The gap between labels printed and labels stuck on products is the source of genuine codes that end up on counterfeits. There is a practical way to measure it.
In one production shift, ten thousand labels are printed and nine thousand eight hundred are applied to products. Where are the other two hundred? In most plants there is no answer, and the question is not even asked: waste is taken as normal, the number is rounded and work goes on.
Yet each of those two hundred labels carries a valid code. The verification system recognises them and says "genuine". Stuck on a counterfeit, the system will still say "genuine", because the code really is genuine.
An unaccounted label is the source of a genuine code that will be stuck on a counterfeit.
Where the gap forms
Losses build up at three points, and all three are ordinary; the problem is not that they are ordinary but that they are not counted.
- Print set-up: labels lost in the first metres until colour and position are right.
- Application errors: units stuck crooked, torn or jammed in the machine.
- End of roll: the leftover strip that did not complete an order and is set aside.
Three steps to measure it
Keeping the account needs no new device. What it needs is an identity for every roll and three numbers recorded: how many codes were written to the roll, how many were applied to products and how many were destroyed. If the three do not add up to the number of codes on the roll, the difference is unaccounted for.
The second step is recording destruction. If waste is thrown into a bin and forgotten, the numbers will not add up. A report is written stating which range from which roll was destroyed, and the report itself is uploaded to the system: not its number, the document itself. When an auditor asks, nobody has to search through folders.
The third step is tying the difference to a threshold. Every plant has its own normal waste rate; what matters is not that the rate is low but that it is stable. If the rate doubles in one shift, there is something to look at there.
What the number is for
The number of unaccounted codes reduces counterfeiting risk to a single figure. The closer it gets to zero, the less likely it is that counterfeits carrying genuine codes are on the market. It may not be zero, and it does not need to be. It needs to be known.
Why a roll needs an identity
The first obstacle to keeping the account is that the roll has no name. For an anonymous roll you know how many codes were written, but not which shift, which line and which job they were used on. When a gap appears, there is nowhere to look.
Giving a roll an identity requires no new system; a number written on the roll and matched to the work order is enough. From the moment it has an identity, the gap is traced by looking at a single roll rather than the whole plant.
How to set the threshold
Every plant has its own normal waste rate, and it varies with line speed, material and product type. Taking the threshold from another plant's figure ends either in constant alarms or in none at all. The right way is to measure for a few weeks and see your own range.
- The threshold is set separately for each product type; a single rate does not cover them all.
- Print set-up waste is counted separately: it left the roll but never became a code.
- Look at it per shift; a daily average hides deviation.
- If the threshold changes, the reason is written down.
Why the report itself and not its number
Recording the number of a destruction report says the document exists; it does not say what the document says. When an auditor asks, the number points to a folder, and that folder is often in another building. When the document itself is uploaded to the system, the question is answered the moment it is asked.
If the gap is unknown, it is not zero; it has simply not been measured.
