By Mandeep Singh Jit Singh, Mardina Abdullah and Masoud Shakiba
Department of Electrical, Electronics & Systems Engineering
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
N
owadays traceability systems are an
inseparable part of international business
and are essential in manufacturing
and supply chain management systems. The
advantages of the traceability system are more
obvious for products that are exported and those
imported from overseas. Traceability is highly
important in food management and for products
with short expiry. In recent years there have
been several investigations and publications on
traceability systems criteria especially in the food
industry in the US, Europe and Southeast Asia.
Figure 1 illustrates the general idea of a tracking
system.
Based on the International Standard
Organisation (ISO), traceability is defined as
the “ability to trace the history, application, or
location of that which is under consideration”.
In more detail, traceability is the capability to
authenticate the production history, pricing
structure, positioning and location, application and
all the other information of an object, by means of
documented data. In the other words, traceability
refers to the ability to track the object through
the supply chain management from raw materials
supplier to the end user, and also tracking the
product after it has been used through the
recycling process.
Figure1. General Idea of Tracking System (Source: ISO 22000 Resource Center)
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FEATURE
Intelligent Items Traceability
System – RFID vs QR