From January 1, 2020, all products of the "August" company for agricultural production are produced only with serial marking applied to them in accordance with the system of international standards GS1. The August Checker mobile application, available on Google Play and the App Store, makes it easy to distinguish original products from counterfeits.
The graphic DM-code on each consumer package contains encrypted data on the international product code (article), unique serial code of the package, release date, production batch number, expiration date. In this aggregate of data, it is the unique serial number of the packaging of the goods that makes it possible to verify the authenticity of its origin and track its movement in the logistics supply chain right up to its application in the field. Consumers of chemical plant protection products (CPPP) have the opportunity to create their own services to track and control the use of pesticides. Thus, serial marking makes it possible to automate logistics operations in warehouses and to create a barrier to theft, which significantly reduces the efficiency of the agricultural business.
The company "August" became the first enterprise-manufacturer of CPPP in Russia, which introduced serial marking of its products according to the GS1 standard - the international Association for Automatic Identification. The Association has offices in 111 countries and more than a million companies worldwide use its developments. Probably every supermarket buyer has come across the usual labeling containing the article number of the goods, who has ever checked the numbers on the barcodes of the packages on the shelf with the numbers on the barcode of the price tag to make sure that he chose the right product. Serial marking does not only contain information about the article - it provides for applying a unique serial number to each of the product packages. This allows you to track, for example, parameters such as production date, batch number and product expiration date. Serial marking in accordance with GS1 standards contains a unique serial number of the package in a secure form, which makes it extremely difficult to counterfeit labeled products.
“The code on the product packaging can be copied and replicated. But a mobile application working with a database of labeled products will not miss the wrong code, and will define it as questionable if it occurs repeatedly. At the same time, counterfeiters will no longer be able to guess or calculate the unique codes of the rest of the goods in the batch using a unique code on one package, nor can they falsify them, ”explains Andrey Generalov, head of the outbound logistics group at Firm“ August ”JSC.
For the sake of introducing a marking of this level, the company "August" carried out a serious modernization of all production lines, the corresponding software was developed. In addition, August has created and implemented unique identification codes for transport packages: the marking applied to them allows you to receive information without unpacking what kind of product is inside, including the unique serial numbers of its primary package.
“When introducing marking in our company, a synergistic effect was achieved, when one solution works to achieve several goals,” says Andrey Generalov. - Firstly, after the introduction of labeling in our company, it became possible to introduce a modern warehouse management system: it is already functioning at our factories, we are preparing to launch it at the warehouses of regional offices and, as a result, we will be able to track how any of our goods moves along our supply chain. ... Secondly, serial marking is a requirement of our large consumers. They also have warehouses for which their control systems and application products are developed - for example, applications for data collection terminals. Large agricultural enterprises strive to work with all plant protection products according to a single model and build their systems precisely on the basis of the GS1 standard marking. Thus, the list of product packages we supply immediately after shipment can be automatically sent to the client and loaded into his accounting system, and his terminals can process our codes. This makes it possible to automate the process of goods acceptance as much as possible, when using the data collection terminal, it is enough to scan the code and thereby verify the shipped goods with the received ones. An automatically generated acceptance certificate can go straight to the accounting department. "
Serial marking optimizes not only accounting, but also management. Large agricultural enterprises are often faced with the problem of theft, when the required products may simply not reach the field. In this case, the marking helps to trace the path of each canister, including both the use of the drug and the return of empty containers. “Of course, even with such accounting, there can be abuse - the drug can be poured out for reasons of sabotage or laziness, as well as poured into other containers,” says Andrei Generalov. - But the resale of such a drug on the secondary market is already much less profitable than the product in its original packaging. This kind of accounting disciplines the employees of the enterprise: even if they do not touch upon the issue of theft, warehouse employees, for example, will not be able to evade checking all received products and will be obliged to scan them in full. "
To work with marking in "August" developed three mobile applications for different needs. By scanning the code using the August Checker application, the consumer can confirm the authenticity of the product. The application "August Agromarker" will help companies that do not have their own application products for automated accounting, to record all operations for issuing and receiving after the use of empty packages of "August" preparations. The Agrosklad application was created to work in August's own warehouses and to exchange data on the movement of goods and performed operations with the corporate information system of ERP SAP. In the future, the application can be adapted for use by partner companies. It is planned that almost all of August's products, released before the introduction of the serial marking system, will be used up during the next agricultural season and the large-scale work carried out will begin to bear fruit.
During 2020, the company "August" has already received many requests related to the new marking from the security services of agricultural enterprises. Also, the marking system began to provide information to a new level for the company's own security service. Andrei Generalov explains: despite the fact that a full-fledged drug traceability system is still in its formation, August's specialists have already managed to track the appearance of their drugs, which were previously supplied to one of the large agricultural enterprises, on the secondary market. When clients implement their own internal control tools that allow them to record what, when and to which operator was issued, the “holes” where the drugs go will be immediately visible.
The introduction of modern labeling should also strengthen the state supervision system. The State Duma of the Russian Federation has already approved in the first reading a bill amending Federal Law No. 109-FZ "On the Safe Handling of Pesticides and Agrochemicals" and returning the function of control over the circulation of pesticides to Rosselkhoznadzor. When the law is passed and enters into force, the system of serial product labeling will allow the specialists of the supervisory authority to quickly receive information about whether the drug they are investigating is original or falsified. Enterprises that are members of the Russian Union of Producers of Chemical Plant Protection Products have already confirmed that they agree to move in this direction and introduce serial marking in accordance with the GS1 system of international standards. When this happens, the supervisor will have the opportunity to create a new control tool, and market participants will be able to develop a universal mobile application to verify the authenticity of all industry products. In addition, the labeling has chances for cross-sectoral distribution: companies from a related sector - fertilizer producers - have begun to study the possibility of its implementation. In the future, experts of "August" believe, it is necessary to strive to create a unified architecture of the tracking system (Track & Trace), where the supervisory authority ensures the integration of information systems of individual manufacturing companies into a single software package.
Material provided by the press service of the company "August"