Traceability of tobacco products in the wholesale trade

The demand for track and trace systems is growing enormously, and more and more tobacco wholesalers are looking for the right solution. After all, every company wants to be ready for May 20, 2019 and have a fully functional track and trace system in place to comply with the new TPD 2.

According to this new Europe-wide product directive for tobacco products, every company actively involved in the tobacco trade must implement a tobacco control system and ensure the traceability of all tobacco products and OTPs.

In addition to the EU Tobacco Directive, the law is also being converted into national law, which means that no company can get around it, neither producer nor retailer.

Tobacco wholesalers who, in addition to the usual warehousing, also handle transport and sales via field service, are particularly hard hit. The biggest problem here is the recording and precise tracking of all goods movements and repackaging, because according to TPD 2, every movement, no matter how small, must be traceable, whether it is goods receipt, stock transfer or picking in the warehouse, or loading and unloading and the sale itself in the field.

Every single process in the process must be strictly documented and contain all important information: Which employee was involved? When did the process take place? Where did the process take place and where did it go? Which batch with how many tobacco products was involved? Who is the target customer? All these questions and more have to be answered by each tobacco retailer before all this information is submitted to a central EU database.

Track and Trace Systems from COSYS

The main challenge is the development and implementation of such a complex track and trace system, because on the one hand many parameters are still unclear and on the other hand a lot of know-how, effort and technology is required. Therefore, it depends above all on the right contact person to develop a track and trace system on this scale. COSYS as a provider of modern software solutions around mobile data collection and supply chain management has recognized the explosive nature of the new tobacco product directive and started months ago with the development of a tobacco track and trace system.

Together with many major tobacco retailers from Germany and other EU countries, we are working on a fully functional track and trace solution that meets the tough requirements of the EU and the market.

In the course of the short-term implementation until May 20, 2019, an implementation of the requirements in a new enterprise resource planning system or warehouse management system is not viable / realistic. To maintain business operations, the COSYS standalone client can be used, this meets the requirements of the EU, it reports arrivals (inputs), aggregations (repackaging) and dispatch (outgoing goods). Required data, such as order documents or sales orders, can be provided via database connection. Customers rely on dot-code capable hardware or use the camera of their smartphones toDotcodes to capture. For camera acquisition, the product offersCOSYS Performance Scanning for Android and iOS a solid basis. The collected data is processed in the COSYS backend and transmitted to the EU bodies, the COSYS backend also provides the pool of SSCC numbers and operator, facility IDs. You can access the data via theCOSYS WebDesk.

For companies that want to manage their entire enterprise resource planning, from the warehouse to the field service, with aTobacco track and trace solution you would like to underpin this is no problem. TheCOSYS Supply Chain Management Solutions"Warehouse Management" and"CRM andSales Management" can be used, including traceability, to make the value creation processes in the warehouse and in the field even leaner and more efficient. The COSYS Track and Trace complete solution is composed of the right hardwareMDE devices andiOS/Android Smartphones) together with the appropriate mobile software, the all-managing backend system withCOSYS WebDesk andder richtigen Schnittstelle zu Ihrem ERP-System zusammen.