Pharmaceutical Dispensing Cabinets for Injectables and Vaccines.

The Challenge

A global company specializing in pharmaceutical dispensing cabinets leases its systems to physicians and healthcare providers. Cabinets are equipped with a patented platform for storing and dispensing injectables such as biologics and vaccines. Refrigerated and non-refrigerated units bundle services such as online and assisted product reordering, in-person restocking, impending product expirations, and temperature monitoring and auto-generated alerts. The company was faced with new customer requirements for tracking RFID tags on injectable products. Rather than redesign complicated existing ambient and refrigerated medical cabinets, the manufacturer chose RFID READY to retrofit cabinets with RFID reading capability.

The RFID READY UHF GEN2 Reader & Antenna Solution

RFID READY provided an easily installed and serviceable solution using an embedded reader, antenna and management application system that retrofitted existing cabinets and provided an all-in-one system to assure 100% tag reads.

RFID Reader and Antenna Engineering, Build and System Integration.

The Objective

To develop an insertable, modular shelving and storage unit for existing cabinets that were not pre-equipped with RFID capabilities in order to collect product tag data and integrate with back-end inventory and reporting systems

 The Solution

- develop fully integrated plug-in modular cabinet inserts with embedded readers, antennas and software applications

- design patentable embedded retrofit RFID kits

- engineer kits in several sizes to fit various production sizes

- ensure that components adhere to all GS1 GEN2 RFID standards-based protocols

  The Results

RFID READY delivered an integrated easily scalable solution that gives medical cabinets the ability to automatically perform inventory management tasks, including:

 - auto-reporting and integrating RFID tag data instantaneously with backend ERP system

- generating inventory reports in near real-time for supply management and reorders  thereby eliminating out of stock and long-lead time scenarios

- tracking and monitoring pharmaceutical products’ expiration dates allowing for FEFO distribution (first-expired, first-out) inventory management

Conclusion

RFID READY successfully developed insertable modular RFID kits with application-friendly user interfaces for automated RFID data collection. Cabinets can be quickly retrofitted with RFID capability via pre-installed power and data transmission connectors. The easily replicateable solution delivers optimal performance at a low unit cost while simplifying the reading and reporting of RFID tag data for storage and distribution of vaccines and injectables.