Currently, Companies all over the global are impartial working towards growing the performance of their organization, and modern technology is used widely to earn it. One of the technologies is Track and Trace. For more than a century, the track and trace system has been a witness to a lot of new progression.
Tracking defines to the information on the definite location of products which are in consignment, while the tracing is broadly used for products that are passive. The need of transmit such a system has inspired due to distinct reasons:
• Inventory Management: In latest information is need about the capacity of inventory in consignment for better management of the warehouse storage space and operations.
• Time-to-market calculation: We need to know the time of arrival of the inventory as well as the time of parole, to run the operation smoothly.
• Product safety: We need knowing the real time location of the products to assure its safety while in consignment.
• Risk Management: Companies need to know about the potentiality risk, to maintain the response to those risks.
Track and trace system also assist in knowing the traffic patterns, traffic jam or blockage at any particular point in route by determining the delay in reaching time or any unavoidable circumstances; which in turn can be used to set up action or redirect supply. And to manage it, technologies such as Global Positioning System (GPS), Radio-frequency identification (RFID) and Barcode are extensively used. These systems can also be unified with the Enterprise resource planning (ERP) system of the Company.
• A Global Positioning System (GPS) is a tracker device. It is attached to the good, to detect the exact location of the good and shipment via satellite. It is also monitor if the vehicle is ineffective and also wrong or longer route is taken then it inform the driver as well as the company,
• Radio-frequency identification (RFID) cannot provide real time information but can provide the last noted location. It is a microchip having data about the good details and is scanned with the help of electromagnetic waves at each checkpoint that the good passes, till reaching the destination.
• Barcodes are coded labels which are labeled on to goods, and are scanned manually with the help of a barcode scanner to get the information regarding the product. It is a manual work and takes a lot of time.
To handle their entire supply chain the 4PL logistics companies are turning towards latest technology-driven solutions. They manage supply chain by tracking goods and vehicles. Depending on the task, a junction of these technologies is used to find anything, or anyone, in real-time.
• Connected The Internet of Things (IoT) devices allow warehouses to track location and even condition of stock and vehicles through cloud services.
• Blockchain is influenced by companies to organize a platform, by giving a ledger of movement, to develop transparency and probity for tracking and tracing throughout the supply chain.
• Electronic logging devices (ELD) are used to track, handle, and share records of driver duty status in real time. It also assists in managing the challenges of wrong drive-time reporting by drivers and speedy owners. With the help of this system empty trailers can also be outlined and located.
Some years down the line, track and trace will be unified in every part of the 3PL logistics company in India which will assist the business to become more viable.