Kezzler is a software company and technology leader specialized in providing digital ID solutions for connected products.
- Achieve product journey traceability
- Meet demand for product journey information
- Reinforce product transparency
- Build consumer trust
- FRISO TrackEasy smart packaging solution based on Kezzler Connected Products Platform
- Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk®PharmaSuite® serialization application
- Global availability
- Increased sales
- Increased consumer trust & brand loyalty
- Consumer & consumption insights
- Supply chain visibility & control
- Diversion & counterfeit avoidance
- Compliance ready
Christine C. Akselsen is CEO of Kezzler, a global leader in serialization technologies that provide digital ID solutions for connected products. Kezzler helps clients digitize products to collect, structure and share real-time value chain data at scale. This enables traceability throughout a product’s lifetime to achieve regulatory compliance, gain supply chain visibility, enable circular solutions and create dynamic end-user experiences.
Challenge
Reinforce Transparency and Consumer Confidence
One of the world's largest dairy companies, FrieslandCampina, engaged Kezzler to provide global traceability services for their top infant formula brand, FRISO. FrieslandCampina wanted to build consumer trust and reinforce transparency following a tragic scandal in China where six babies died and thousands more were hospitalized after drinking contaminated formula that was domestically produced.
Following the scandal, demand for imported infant formula increased among Chinese consumers. But FRISO-commissioned research found 93% of mothers in China and Hong Kong felt the information on product packaging was insufficient to give them peace of mind.
“What FrieslandCampina wanted and needed was to communicate to consumers that the milk in their infant formula was genuine and it was from the farms in the Netherlands,” Akselsen said. “They wanted to trace the infant formula from the point of milk collection all the way to the consumer and share that traceability journey with consumers.”
Solution
Unique Digital Identifier Provides Consumer Access to Full Product Journey
As a Rockwell Automation Digital Partner, Kezzler is uniquely positioned to bring end-to-end-supply chain traceability across IT/OT systems. Together, Kezzler and FrieslandCampina developed and launched FRISO TrackEasy, the infant nutrition industry’s first smart packaging solution. First introduced in Hong Kong and mainland China in 2019, the solution is now available globally.
“With TrackEasy, consumers can pick up a can of infant formula and use their phone to scan a QR code printed on the bottom to see the full traceability journey of that can,” Akselsen explained. “This is achieved with digitizing the can with the QR code as a unique digital identifier.”
That digital ID takes in upstream information about the milk associated with the cans to give consumers full traceability from grass-to-glass. The solution also registers product and production data including Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) and manufacturing and expiration dates.
The FactoryTalk®PharmaSuite® serialization application from Rockwell Automation is embedded in the platform. The serialization application builds unit to box to pallet packaging hierarchies and aggregates and shares the data with other systems, such as enterprise and warehouse management. All of which allows Kezzler to track and trace every product throughout the supply chain.
Result
Increased Sales and Global Expansion
“The best testament that this is working well for FrieslandCampina is that they’ve rolled it out in 18 markets so far,” Akselsen said. “They're seeing a sales uplift as a result of the increased brand trust and loyalty.”
The dairy company has been able to collect valuable marketing data, such as where, when and how the product was scanned and consumed. They’ve also used the digital identifier concept to place a second QR code under FRISO product lids to engage consumers in promotions and loyalty programs.
“Additionally, they’re avoiding diversion where products end up in wrong markets,” Akselsen explained. “They can take appropriate actions if they have too many consumer scans in an area where they shouldn't have.”
Akselsen added that because TrackEasy is only available with authentic products, the dairy company is also able to void counterfeit products.
Lastly, with the ability to collect data from the grass-to-glass journey, FrieslandCampina is compliance ready for current and emerging government regulations for traceability and reporting.
Published April 16, 2024
