Battling counterfeits in a massive market: Designing and evaluating an ID-tag based solution for electronic product monitoring and controlling
The problem of counterfeit and shoddy goods in China has been rampant and persistent one. The complexity of the Chinese market makes solving this problem extremely difficult. Three government agencies have tried to combat this problem extensively, from market entrance permission for prior-processing, sampling and inspection for in-processing, and punishment for post-processing. The responsibility division among agencies, however, created the cracks and holes in dealing with the problem. The existing government solution is too slow in response and too sparse in coverage to be effective and efficient. Anti-counterfeit labels and their derivatives are employed for counterfeit identification and prevention. Their effectiveness and coverage, however, are also limited, and the cost and resources required for these techniques have prevented a majority of industries to adopt them. To address this counterfeit problem, an ID-tag based product tracking solution have been proposed and developed. A unique ID is assigned to each product, a unique and authentic-able ID is assigned to each market participants, and a repository server is used to track all the status changes of the instances. Whenever a market participant processes a product, the market participant is required to report the changes in product status to the repository. Based on the status data of each product, the repository can create an event chain or the life cycle for the product. Using the event chain data, our solution creates a seamless monitoring and controlling system for each product over its entire life cycle in the market. Accountability can be traced to serve as a deterrence mechanism to fight against counterfeits. Our solution is called the Electronic Product Monitoring and Controlling System (EPMCS). For the last 15 years, EPMCS has saw great success in the drug industry. EPMCS has proven itself to be effectively in handling the problematic drugs and efficiently in resolving public crises. The EPMCS success in drug industries inspired many to build and deploy EPMCS like systems in different industries across China and other countries. While applying the EPMCS design to their systems, there are four questions that should be answered: (1) What are the essential elements and rules of the EPMCS design that other EPMCS like systems must follow? (2) Is the EPMCS complete and effective in solving the counterfeit and shoddy product problem? (3) What parameters of EPMCS can be chosen and what are their boundaries while EPMCS like systems are implemented? And (4) What are the worthwhile practices and experience we have gained in our promotion for the EPMCS adoption in drug industry that might shed light on the future EPMCS like system adoptions in other industries? In this research, the above questions are answered. It has shown that (1) any EPMCS system must have six core elements and eight essential rules; (2) EPMCS is a both complete and effective solution to the counterfeit and shoddy product problem; (3) There are four parameters that can be chosen and adjusted in an EPMCS implementation; (4) The elements of a successful EPMCS adoption include the prototype, effective communication, and accommodation for key stakeholders.
