Wine Club plans to deploy RFID technology to improve supply chain transparency
The wine industry has always faced increasingly fierce competition and diverse consumer demands. However, the frequent occurrence of counterfeiting, counterfeit products, and smuggling has seriously affected the interests of wine companies and consumers. DVin Labs, a wine club, is improving the transparency and efficiency of its wine supply chain through blockchain and RFID tags.
This solution is based on blockchain and RFID technology to track the information of each bottle of wine during transportation, storage, purchase, and consumption. The system records the digital identification, life story, and surrounding conditions of each bottle of wine, all the way to the consumer’s hands.
By embedding ultra-high frequency RFID tags into bottles, dVin Labs is able to identify incoming and outgoing bottles and track their storage conditions. These data are crucial for the quality of wine, as changes in temperature and humidity may cause damage to the product. According to industry estimates, one in every ten opened bottles deteriorates due to temperature or humidity related issues in the supply chain. This not only brings inconvenience to consumers, but also brings huge economic losses to restaurants and other sales points.
At present, dVin Labs’ pilot project has been implemented in two well-known wine storage and logistics suppliers in Bordeaux and Madrid. As the pilot progresses, dVin Labs plans to expand the system to deployment around the world to further enhance the transparency and efficiency of the wine supply chain.
As early as 2011, the standardization organizations GS1 in Italy and GS1 in Hong Kong piloted the use of ultra-high frequency RFID technology that complies with the EPC Gen2 standard to track the entire process of wine shipments from Italy to Hong Kong.
The project will pilot eight trays, including 630 boxes and a total of 3780 bottles of wine. The project includes two different types of RFID tags: RFID tags with temperature sensing function and ordinary ultra-high frequency RFID tags. Italy’s GS1 selects one box of wine from each tray to place RFID temperature tags, and also installs ultra-high frequency temperature tags on the walls of the wine storage warehouse. In addition, before compressing and packaging the trays, select one tray from a group (two trays in a group for compression packaging) and place an RFID temperature tag. All pallets, cardboard boxes, and bottle bodies are affixed with ordinary passive ultra-high frequency RFID tags that comply with the EPC Gen2 standard.
Firstly, attach RFID electronic tags to the single bottle of wine to be exported to Hong Kong. The tag ID and SKU are stored in the EPC information service system of GS1 in Italy. After labeling at the individual product level, six bottles are packed in groups and RFID tags embedded with serialized Global Trade Identification Codes (SGTINs) are affixed on a box by box basis. Then, the tray is pasted with RFID tags embedded with the SSCC code for the series of shipping packaging boxes. Next, the tray uses an RFID reader to read the tray’s RFID electronic tag and associate it with the tag codes on the cardboard boxes and bottles. After the tray arrives in Hong Kong, read the RFID temperature tags on the tray and the walls of the manufacturer’s warehouse to determine if the historical data recorded on the tags meets the requirements, in order to ensure the quality of the wine.
Before the pallet leaves the production warehouse and is transported to the distribution center, it must pass through the RFID channel door to read the data of temperature sensing tags and ordinary RFID tags, and store the data in the EPCIS system. When the pallet arrives at the importer/distributor and is transported to the retail store, regular RFID tag data is read through a fixed reader.
Based on the pilot results, GS1 Italy has concluded that the accuracy of supply chain data has increased from 80% to 100%, and the level of logistics management has been effectively improved.
