DePuy Orthopaedics, a division of Johnson & Johnson and a leading supplier of orthopaedic implants, has incorporated RFID technology into its day-to-day operations, leveraging UPM Raflatac Gen2 RFID tags and a complete solution developed by ODIN technologies.
The goal of the end-to-end solution was to improve efficiency in DePuy Orthopaedics' supply chain logistics by automating the manual inventory inspection process for the company's Express Care sets containing titanium and cobalt chrome joint replacements.
The company places UPM Raflatac's UHF Gen2 DogBone RFID tags on individually boxed orthopaedic implants, as well as the completed Express Care sets.
RFID has streamlined DePuy Orthopaedics' inventory processes as well as delivered increased efficiency and accuracy by reducing the Express Care set processing time from between 10 and 30 minutes to less than one minute.
Instead of scanning each item individually, employees are now able to replenish and reship the company's daily output of 675 Express Care sets faster than ever before. The ODIN solution, which is based on sound physics and infrastructure automation, relies on the UPM Raflatac UHF DogBone tag to deliver 100 percent accuracy.
RFID technology has provided DePuy Orthopaedics with reliability and scalability under challenging conditions. Tags must be read accurately in the presence of metal which can cause RF interference, parts are not necessarily placed uniformly inboxes, and the majority of the company's incoming orders require same-day processing and shipment.