What exactly is meant by Smart Packaging and how does it differ from, say, Track & Trace? Mark Ruiter of Faes Packaging Consultant explains how the concept of smart packaging works in practice.
Smart Packaging is a concept in which smart packaging is used, which communicates independently and proactively about the packaging and its contents. The packaging is thus intelligent and always tells you how your products are doing and where they are. Roughly speaking, two pillars can be distinguished in Smart Packaging: location and status.
Location: where is my product now?
When we talk about location, Track & Trace is of course already an existing concept. However, this is often based on scanning a product (via a barcode on the packaging) at predefined checkpoints. In between these checkpoints, anything can happen to your product that is beyond your control. The predefined checkpoints also mean that, for the "last mile", you are at the mercy of the information the carrier can provide. This often goes no further than: the product is in truck A, sorting centre B or aircraft C. In addition, scanning is often manual work and it therefore regularly happens that products slip through which you therefore have no tracking.
With the Smart Packaging concept, the packaging itself is the source of the data for tracking. This means that you yourself are able to see real-time where your product is, whenever you want. So you never lose products again and you can quickly see when products go "off-track" or stagnate somewhere.
Status: is my product still in usable condition?
The current status of a product is a more complicated story. The product inside the packaging is central to this. Monitoring the status is relevant for products that are sensitive to one or more influences that may occur during transport. For instance, electronics can be damaged by too much shock and should not get wet, food should not get too high a temperature and sterile products should not be opened, etc. The examples are endless.
For measuring these values, there are existing solutions in the form of sensors that show what influences your product has endured. However, these solutions have the disadvantage that you only observe this at the moment the products have already arrived at their destination.
With the Smart Packaging concept, the packaging communicates at the moment the incident occurs. You cannot change that fact at that moment either. But you are able to take appropriate action at the earliest possible stage. For example, by sending a new product in advance if you know that the product already sent will be received unusable. In addition, you know when an incident occurred and who was responsible for it at the time. Based on this information, you can identify problem areas in your process and make structural improvements.
In practice: dashboard and notifications
Central to Smart Packaging is keeping control over everything that happens to your products. A dashboard on which you can observe locations is indispensable for this. This creates a complete and real-time overview of where all your products are.
Mark Ruiter - Business Development Director Faes Packaging Consultants
