace over here. Similarly, what is the date of interest I have already discussed earlier that we need to connect this to the kind of application that we are interested in whether it is monitoring just the inventory movement or also the health of the inventory and that means we need to find ways of connecting these data points to the relevant metrics of interest to us such as the days of inventory that are being held so on and so forth. We will be interested in knowing whether we want to carry out tracking as a separate activity altogether that is once the items are loaded or unloaded then we do the scanning and we find out whether the items are fully loaded or is it something that can be happening in parallel along with another process. Let us say the product is moving on a conveyor system we can have sensor based systems that are going to just scan the products as they move through the locations. Now, how should the data be transmitted stored or shared as we have discussed we might be interested in knowing whether we want on premise local computers or cloud storage systems. What will be the applications being used for database management? How are we going to carry out visualization? How will we integrate this with our enterprise resource planning systems? All of these are of interest to us when we design the process. Next, we also would also be interested in knowing at what stages we want to capture the data. So, this is again related to what is the kind of metrics and what is the reason and scope of monitoring which will tell us that whether we have to scan the product as it is moving or at specific stages. Let us say the goods have been received at the warehouse. So, at that point we are going to do scanning the goods get stored. So, on a regular basis we want to scan that the goods are present and we want to count it. We want to maybe scan it at the time it is being dispatched or being delivered at that point just before it is going to be loaded onto the truck we might want to scan it before dispatching the truck so on and so forth. Similarly, we would be interested in knowing whether you want to carry out this tracking manually or through automated systems such as like I said we could use RFID tags and wireless sensors to make it more automated. If we see that the activity of doing the labeling and scanning itself is hampering productivity then we may need to take a call on making it automatic as well. Similarly, we would need to see once we implement this technology what real returns can be obtained. It is not very viable to expect that you will have returns almost immediately because it takes sometimes for the process to actually develop and get stabilized once we enable track entry systems because older systems need to be converted to newer processes. So, we need to give it sometime at least to stabilize, but how much time are we willing to give because at the same time we will be having a loss of revenue and loss in productivity which could happen. So, we should have a clear idea as to when we can start observing commercial benefits from the implementation of track entry systems. So, doing a financial and commercial analysis of technology implementation is also very important. Then what is the energy source required? A lot of this technology that we are seeing whether it is sensors or RFID tags or QR coding systems or barcoding systems as opposed to manual systems they require some kind of an energy source like batteries or electricity to be available in order to carry out the process of tracing and tracking. So, as a result some amount of energy usage issues could also be there which can improve productivity for sure because you are tracking and tracing the product, but this might be expensive. So, we might need to take a call as to what system we will implement basis the kind of energy that is available and the cost associated with the energy. And how is this data be, how is the data going to be captured going to be used in documentation procedures. So, when once the goods have been received a good receipt note would be issued once it is going to be shipped and at one shift notice would be issued so on and so forth. Now, coming to some of the final points one of the points that is very important is with respect to people in track entry systems. As you can understand one of the main concerns with respect to people would be training them. So, we need to understand first and foremost how do we train personnel for labeling the systems as opposed to maintaining paper based records. So, how do we label the systems, how do we associate the codes with material flow this understanding the people need to have on the shop floor or even their managers need to understand when they design the processes. So, they need to be trained on these activities as to how often they should do the labeling, what is the information which is present in the label and how they should interpret this information. And at what stages and positions these labelings need to be present a label should not be made on the product or packaging such that it is completely inaccessible for scanning. So, this requires some amount of training for the personnel and they need to know how to do this. Similarly, you need to train people for scanning typically scanning bar codes and QR codes is not a very laborious activity in the sense it is not going to be mentally taxing as well because you have devices to do that and that is one of the benefits you do not need to manually read something and capture this information. So, the amount of skill set training that is required here is usually quite nominal, but it may be again dependent upon the activity that you are carrying out if it is just unloading and loading you do not really need to read too much information perhaps the quantity the numbers and whether you have the right kind of quantity loaded or not which can again be visualized in the form of color coded symbols. But during billing you would be also looking at what is the amount or the price which is associated with the product. So, the skill set required over there needs to be a little bit more because you need to figure out the right kind of information is getting mapped. If we do not want to train people nowadays we have automated scanning systems that also are present. Obviously, we have seen RFID systems as