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Using RFID for Regulatory Compliance

Learn how Blommer Chocolate Company implemented RFID technology to comply with Bioterrorism Act regulations, streamline inventory control, and enhance tracking of shipments and raw materials. Discover the key provisions of record-keeping under the act and the benefits of RFID integration in the food industry.

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Using RFID for Regulatory Compliance

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  1. Using RFID for Regulatory Compliance Ernie Redfern, CIO

  2. Who is Blommer Chocolate Company? • Founded in 1939 • Four generations in chocolate • Family owned and operated • Four plants strategically located: • Chicago, IL • East Greenville, PA • Union City, CA • Campbellford, Ontario

  3. Company Overview • Largest Cocoa Bean Processor in North America • Currently - 225,000 Metric Tons (8% of World Crop) • Largest Presser in North America • Supplying to All Major Cocoa Butter and Cocoa Powder Users • Largest Fully Integrated Chocolate & Cocoa Manufacturer in North America supplying: • Confectionery, Baking, Dairy and Pharmaceutical/Cosmetic Industries • Lowest Cost Manufacturer in North America • Sole Focus is Cocoa Business

  4. Some of The Brands We Supply

  5. Bioterrorism Act Title-306 :Establishment and Maintenance of Records • 2002 - Congress passed the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act • June 12, 2002 President Bush signed into law “THE BIO-TERRORISM ACT” (BTA)

  6. HIGHLIGHTS OF BTA III:SUBTITLE-A SECTION-306 • Start of Compliance date December 9, 2005 • Records must be kept for 2 years • Available to FDA in 24 hours • Companies with Multiple Manufacturing locations do not need to have duplicate Records • FDA does not Require Specific type of Forms or Systems to Maintain Records • Tracking of samples, trade show merchandise, give aways.

  7. BTATitle – III : Subtitle-A Section - 306 Who need to be in compliance? • Manufacturers • Processors • Packers • Distributors • Receivers • Holders • Importers

  8. BTATitle – III : Subtitle-A Section - 306 Key Provision of Record Keeping: • Two Years of Records • In process • Immediate Previous Sources • Immediate Subsequent recipients

  9. Why Blommer Chocolate Company Implemented RFID Initiative • Compliance to new regulations within our overall inventory control strategy • Extensive use of outside logistics partners put greater burden on record keeping to meet new requirements • Needed to track when products left our custody (shipment to outside warehouse). • Needed to track when products returned to our custody. • Interplant shipments needed greater tracking • Needed to know when product left our custody for shipment to customers • Tracking Incoming Raw Material • Automatically relieve raw material in batching process • Accurate Inventory Counts

  10. Why Blommer Chocolate Company Implemented RFID Initiative … continued • We were NOT mandated by any customer to implement an RFID strategy in order to integrate with their system • Food industry has no standards (schemas) on data exchange universally adopted • RFID strategy is viewed as a way of cutting costs and augment increased record keeping burden while allowing for future expansion without additional headcount

  11. Non-Liquid Products We Ship Tracked By RFID

  12. Bulk Product Tracked by RFID

  13. What We Do Not Track with RFID • Liquid Shipments (tankers) • Silos • Cocoa Beans • Sugar • Raw Material • Liquid form pumped directly to holding tanks

  14. RFID & Shipment to Outside Warehouse • Goal: Eliminate manual tracking of product movement and automatically generation of shipping documents while complying with BTA accountability. • Solutions: • Reserved shipping docks for warehouse shipments and put in RFID tunnels. • Operators open dock, move product into trailers, and close dock – bill of laden automatically prints. • Bar coding of trailer seals helps. • We know when product was loaded and trailer sealed (date and time).

  15. RFID & Shipment to Outside Warehouse(Receipt by Outside Warehouse) • Installed VPN tunnel at outside warehouse. • Installed Access Points at warehouse as extension of Blommer Chocolate’s facility. • Incoming trailers scanned & palettes scanned while being offloaded in real time (date and time annotated automatically). • We know when product returns to our custody and what is in-transit.

  16. RFID & Batch Control (Lot Control) • Goal: Track raw material usage throughout batch cycle to include lot number traceability and rework control • Solutions: • Rework tagged with RFID label • Install RFID Tunnel in Paste/Mixing Room • Provides visibility of product moving to production area. • Provides accurate lot number information associated with raw material. • Alerts operator through visual signal if raw material or rework is not released from QC hold. • Alerts operator through visual signal if wrong raw material is being moved to production area. • Operator annotates raw material/rework quantity usage for each batch through handheld terminals • Integrated rework into batch process as indented bill-of-material

  17. Paste Room RFID Tunnel

  18. ROI

  19. What We Did Right • Set everyone’s expectations. • We were going to go through growing pains. • RFID was not going to be the savior for our inventory problems. • Appointed high level executive sponsor • Incorporated bar code scanning with RFID. • Ensured all our people were trained on new system. • Prototyped system in one plant before implementing in all plants. • Understood complexity of programming that needed to be done for RFID tunnel integration.

  20. What We Did Wrong • Underestimated Printer Issues • Initially did not use motion sensors to turn on/off RFID tunnel • Overestimated RFID equipment (readers and antennas) ability to work in manufacturing environment • Overestimated out vendor’s ability to provide technical support for an RFID solution • “Newness” of technology limits number of “experts” out there • Forced to write some of the integration internally

  21. FDA: Contaminated feed could affect farms nationwidePOSTED: 12:10 a.m. EDT, May 2, 2007–CNN.COM • Contaminated feed found in 38 Indiana chicken farms; more farms likely affected• Feed contains recalled pet food with tainted wheat gluten• No human illnesses have been reported related to tainted poultry feed • Reports of 4,150 dog and cat deaths related to pet food recall

  22. Where we need to go …..

  23. Infrastructure Used - For reference only - not an endorsement • RFID Antennas & Reader • SAMSys • RFID Printers • Printronics • Zebra • Datamax • RFID Label – Printronix RFID SmartTags • Warehouse Management System Software • AGI Worldwide – FinalMove • ERP – Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains • Database - Microsoft SQL Server 2005

  24. Q&A

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