Protecting the Brand While Gaining Operational Efficiencies with Item Level Identification, 2007 European PLACE Conference

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Supply chain efficiency and brand protection are increasing trends and affecting more and more the functionality of packaging. The role of packaging has widened from protection of goods to include informational and interactive functions, thus creating new demands for packaging materials, package manufacturing and other packaging related processes. Moving from production batch to item level identification is opening new horizons for both packaging and the usage of the item level information. This article introduces the recent development of item level packaging identification and discusses the trends for future development. Special attention is paid to brand protection and product authentication, and the main focus is in supply chain cases.