well as your wireless sensors some of the applications which we have seen in retail a very popular application is that of Amazon Go where you can enter the store pick up items and exit the store and you are billed because as you move through the store with the items your product gets scanned and the bill is generated by connecting the product code that you have picked up with your application and your payment mechanisms. So, here there is no requirement for a cashier or a checkout counter even. So, we see this application, but it is not a very large scale implementation. However, over here of course, you do not require to train any personnel. Then we have training personnel for managing the data as well as decision making. So, over here we need to see to that they are storing the information properly managing the databases properly not tampering with the data and they know how to capture the relevant kind of information for making the documentation required. They need to understand how to use this data in order to review the processes and make decisions. Now, again this can be automated in which we are we are talking not just about monitoring systems, but we are also talking about control systems. So, for example, let us say the temperature in a specific environment suddenly shot up then the wireless sensor has captured this information and there can be another set of technology which is going to help in regulating the temperature within that environment basis this information that has been received such that the product health is being managed. This is an example we are talking about both monitoring and control systems. Now, the monitoring we have spoken about is using the technology and the control is usually manual, but in some cases even this control and decision making can be automated. And finally, we have change management concerns when it comes to people management when tracking the systems migrating from paper based systems to automated systems requires a change in mindset. So, regular training needs to be created for this and we have to understand that perhaps the earlier job of that person was simply to do all of this work of manually tracking the products and hence we need to re-skill that person. So, that there are other opportunities or other avenues where the productivity of the person can actually be demonstrated and hence is important for creating job security. So, finally, when we come to tracking systems the major benefits that we see is it helps in providing a lot of authentic timestamp data with respect to the product. So, it provides a good status of the system helps us track the products as they move and hence also tracks the productivity of the system thereby reducing any kinds of errors and issues within the supply chain. It can help collaborations within the supply chain and between a partners as well. Let us say you are connecting a very common example that we see is let us say you have made a purchase which was Erroneous. You can very quickly send this product back and get an immediate refund basis all of this without really interacting too much with store personnel. And it can also be used for defining and refining contract clauses because now you have timestamp data which gives you information of productivity. So, it can be very quickly related to the contract clauses when let us say you are dealing with a third party logistics player who has to manage the inventory for you and you can tell them that you have to have track and trace systems which gives me a productivity status of the product as it moves through and you can set targets in your contract clauses with the third party vendor over here. The challenges as we can observe as we have seen is one is definitely cost of implementation could be huge. The more we go for secure devices and tracking such as block chains and IoT being used this investment could be quite heavy and it might also be because you require more tracking then you need to have more points or checkpoints at which the scanning is being done. So, again this can increase the investment once you get the data from the scanning it needs to be analyzed it needs to be stored. So, you need investment and technology for maintaining the data itself. So, this can become very investment heavy and hence a proper understanding of how you are going to use track and trace technologies a very holistic perspective is required when we take a commercial call on it and change management issues could actually hamper implementation success. If personnel are not being trained properly and the processes and systems are not designed properly the very benefits associated with it could be lost. And again since the technology keeps changing and moving one of the things that could happen is the management could think of redesigning the system every now and then and if this is going to happen it is going to really hamper the value of track and trace systems because every time you change the track and trace system to a new system or you redesign the system into a new system simply changing from bar codes to QR codes. For example, first you need to see whether the process as well as the players are getting integrated with this new track and trace system and then you need to see whether there is any interaction which is happening between different kinds of tagging which are present. So, you have an RFID tag also you have a QR code also is there any interaction or integration required between them or can they be separate. Then we also need to see that when we bring in a new track and trace system does it integrate with our current IT systems or not or if some huge changes are required. So, we need to be taking very measured steps when we implement track and trace systems, but we have huge amounts of benefits which are possible mainly in terms of providing visibility of data within the entire supply chain. So, with this I hope I have given you a broad overview of track and trace systems, the kind of technology is being used, how it integrates with the process, the challenges with respect to people, the overall benefits and some of the issues that we need to keep in mind when we implement a systems for the supply chain. Thank you very much and in the next lecture we will move on to information systems and understanding it in the context of supply chains. Thank you.