Product serialization and traceability are rapidly becoming fundamental in today’s manufacturing landscape. Since the accessibility of products and information in the market has dropped, unfortunately, activities such as counterfeiting and black-marketeering have risen. But, in today’s technologically advanced world, it is not hard to predict that these illegal activities exist even under normal market conditions. Buyers in such an advanced world today, whether they are consumers or product buyers at the wholesale level, are keen to learn and understand more than just where the product comes from. Therefore, the processes involved and applied in the supply chain need to be more traceable and transparent, which assures the product visibility to the end customers. But poor production processes can hinder a brand’s image. Thereby resulting in inferior customer satisfaction and loyalty. All the products that may be subject to unlawful activity need to be serialized and traceable within the market. In today’s world, many markets have a requirement that every product pack contains a physical serialized code using which the product can be systematically tracked as ownership is transferred. This establishes a complete chain of control and charge for each and every commercial pack from the first sale by the manufacturer through each and every node of the supply chain and ultimately to the end consumer. 

Why is it important for manufacturing industry? 

Serialization and traceability together are crucial ways of delivering transparent information in supply chains that aid the end consumer. 

The method of identifying each individual product produced by a unique serial number is called product serialization. Each product is first serialized by the manufacturers. Later each serial number is registered in an electronic data system. When the product meets the end consumer, the seller obtains approval from the electronic data system, associates it with the end consumer, and executes the sale.  

Product traceability can be described as tracking the particulars and the journey of a product across the entire supply chain. The advantages of tracking and tracing things are well rooted in our daily lives. Traceability solutions provide comprehensive and reliable ways to enhance security and provide end-to-end visibility among trading partners. It provides you the ability to identify the present and past locations of all products, and helps you fight fraud and counterfeits by providing a complete view of the complex product journey. Companies can share the data regarding track and trace with their customers. This builds trust among the customers and helps them verify product authenticity.   

BENEFITS 

Industries are slowly turning towards product serialization due to the range of benefits it delivers. 

• Forecast product demand –There is a direct relationship between customer satisfaction and product availability in the market. To reduce the scarcity in the market, brands must know which products are short in supply. Product Serialization aids you to construct a more reasonable estimate of the stock you supply to each channel. Thus, it helps you make an effective product demand forecast.
• Information safety-Serialization makes it possible to track the product at each step, from the initial point of manufacture until it reaches the consumer. Accurate serialization of products provides good traceability. It mainly guarantees the information safety for the end consumers.
• Anti-Counterfeiting Solutions –When it comes to brand protection solutions with effective product tracking, product serialization tops the list. The advantages of serialization and traceability are numerous. With the ability to track every products, waste is reduced, fraud is eliminated. This further helps achieve inventory transparency with complete visibility through every point in the supply chain.
• Make your supply chain process transparent- Information transparency is more than just a global trend. The supply chain involves crucial procedures that should be technologically advanced to enable enhanced visibility, product tracking, and brand protection. Product serialization takes you one step ahead to accurately track each product item with unique codes assigned to them. This further facilitates enhanced visibility of products across the supply chain and helps gain customer trust and loyalty.
• Aids in digital transformation-Product serialization enables customers to identify and ascertain the authenticity of a product using QR codes or unique identifiers. This serialization in packaging will drive the digital transformation for businesses. With QR codes on the product packaging to track the entire suppy chain processes, the transformation is far beyond digital.

CONCLUSION 

As the manufacturers continue to adapt to the unexplored challenges, they must also prepare itself to maximize operational brilliance. Distributed-ledger technology- blockchain, has a drastic potential to transform and improve track and trace in the manufacturing sectors. With numerous beneficial applications that are already being implemented and explored, blockchain technology is making a mark for itself in almost all sectors. As we head into an era of digitalization, it’s no longer a question of if legacy companies will catch on to the technology. At MSRvantage, we believe to transform businesses by accelerating efficiency across almost all the major industries around the globe. With our next-gen blockchain-enabled product serialization and traceability solutions, we help companies to innovate and increase operational efficiency. 

With our blockchain-enabled products, solutions, and services like smart contracts, track and trace, asset digitization, and rewards & loyalty programs, we help enterprises enhance their business values by supporting them at each and every step of blockchain adoption. Thus, changing the aspects of the organization by accelerating efficiency and providing an innovative platform. Make your manufacturing process efficient with MSRvantage product serialization and traceability solutions.