Code of conduct

Marking and coding of products, a process now accepted as commonplace, first began with expiration date applications in the food and pharmaceutical arenas. Today, products in virtually all industries are routinely coded as part of the manufacturing process – with expiration dates, lot codes, real-time dates, barcodes and myriad other information. This enables the manufacturer to trace the product as needed and offers the consumer some measure of security in the purchase. And now, RFID is knocking on our doors offering advanced product traceability solutions.

Factors driving the introduction of new coding equipment?
The need for coding has always been driven by regulations and local food laws. Now, the EU is setting need for full traceability by requiring all food produced within the Union or imported into the Union to be fully traceable from farm to fork. Something only possible through coding.

Article 18 of General Food Law (GFL) says that

•Traceability is defined as “the ability to trace and follow a food, feed, food-producing animal or substance intended to be or expected to be incorporated into a food or feed in all stages of production, processing or distribution.
•Every manufacturer should be able to tell where all ingredients are coming from, in which these are processed and where the end-product currently is.
•Each warehouse has to be able to tell where the food is coming from and where it went to. In case there is a ‘call-back’ a warehouse needs to provide this data within 6 hours.

Besides all regulations the drive for increased production efficiency is relentless. New factories are planned, existing ones refurbished. Manufacturing is increasingly 24/7, and automation is the order of the day. We see faster line speeds and more product diversification, all of which impacts upon the choice of coder. Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all, off-the-shelf solution that can meet every demand.

But as coding and product traceability have become such important to your product and its logistics chain, choosing the right partner offering the right hardware and software coding solutions for your complete product packaging process is even more of essence.

Where to start?

Thankfully there are some guiding principles. Whether the application is a single production line or a multi-site plant, code quality, pack considerations, market requirements, scale of production, cost and reliability are the issues that need thinking through in every case.

Taking the key issues one by one, legibility and clarity are important for both retail and industrial goods. Components delivered to the assembly plants need to be clearly and accurately identified; vendor performance is subject to ongoing scrutiny and woe betide the supplier who consistently falls below acceptable levels.

Retailers too have stringent guidelines regarding code quality and will not hesitate to reject stock on this basis. In some cases this could mean fines for the manufacturer. In more extreme cases, it could mean being completely removed from a retailer’s supplier list, with drastic consequences.

Consumers have their own needs too. Recent MARKEM research revealed that 35 percent of food shoppers look at the best before and use by dates even before they check the price.

Then, it is important to look at the application itself – the material to be printed on, parent machine, the line speed, operating environment, etc.

What technology?

But meeting these standards is not as simple as buying the ‘best’ coder on the market. Each has applications to which it is best suited and has its ‘no go’ areas, as is summarised in the table.

When compared to competitive forms of marking and coding, lasers and thermal transfer appear poised to become the universal method of choice for primary packaging coding due to its reliability, ease of use and cost of ownership model.

Whichever choice appeals, the final decision should balance ‘installed’ against ‘lifetime’ costs. Some of the options are clearly cheaper at first but reliability can be just as important. Apart from the expense of replacements and consumables, downtime and lost perishable goods have their own cost implications. The true value of any coding solution can only be assessed over the long term, so the quality of technical support is vitally important.

RFID for traceability

Making a package trackable on its way to the supermarket or other retain shelves is usually achieved by logistics-friendly barcode symbologies, notably ITF14 and EAN128, which when properly printed allow the product find its way through automated warehouse systems to its correct destination.

Until 2001, the only reliable means of online coding was labelling to meet the high levels of print quality demanded by automated scanning equipment. Liquid large character inkjet systems were outlawed by retailers due to their low barcode quality. The introduction of the MARKEM 5000 series Touch Dry Inkjet, which achieves the precision of print required for consistently readable bar coded traceability details, has made this a viable solution offering many cost & flexibility benefits over labelling and pre-printed.

Currently, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is knocking on our doors as a next option for coding secondary or tertiary packaging. Instead of printing directly onto a box or applying a label to it, the MARKEM machinery reads, writes and applies a tag to the product, box or pallet so that the product is uniquely coded.

