News | January 4, 2005

IDC Provides Gateway Integration Technology For Pharmaceutical Companies Seeking Benefits Of RFID

A recent report from the ARC Advisory Group in the USA has highlighted the pharmaceutical sector as one that will reap huge rewards from the adoption of RFID technology. RFID is seen as the key to helping pharmaceutical companies achieve compliance with increasingly stringent regulations, such as FDA 21 CFR Part 11 and S88. It can provide the track and trace functions essential to the public health chain and also for preventing counterfeiting of drugs. The early applications for the technology are cases and pallets; however, according to the FDA timetable, most item-level pharmaceuticals – up to 12 billion items in the United States - will be targeted for track and trace by 2007.

The requirement for any drug company exporting to the US to achieve compliance with new FDA 21 CFR Part 11 regulations means that RFID is set to make an impact on the European pharmaceutical market also. This raises cost issues for European companies; although RFID undoubtedly brings many benefits in terms of improved asset management and profitability, the technology is nevertheless expensive, complex and, above all, difficult to integrate into existing manufacturing resource planning systems.

Offsetting these negatives is a recent report revealing that Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems can provide up to 50 percent higher return on investment when they are supported by mobile data capture systems such as RFID. However, for companies wishing to take advantage of the new mobile technology, the integration of RFID into their existing IT structure is still a daunting challenge, especially so with older ERP systems.

IDC's Simplitrak Savant Middleware is an effective answer to this problem, providing a gateway between RFID readers and Warehouse Management and ERP systems.

The Simplitrak middleware is designed specifically for the integration of RFID technology, enabling businesses to achieve genuine bottom line benefits by tracking and tracing goods in real time. It is highly configurable, offering users a graphical user interface with built in controls, alarm and event notification; and provides a scalable open architecture for ease of interfacing to other applications and devices

Simplitrak introduces an intermediate layer of control, which processes the streamed data from the readers and only passes on that which is essential; preventing overload on the existing IT network. In addition, the gateway also provides a toolset of applications to enable the business to benefit from the introduction of RFID, quickly and easily.

The effectiveness of the Simplitrak gateway software is the result of a modular structure, which integrates several key generic applications: -

  • Reader Manager: standard communication drivers enable plug-and-play connectivity to a variety of HF and UHF readers. Configurable features provide the ability to multiplex up-to 8 channels for a variety of antenna configurations. Diagnostics show how each antenna is performing as the carton passes through the antenna array. The application software provides an instantaneous dynamic display of carton inventory and compares actual tags read against expected quantity In addition, the application operates as a TCP/IP Server that database applications can connect to, control the scanner and interrogate inventory results.

  • Client/ Server Data Base: the database connects to the Reader Manager using TCP/IP client/server sockets, enabling the database to be located either on a local PC or remotely. RFID data streamed from the portal is filtered, queued, collated and stored in real time within the relational database. Communications integrity is maintained with error handling, data smoothing, logging and scheduling. Database queries may be run and reports generated dependent upon the user requirements.

  • The Task Manager application to introduce work flow practices or task management. For example, returned items or warranty issues can be identified, checked and validated, items approaching their expiry date can be flagged-up, or out of stock items can be automatically re-ordered. In addition, easy to use wizards are provided for decanting in situations where, for example, a box of tagged items has been incorrectly packed.

  • Network Manager enables files to be exported to the host WMS or ERP system; transfers are tracked and acknowledged with a variety of file types and methods including Microsoft .NET, XML, FTP, ODBC or text file transfer.

  • Control Manager provides remote control and monitoring of any automation requirements such as conveyor control, tracking photocells or barcode interfacing through fixed or handheld scanner with RS232/482 serial connections and local input/output boards. The application provides alarms, health monitoring and diagnostics for operators and maintenance staff

    The scope of the Simplitrak gateway software underlines the fact that its is more than a bolt-on peripheral to existing WMS or EPR systems. Rather, it provides a flexible low cost route for the migration of RFID technology for companies who require complete visibility of their supply chains. To aid this "migration" IDC provides an RFID starter pack, consisting of tunnel reader; 500 tags; a PC and Simplitrack software package. This is the ideal platform for companies considering pilot schemes and wanting to get a jump-start into RFID, without the need for major changes to their existing back office systems, and without the high cost of additional programming.

    IDC – Intelligent Distributed Controls
    IDC is a small UK company with a dedicated team of engineers and technology partners who bring a wealth of experience in real time control applications, data base development and RFID technology. And although our systems are highly reliable for those who require the surety that help is at hand, if needed our systems can be backed up by a comprehensive 24-hour support package depending on your business needs.