Counterfeit Drug Blog

I am reminded of 1992.

For folks deciding the fate of serialization and pharma, I wake up sometimes reminded of 1992.

The music and video industry was struggling with a number of elements affecting sales and fraud of video and music.

Not all music and video was UPC’d and many of the retailers did not have POS systems that were able to accommodate the proper translation of UPC.

One challenge was that each item had to be hand priced with a price sticker.

Applying the appropriate price was not constant and there were significant errors.

To add to the complexity, prices fluctuated to be competitive and it was virtually impossible to keep up with price changes.

Last, thieves and shoplifters knew how to swap price labels or they applied their own price labels before paying.

The industry presented us with a challenge.

How do we price product appropriately, correctly, securely and utilize UPC codes ?

In addition, how do we do it on 100% of the product and in one shift of arrival to the distribution center ?

Quite a complex model. Especially since we couldn’t disrupt the integrity of the original packaging.

The solution was a conversion department with the single purpose of serializing and labeling product in cases, and returning the product precisely to the same case.

There was no allowance for failure. Every item from the original case had to be returned to the same case. Any anomaly had to be recorded, documented and explained.

Our first requirement was to have advance shipment notification (ASN). The purchasing department sent an order file to the conversion server when PO’s were created, and the PO’s were stored pending arrival of product.

The largest vendors agreed to include the PO number on all case labels in human readable format and bar-code. The largest vendors also agreed to send an ASN when the shipment was tendered to a carrier.

When the goods arrived by truck or small package service, the receiving department checked the goods against the ASN files and made appropriate corrections/adjustments.

Not all vendors used the same bar-code format and serial number format, but the vendors were constant once they determined their respective bar-code format and unique identifier scheme.

It was our responsibility to maintain the compatibility file which was basically a data mapping utility.

The cases were assigned unique serial numbers as a control and the unique serial number and product description was printed and applied to the case.

The server now associated the receipt of goods with a unique identifier to the case.

The objective was to affix an item level label to each CD and VHS tape, assign unique identifiers, print product description, apply the label, and return the product precisely to the same case.

A labeling line was designed with an intake station and rebuilding station.

Each line was designed for a specific item configuration, such as CD, double CD, VHS tape and cassette tape. This way there was no retooling requirements.

Pallets were brought to the conversion line, pre-labeled with unique identified labels.

The pallets were placed on a fixed scale that recorded the gross weight of the pallet.

The operator bar-code scanned all the labels on the pallet and the server validated that all the cases were staged on the pallet and alerted if a bar-code case was missing.

The operator had ‘break’ cases. These were empty cases with distinct identifiers that indicated the start and end of a pallet.

The operator placed a ‘break’ case on the accumulation line to indicate a start of a pallet batch.

The operator removed cases from the pallet and placed them on an accumulation line. The line had a bar-code scanner that read each unique case level bar-code as it moved along the gravity conveyor.

At the end of the gravity conveyor, the operator removed a case and moved it to case opening station. An in-line scale recorded the weight and station bar-code scanner recorded the unique identifier.

The operator placed a marker puck with a distinct identifier to indicate the start of the carton on the item accumulator.

The operator opened the case, and emptied the contents to the item accumulator.

The empty case was bar-code scanned once again and placed on an overhead conveyor to transport to the other end of the line.

The marker puck was associated to the unique identifier of the case and the content items moved along the conveyor line.

The in-line scanner would read the marker puck and would not message a print of a label. The next item moved in high speed under a scanner where the UPC was read and the UPC was indexed against the server file.

The appropriate messaging was sent from the server to the printer applicator and a label was printed with a UPC, product description, artist, price, unique identifier and S/N bar-code.

The printer applicator applied the label to the item.

As the item was conveyed, a scanner read the UPC and S/N for validation.

At the end of the line there were fingered accumulation stations.

Each station had a scale accumulation slot for an empty carton.

An empty carton was deposited in a station where a fixed scanner read the bar-code constantly until the case was removed.

The unique case ID  was associated to the pack station.

As the marker puck was scanned at the diverter, the marker puck was associated with the original case ID  and the diverter was programmed to divert all the trailing items to the associated case until the next marker puck.

Along this process the unique identifiers were read to ensure sequencing was not disrupted.

The operator could not begin packing the case until the entire contents were in the accumulation station.

Once the operator was advised by a light that all the items were in the accumulation station, the operator inserted the items in the case.

When the case was complete the operator scanned the last item and triggered complete.

The server validated the weight of the repacked case equalled the original weight.

The case moved to a case sealing function where the case was stopped under an inline printer.

The printer station included a bar-code reader that validated the unique identifier of the case, and printed a secured label that was affixed to the case seam.

The case seam label included the unique identifier on the case label, date and batch code, time stamp and pack station.

The carton than moved into the case sealer where a temper proof tape was applied over the label and seam.

At the same time a temper proof tape was applied to the bottom of he case.

The case moved to a case accumulation station where a pallet was positioned on a pallet scale.

The pallet was loaded with cases until the pallet weight and case quantities equalled the original pallet configuration.

1992…..