Tracking Medical Supplies
TWO RECENT SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAMS ARE SEEKING SOLUTIONS TO NOT ONLY KNOWING WHAT SUPPLIES SHOULD BE AVAILABLE BUT ALSO BEING ABLE TO KNOW EXACTLY WHERE THEY ARE AT ALL TIMES.
As with virtually everything, it is not enough to have adequate stock and supplies, what is important is to have the right supplies at the right place at the right time. With the continuing miniaturization of chips and other tracking and tagging devices the capabilities are getting closer to matching the need.
Just as in commercial business, the military medical supply chain doesn’t want to tie up more money and space in inventory. It wants to be able to order what it needs and move those supplies to the ultimate user. To maximize confidence and efficiencies from a dynamic medical supply system requires a reliable tracking and monitoring system.
Two programs under the Small Business Innovative Research (U.S. Army sponsored) program are hoping to identify technologies that will improve and enhance the ability to know what supplies are available and where they are in the logistics pipeline. DoD is hoping to take advantage of systems and technologies that are already at work in the commercial environment and adapt them to military requirements.
POINT OF ORIGIN TO END USER
The objective of this project is to develop a universal automated identification technology (AIT) system to monitor medical materiel from point of origin to end user. The system would identify requisitioned items, would be attached to individual items or packages either at the point of origin or at an intermediate shipping point for shipment to a deployed theater. The data would be picked up by wireless scanners at appropriate nodes and update the system on the status of the shipment. It would also have to provide manifest information to authorized users as items move through the transit system.
Any AIT implementation would have to be compatible with the enterprise systems in use by Defense Medical Logistics, particularly those systems used by deployed forces.
At the present time there is no system to monitor the progress of medical shipment to and within the combat theater other than those pallets that are tagged with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags in compliance with the current DoD mandate for tagging pallets and cases. Full implementation of the DoD mandate to tag all pallets and cases of Class VIII (Medical) materiel is not expected to occur before 2008.
The DoD mandate not withstanding, most Class VIII shipments are of less than pallet or case quantity and therefore are not subject to this requirement. Many of these medical shipments are time-sensitive and are often subject to damage from rough handling and/or environmental exposure. Very often the timely delivery of these items, in good condition, is necessary to save human life or limb or to alleviate human suffering.
Currently commercial delivery services, such as FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc., have very efficient and effective systems to monitor the progress of packages throughout their delivery networks and provide real-time intransit visibility with a high degree of accuracy.
The Army is seeking an AIT-enabled system to provide tracking/intransit visibility of less than pallet/case quantity medical shipments from the point of origin, or from an intermediate shipping point such as a military medical depot, to the point of use. As minimal human intervention is preferred, RFID tags are preferred over bar codes alone—bar coding should be provided as a backup for damaged RFID tags.
In addition to monitoring the progress of delivery the system should monitor the condition of sensitive medical shipments in transit. Therefore a technology such as MEMS (micro electrical mechanical systems) should be combined with the RFID technology to provide alerts to the condition of goods in transit. Early notification of possible damage to essential medical materiel can facilitate the shipment of a replacement item even before the ultimate consignee receives the damaged material.
Successful development of this project will go beyond current practice in a number of areas. RFID tags will reduce human intervention and provide more information than is provided by presently used one- and two-dimensional bar codes. The implementation of MEMS technology sensors within the RFID transponders will permit monitoring the condition of items both in storage and in transit. At a minimum, sensors will be available to monitor and report temperature, humidity, vibration and/or shock. In addition the desired result will go beyond current mandates (Wal-Mart, DoD, etc.) by tagging individual items (or small quantities of items) rather than just cases or pallets.
These improvements envisioned by this project should also be of value to commercial enterprises and delivery systems where the safe, timely delivery of sensitive items is necessary.
The result of this effort will go well beyond what is current practice in the shipping/delivery industry. The use of RFID transponders will significantly reduce human intervention in the tracking effort since identification tags/labels will not need to be visualized to be read. The combination of MEMS sensors with RFID tags has been demonstrated in a number of venues. When applied to shipments these sensor-enabled tags are capable of recording and reporting the environmental conditions encountered by items in transit or storage. Tags have already the ability to monitor temperature excursions, shock loads, humidity or moisture conditions, and other parameters. This capability will enable a sense-and-respond logistics system to better serve its customers by assuring that deliveries will not only be made in a timely manner, but in usable conditions. By knowing that an item in transit has been subjected to conditions beyond acceptable parameters a replacement item can be dispatched to the customer even before the original shipment is received and determined to be unusable. This is clearly a significant benefit for shipments of critical life or limb saving medical supplies and also of critical repair parts. Just as the assurance of the timely delivery, in good condition, of medical supplies, repair parts, ordnance, etc. can help assure mission accomplishment for military customers, the ability to deliver commercial commodities to customers timely and in good condition will provide significant added value beyond what is currently available.
