Philip Morris Intl. Seeks To Make Serialized Bar Codes Work With EPC Network
Featuring Brian Schulte, director of data and information management, Altria Corporate Services

Used with permission from RFID Journal, Inc.

The ability to use EPC infrastructure, the cigarette maker says, will help it stop illegal trade and ensure the authenticity of its brands.

Philip Morris International (PMI), an Altria Group division that sells tobacco products in all parts of the world except the United States, has designed track-and-trace and authentication systems using serialized, linear, and 2-D bar codes designed to fight product counterfeiting and contraband.

The company hopes to extend these technologies so it can leverage the Electronic Product Code (EPC) network managed by EPCglobal, and plans to work with the nonprofit standards organization to make this goal a reality.

PMI manufactures 800 billion cigarettes a year, using 35 of its own factories and 23 factories operated by third parties. In Europe, it marks cases of its cigarettes with unique serialized ID numbers in the form of EAN-128 bar codes. Each bar code includes a GTIN 14 number, the product variant, the manufacturing date and time, the production center and a case packer number. PMI uses these numbers to track goods shipped from its manufacturing plants to distribution facilities and first customers.