Though it is a costlier technology compared with barcode, interest in RFID technology in the logistics chain has reached fever-pitch, fuelled by regulators who see serialisation as the key to product traceability, and by global retailers who share this view, but also recognise the enormous financial advantages from more efficient distribution. The use of RFID technology, specifically the use of UHS and EPC passive tags, is a major driving force in the evolution of product identification and data collection technologies and will have a huge impact on the supply chain.

Working with global retailers, suppliers and equipment manufacturers, MARKEM has developed a range of solutions to help manufacturers get to grips with RFID.

SmartStart is a compact desktop package to provide all that’s needed to carry out internal testing and meet the requirements of retail trialling projects. The ‘Test’ package allows suppliers to experiment with tag testing and placement, and can be readily upgraded to the ‘Compliance’ package to meet Wal-Mart and other retail RFID mandates.

This upgrade path is continued through the development of the MARKEM Cimjet RFID range of ‘print and apply’ labellers. Tags can be programmed, checked and accurately applied in real time and at production line speeds using equipment tough enough to withstand the rigours of the factory floor. Rejected tags are automatically rewound to prevent them from entering the logistics chain. Again, there’s an upgrade path to minimise the cost of full-scale RFID implementation.

The MARKEM CoLOS RFID software platform developed by MARKEM underpins all these systems, and seamlessly integrates coders and labellers with scanners, readers, mechanical handling and other on-line devices. MARKEM’s CoLOS_TRACE software ensures that a product batch and its history can be tracked through the entire logistics process. Based on European recommendations and regulations, CoLOS_TRACE has been developed to provide manufacturing industries with a standard solution for tracking and tracing their products backwards and forwards from the packaging lines. In tabloid terms, the software enables us to know from which field the baked potato on our plate was originally dug up or which individual cow provided the meat for our fillet steak.

Coding equipment – a strategic decision

Recent years have seen a series of product traceability disasters. The major brands have not escaped unscathed; Coca-Cola, Nestle, Campina and Perrier, to name but four, have faced product withdrawal on a huge scale. Unfortunately, there are much more to mention and many more to follow. The latest EU Directive, the pressure from retailers, and the rapid development of traceability technology have combined to make such incidents avoidable.

Manufacturers will realise that coding goes further than just printing a best before date. Choosing the right equipment will offer enhanced benefits for future and will lower overall cost of production. Here at MARKEM, we’ve introduced systems to safeguard the integrity of date and batch coding, and helped customers meet EAN:UCC requirements for case and pallet identification. Now, through RFID technology, we can provide the wherewithal to allow manufacturers to uniquely identify individual items, delivering full product traceability, logistics tracking, protection against losses and isolation of problem batches before costs spiral out of control.

END

Which coding technology? A brief checklist

Technology
Code quality
Installed cost
Running cost
Comments
MARKEM solution
Embossing
Poor
Low
Negligible
Only suited for cottage industries for cartons and sleeves
n.a.
Hot foil
Poor-fair
Low
Low
OK for small scale labelling and certain substrates
n.a.
Rotary hot melt
Fair
Low
Very low
Best on flexible film on longer runs
MARKEM 9800 Series
Thermal transfer
Excellent
Low-medium
Medium
Best for labelling, flow-wrapping, bagging, etc., especially where changes are frequent.
MARKEM SmartDate Series
Continuous inkjet
Fair
Medium
Medium
Best for plastics tubs, bottles, cans, cartons, etc.
MARKEM 7000 series
Hot Melt ink jet
Good
Medium
Medium-high
Best for cartons and sleeves.
MARKEM 9000 Series (Small Character)
MARKEM 5000 Series (Large Character)
Laser
Fair
High
Very low
Printed labels, cartons, PET, some plastics
MARKEM SmartLase Series
Labelling system
Excellent
Medium
High
Best on cartons and hard and solid surface. Expensive due to use of labels.
MARKEM Cimjet and Cimpak Series.

MARKEM Corporation is a leading worldwide provider of product identification equipment, software, supplies and services for marking and coding, in industries including food and beverage, pharmaceutical, cosmetics and electronics. For more information please visit www.markem.com or contact: Richard van den Dool, at rvddool@markem.com