If all books, equipment, car parts, tins, hospitals, boardrooms and so on are equipped with equipment identification devices, life on Earth will undergo a massive transformation. Wasted products or things running out of stock will no longer happen as you know where and what is being consumed. Auto ID technologies have come of age with various auto identification tools and labeling solutions for a slew of sectors including retail, government, manufacturing, logistics, healthcare and more. These solutions help reduce counterfeiting of critical items like drugs, and other expensive components. Supply chains will be much more efficient to track and ship products where needed, thus eliminating wastage of products.
Indian AIDC market--a sunrise sector
The AIDC market in India is expected to grow from the current US $581 million to nearly US $1.3 billion by 2014 at a CAGR of 22.37 percent, according to a report by Frost & Sullivan. Of all the AIDC technologies, smart cards take the lions' share with 2010 revenues pegged at US $510 million and expected to reach US $903 million by 2014, says the report. In India, we have witnessed the adoption of AIDC-based solutions widely. Aadhar, for instance is one. Both central and state governments seem to be at the forefront when it comes to adopting automatic data capture and labeling solutions. These technologies are being used in ID projects and driving licenses, etc. Local administrations like municipal corporations and gram panchayats are also expected to use such technologies to streamline administration.
Harmonizing tech, processes & organization
SATO, a global barcode and RFID technology company, recently forayed into India to leverage the Indian market with their data collection and label printing solutions. The group offers a range of services including manufacturing, supply products, R&D and pre-sales. Through the use of auto ID technology, the group enables customers to realize benefits of precision, labor and resource savings in their businesses.
We spoke to Kaz Matsuyama, CEO, SATO Holdings to understand their products for the Indian SMEs. How do you look at the Indian market in terms of adoption of AIDC solutions?
What are some compelling solutions for Indian SMEs in the AIDC space?
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Benefits
There are several benefits that you can achieve out of AIDC products and solutions. The most important ones include reduced cost of data entry, lesser number of errors associated with identification or data capture, peace of mind and security. Plus, you can also accelerate process efficiency even for moving assets. Various labeling solutions can help you track each and every product. Data capture systems along with labeling for instance can get you a lost file in your company. Each file or document is tagged with a label that can be machine-read. Such solutions also help get accurate picture of the entire process and re-allocate resources to avoid bottlenecks.
Data capture systems and labeling solutions obviate two error-prone and time-taking activities, including hand-operated data collection, giving a quick, accurate, and cost-effective way to collect and feed data.
Healthcare solutions
Thousands of patients die every year due to mismatch of medicines. Plus identical patients' names sometimes create confusion for the nurse. A solution like wristband comes handy here. Labeling of patients, visitors, and foods helps pharma industry take care of patients in a much better way. In a hospital, a patient can wear a wristband, and the doctor can wear a label on his uniform. A nurse can scan the patient's wristband to verify medication record by reading the label and confirming the right dosage for the patient. There are many other ways of ensuring effective communication between nurses, doctors, patients and other staff. For instance, the food for patients can be labeled, shelves can be labeled, and the beds can be tagged. Plus there are other label applications to track and verify laboratory specimen, medical supplies and asset management. Wristband and labeling solutions improve patient safety and provide efficient delivery of patient care. The solution is cheap as well. A hundred-bed hospital may deploy this AIDC solution at a cost of less than $100.
Additionally, there are solutions that are based out of RFID but are a little more expensive. At the registration ward counter, the nurse will issue a RFID wristband and at the patients' ward, the nurse uses a RFID scanner to verify her staff, patients' ID and the label of the medicine to eliminate errors. SATO has RFID barcode printers that are able to print RFID wristbands and other labels.
Retail solutions
Retail is one of the early adopters of AIDC solutions in India and elsewhere. The retail labeling solution helps manage price markdowns more efficiently thus improving inventory flow. Mobile printing solutions enables the user to produce labels and tags on-demand and on-site. Besides, there are shelf-life systems that improve the way stores handle perishable and short shelf-life goods.
Surveys have shown that consumers' single biggest complaint is queuing at the POS. Plus, there are a range of queue busting solutions to downsize this waiting time. There are also portable hand-held barcode terminals and thermal printers available.
Besides, they have retail shrink management solutions to protect retailers against counterfeiting and frauds. Label materials contain both overt and covert authentication features including tamper-evident adhesives and special ink detectable with fluorescent UV light.
Manufacturing solutions
The manufacturing sector needs tools and other solutions to identify and keep track of raw materials and finished products and get real time visibility of processes. Labelling solutions for product identification including barcode or serialized labels, and safety labels that come handy for manufacturing units.
Plus, there are software applications like Label Galley that offer tools for labeling design and printing needs.