Benjamin Read
Market Development Manager at Avery Dennison
March 28, 2025
The journey of medical devices from production to life-saving surgeries is filled with challenges. Issues like missing items, overstocked inventories, inefficient recalls, and manual stock management waste resources, increase costs, and even cause canceled surgeries. These problems strain manufacturers, distributors, and healthcare providers, ultimately affecting patient care. RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology offers a game-changing solution for the medical device supply chain. Providing real-time visibility and precise tracking, RFID enables smarter, more efficient, and sustainable management, ensuring devices are always in the right place at the right time.
With over a decade of experience in RFID for healthcare, Benjamin Read, Market Development Manager at Avery Dennison, explores how RFID can address supply chain inefficiencies and streamline the journey of medical devices from source to surgery. Discover his insights…
From source to surgery: How RFID optimizes the medical device journey
For over a decade now, I've witnessed the transformative power of RFID across diverse industries, from streamlining supply chains to transforming inventory management. However, the potential impact of RFID within the medical device sector stands out to me as particularly interesting and impactful.
During my interactions with manufacturers, distributors, and healthcare providers, I’ve heard countless stories of last-minute surgery cancellations caused by a single missing item. Despite records indicating stock availability, hospitals and suppliers often overstock to prevent such situations. This leads to over-forecasting and, in many cases, the scrapping of outdated inventory instead of redistributing it to where it is needed most. These inefficiencies can be resolved with real-time visibility and the supply of only the necessary quantities. Disputes over invoicing, caused by a lack of usage records, or delays of months before billing and restocking, could be avoided entirely. In the event of a product recall, the process is often chaotic — entire batches must be removed from shelves, often after a lengthy search to locate them. With RFID technology, however, each item can be uniquely identified, allowing you to precisely track its location and streamline the recall process.
By assigning a unique digital identifier to each device, RFID provides unparalleled traceability, allowing for real-time visibility into your supply chain and immediate detection of potential bottlenecks. Data-driven decisions optimizes processes, streamlining workflows and enhancing efficiency, ultimately laying the groundwork for comprehensive traceability.
RFID: The next generation of tracking
RFID is a revolutionary technology transforming industries with automatic identification and tracking. Often referred to as "barcode 2.0" or "UDI 2.0" in the medical device world, RFID uses radio waves to communicate between a tag attached to an object and a reader, eliminating the need for direct line-of-sight identification. This enables real-time, wireless data capture, resulting in greater efficiency, accuracy, visibility, and cost reduction. In the complex medical device industry—where patient safety, quality control, and intricate supply chains are paramount—RFID offers significant potential. Already proven in industries like apparel, RFID can address challenges by tracking medical devices from manufacturing to use in the operating room. Healthcare providers are experiencing benefits such as improved inventory management and enhanced patient safety, but tagging at the hospital or distribution level is labor-intensive and time-consuming, driving demand for source tagging by manufacturers. While some manufacturers have started tagging products at certain stages of the supply chain, inconsistency hinders the full potential of RFID. A standardized source-level tagging strategy is essential to meet the healthcare industry's evolving needs. Though certain processes, like repackaging or sterilization, may require tagging further upstream, solutions exist to maintain RFID’s effectiveness as early as possible in the supply chain, maximizing the value of this technology.
Unlocking advantages throughout the product lifecycle
RFID tagging at the source unlocks significant advantages throughout the entire product lifecycle. This creates multiple read points within the supply chain, allowing for continuous benefits from the manufacturing site to the operating room. RFID technology offers significant advantages for a diverse array of medical devices, ranging from implants and catheters, to orthopedics and spinal devices.
Here's how RFID is revolutionizing the journey of a medical device, from source to surgery:
1. Manufacturing: What if you could track your medical devices at all stages of the supply chain, from source to surgery?
Imagine the power of tracking your medical devices seamlessly through every stage of the supply chain, from source to surgery. This vision becomes reality with RFID tagging at the point of manufacture, integrating RFID into the products packaging or label. By assigning a unique digital identifier to each device, RFID provides unparalleled traceability, allowing for real-time visibility into your supply chain and immediate detection of potential bottlenecks.
Data-driven decisions optimizes processes, streamlining workflows and enhancing efficiency, ultimately laying the groundwork for comprehensive traceability. Making Possible…
2. Warehousing and Distribution: What if you could guarantee on-time delivery of critical medical devices?
Imagine streamlining coordination and communication with your supply chain partners and guaranteeing on-time delivery of critical medical devices. RFID makes warehousing and distribution more efficient by improving inventory accuracy and eliminating manual errors. Optimized storage maximises space, while efficient retrieval ensures quick access to needed items. Streamlined picking and packing reduce errors and improve on-time deliveries. Real-time data enables proactive stock management to avoid stockouts, and enhanced security deters theft and controls access to high-value items.
These improvements boost customer satisfaction and strengthen relationships with healthcare providers, ensuring vital medical supplies arrive exactly when needed. RFID turns the warehouse from a source of frustration into one of efficiency and accuracy, ensuring medical devices move seamlessly from manufacturer to provider, ready for patient care. Making Possible…
3. Hospital Inventory Management: What if you could ensure that every surgery has the right device, at the right time?
In hospitals, things can sometimes go wrong — a misplaced implant here, an expired catheter there. Now, imagine a hospital where every surgery runs smoothly, with the right device always available. This is made possible through RFID integration in inventory management. It saves healthcare staff time by automating tasks, letting them focus on patient care. Optimized stock management reduces waste and prevents stockouts, while expiration tracking ensures only in-date devices are used, boosting patient safety. Streamlined billing reduces errors, and accurate procedure costing improves cost analysis. RFID transforms hospital operations, delivering efficiency, safety, and precision at the point of care. Making Possible…
RFID: The Future of Medical Device Management
From source to surgery, RFID technology is transforming the medical device industry. By providing real-time visibility, improving efficiency, and enhancing patient safety, RFID is making it possible for medical device manufacturers to achieve a new level of control and transparency across the entire supply chain.
Ready to learn more? Discover how RFID technology can revolutionize your medical device operations. Reach out to us today!
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