Unlock Hidden Value with 'Smartization' of Track & Trace Operations

Noriyasu Yamada, Executive Officer and CPO, SATO Holdings

Noriyasu Yamada, Executive Officer and CPO, SATO Holdings

In the midst of our ongoing digital transformation, the market demands products, services and solutions capable of constant growth and change. As modern B2B solution providers focus ever more on the customer's customer, smartization of track & trace operations is central to unlocking hidden value. By empowering customers to optimize their operations, you can help them exceed the expectations of their customer.

In the past, smart products were in vogue but now there is great demand for smart systems and solutions. In order to unlock the hidden value of your product, system or solution in this environment, it is necessary that they evolve. Smartization enables this evolution through connectivity with sensing devices from cameras, temperature and humidity sensors, and health tracking devices.

One example of smartization of the worksite is monitoring the physical condition of workers in real time. By tracking everything from blood pressure to body temperature to heart rate, you can reduce human error. The temperature and humidity of the work environment can also be monitored, as well as the movements of workers to ensure efficient movement around the site. By collecting and analyzing all this data, companies can generate an upward spiral of increased productivity, lowered costs and improved operations which lead to higher quality products and services for their customers.

API integration and connectivity with third party systems are now basic requirements to ensure the continuous evolution of products, systems and solutions. By connecting products to other products, you create synergies that didn’t exist before.

API integration and connectivity with third party systems are now basic requirements to ensure the continuous evolution of products, systems and solutions

Value creation is further increased when items are connected to each other via the cloud. By adding sensing devices to cloud-connected products within the customer's existing service model you can connect the dots.

Investments in smartization begin to pay off for the customer before they know it when operational improvements are achieved with visibility. A pleasantly surprised customer is a repeating customer.

In the past, tagging of items was done with a single tool, like a hand labeler. Later, those items were tagged with barcode labels and connected via on-premise servers and even to the cloud. Now, items are being connected to each other through existing and new systems. This connectivity allows companies to optimize operations while lowering total cost of ownership through automation and higher productivity with smaller workforces. Making individual items in the value chain ‘smarter’ through connectivity with sensors and systems is the essential next step to ensuring accurate small data. This is compiled for analysis as big data, which can improve a company's entire operations.

Smartization unlocks unexpected benefits by visualizing what is lacking in your operations. Track & trace processes act as the 'glue', connecting apps or systems that were previously thought of as 'standalone.' The difference between a single non-connected barcode printer and globally distributed network of connected barcode label printers running in unison is massive in terms of potential operational improvements across the organization.

What kind of value addition can track and trace offer in the future? Tagging processes can be done more smoothly through organic connectivity. Identification of items has traditionally been a two-part process—tagging and reading. Both steps required human intervention in the past. Even with RFIDs, the process of reading can be considered a manual step in the process. In the future, tagging and reading will be a seamless, end-to-end process in the virtual world. Virtual tagging is undoubtedly the future.

In Japan, the hanko (personal seal) has been used for millennia. Now, digital signatures are accepted for the purpose of authorization. This is a clear example of how we've shifted from the physical to the virtual. Likewise, barcodes will eventually become virtual and smartization of existing systems will be necessary for digital traceability.

By accurate collection of field data through track & trace operations and analysis in the cloud, forward-thinking companies can turn individual items into ‘smart devices’ to unleash big data to optimize their operations. A smartization approach to ever-evolving products, services and solutions is the key to winning business by unlocking hidden value.