COMPACT, RUGGED, MOBILE AIT SCANNING SYSTEM
The objective of this project is to develop an integrated deployable warehouse wireless RFID scanning system. Scanners would have the ability to connect with parent logistics system(s) to access and exchange system data. The equipment should have clear, compact screens to display system data. Scanners will be used for inventory operations, quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC), and the daily processing of both inbound and outbound shipments. This system needs to be rugged, lightweight, portable, easily transported and able to be set-up under the most austere conditions as well as improved conditions. Once developed, this system will be a warehouse management system capable of rapid deployment to austere, remote environments that will help manage the daily receipt, inventory management and shipping process of the deployed medical warehouse subject to constrained personnel assets.
AIT systems are now emerging that are bringing a high degree of automation to the management and control of inventories in warehouses. This automation significantly reduces human error and improves the accuracy and timeliness of warehouse management operations. These improvements are often accomplished with a reduction of human intervention and a decrease in the size of the work force needed.
Bar codes have broad acceptance and have been used for many years to help manage inventories and to maintain visibility of goods in transit. Because bar codes require considerable human intervention in their use, with resultant error rates, better technologies have been sought. RFID (and other AIT modalities) is emerging as a leading potential successor, or supplement to bar coding. AIT eliminates or significantly reduces human intervention needed in the scanning process. Wal-Mart and DoD, among others, have instituted mandates requiring the application of RFID tags to all shipments at the pallet and case level. The primary purpose of this initiative in the DoD has been to maintain visibility of goods in transit. Wal-Mart is using the RFID tagging for some inventory management purposes as well. To date these efforts are being accomplished primarily in well-established fixed facilities with improved infrastructures.
In order to provide support to the deployed medical forces, the medical logistician must also deploy a medical material distribution system. This requires that one or more warehouse operations must be established in the deployed theater. These operations are usually in environments that are austere in both resources and personnel.
The Army is interested in the development of a compact, scalable, deployable, accurate, efficient and rugged automated warehouse inventory management system capable of use in an austere setting. The system will minimize the requirements for human intervention and will be portable, with the ability to be set up in both conventional structures, expedient shelters, such as tents, and in open areas. It is expected that bar codes and RFID, compatible with industry standards and DoD requirements, will be used as the primary technologies.
The retention of traditional layers of redundancy is preferred, and the system will scan data and forward them to the activity’s central database and will be able to retrieve data from the central database. There will be both mobile and (semi)fixed devices with readable screens to provide system information and data at multiple locations. Easy connectivity among devices is important. WiFi or wireless LAN is the preferred choice, however, where security concerns dictate, hard wired or direct contact means of information transfer may be necessary. The system will be capable of processing receipts, storage operations, including location identification, materiel release orders, shipments and generating inbound and outbound manifests. The system, as expected, must be compatible with and interface with the Defense Medical Logistics enterprise system(s) supporting the deployed activity.
Advancements and innovations developed here will also be of value to commercial warehousing enterprises by improving the range of use of the technology and by improving efficiency. A significant civil application of this system might be in the provision of emergency response to natural or man-made disasters. In such situations it is usually necessary to mount significant logistical operations where destroyed or damaged facilities must be supplemented or replaced. A field-deployable warehouse management system will permit the rapid establishment of temporary or ad hoc expedient distribution operations.
SBIR PHASE FORMAT
Both of these projects will proceed using a three-phase approach to development.
Phase I will develop a system scope and overall architecture and identify and demonstrate existing hardware that can be used as well as items which will require development. Requirements for interfacing with and supporting Defense Medical Logistics enterprise systems, particularly those used by deployed forces will be identified. Security requirements for use in DoD systems will also be addressed. Even these initial systems will have to be rugged, portable and capable of working in austere environments.
Phase II is expected to result in the testing, evaluation and delivery of a functional prototype of the system described in Phase I. All issues related to interfacing with enterprise systems will be addressed to include security requirements. The Phase II prototype will result in a product ready for final development as a production version in a potential Phase III.
At Phase III, a successful production version of this system will provide significant value to deployed military medical activities. Such a system will be capable of providing combattheater caregivers a significantly improved logistics support system, thus improving the care given combat casualties and others needing medical care. The technological advances made to provide better logistical support to the health care system can also be applied to the logistics needs of other commodities with sensitive requirements such as subsistence, ordnance, replacement parts, etc. ♦