Handheld Computer in Food / Medicine / Cosmetics Insudtry

Food, medicine, and cosmetics must be very safe because they are products that are taken into the body or come into contact with the skin. Food products being past their expiration dates, containing foreign particles, and having packaging defects are all problems that negatively affect the safety of food and must therefore not occur. If these problems occur, the affected products must be recalled immediately. Also, in addition to the strengthening of inspections and management systems, the importance of traceability has increased in recent years. The trend in the food and medicine industries shows that the display standards are getting stronger every year. Examples include the change to a higher degree of strictness for the indication of information such as best before dates, production sites, and ingredients and the unification of distribution codes. This has led to an increased load on manufacturing processes, with the installations of handheld computer systems and the use of barcodes and 2D codes spreading to bring customers safer food, medicine, and cosmetics.

Normally, slips are checked visually for the inspections of raw materials, but similar product numbers, product names, and other such information can lead to mistakes. Handheld computers enable mistake-free receiving work by reading barcodes and similar information provided with the raw materials. This makes it possible to eliminate operator entry of data and to automatically convert receiving results to data, which is effective in preventing careless mistakes. Also, when handheld computers are used on a manufacturing line, inventory is moved automatically, which enables appropriate inventory management.

If mistakes occur in inspections performed visually or otherwise during warehousing or if products are placed on the wrong shelves, confusion will arise when an operator attempts to pick the raw materials required for the manufacturing line, and the subsequent processes will be greatly delayed. By using handheld computers and barcodes to associate product information with shelf information, this work can be made faster and more accurate. Also, handheld computers generate warnings when raw materials have exceeded their best-before dates, which prevents these materials from being supplied to the worksite by mistake.

For food / medicine / cosmetics, blending mistakes can occur due to the wrong raw materials being taken. Handheld computers can be used to read barcodes and check the raw materials and recipe before blending. Also, overall operation management, recipe checks, and insertion checks can be performed in real time, which makes it possible to handle problems as soon as they occur, thereby preventing delays in postprocessing. In addition, it is possible to check best-before dates during blending, manage the status of consumables and equipment, and associate and manage a large number of items related to manufacturing.

Handheld computers can be used to greatly improve the efficiency of lot number management, process management, and traceability in the filling process. Also, if an error occurs during the marking of labels, handheld computers will generate a warning when scanning said labels.

The shipping lot reversal phenomenon is likely to occur due to issues such as inventory management not being carried out thoroughly in the manufacturing of food / medicine / cosmetics. However, if handheld computers are installed, the shipping lot history of each customer can be managed in an appropriate manner, which makes it possible to avoid the above situation before it happens. Conversely, customer requests for the delivery of products with a later best-before date can be handled quickly, which leads to improved customer satisfaction.

Installing handheld computers in a finished product warehouse can prevent shipping mistakes because barcodes and 2D codes can be affixed to packaging for verification against the shelf numbers where products are stored in the warehouse. Handheld computers also greatly improve the efficiency of inventory management. Reading the best-before date data within the warehouse enables straightforward first in, first out operation, which reduces wasted costs, time, and effort.