運用FMEA與RFID技術於疫苗配送流程

Abstract

疫苗為高單價產品，對溫度敏感且具時效性，一旦發生溫度改變或是其他原因，造成疫苗變質、毀損等情況，可能造成疫苗功能失效，更可能因而產生龐大的成本損失。近年來有許多針對低溫物流配送問題之研究，然而這些研究大部分針對食品、花卉、農產品(蔬菜、水果)等物品進行研究，鮮少針對低溫疫苗配送問題進行探討。 有鑑於此，本研究針對低溫疫苗配送流程進行企業流程再造(Business Process Reengineering, BPR)文件化方式，運用失效模式與效應分析手法(Failure mode and effects analysis, FMEA)及無線射頻識別（Radio Frequency Identification, RFID）技術開發一套監控疫苗配送流程之資訊系統，建立一套標準化疫苗配送程序與緊急警報功能，以避免疫苗發生失效之情況，並將此套RFID資訊系統於實務上進行測試與應用。 本研究之結果顯示RFID資訊系統的建立確實有其必要性，透過即時性監控溫濕度功能，使用者可以隨時掌握疫苗溫濕度之現況，相對於現行疫苗配送流程，於配送過程中發生任何情況無法得知，若不幸疫苗溫濕度發生異常，通常僅能於事後察覺。因此，建立一套溫濕度監控機制，符合事前防範優於事後察覺之理念，且警報功能之設計可提早警報使用者疫苗將可能進入異常狀態，使用者可提前進行緊急處理，避免疫苗發生失效情況，其節省之成本具有相當效益。 從社會安全的角色來看，RFID資訊系統的建立，可有效掌握疫苗於配送流程中的即時的溫濕度變化，相較於現行疫苗配送流程缺乏通透度之情況，可避免因懼怕龐大的賠償成本於隱瞞疫苗失效事實，進而增加使用者在使用疫苗時之可靠性與安全性。

Vaccines are high-value products with higher sensitivity in temperature control than other products. When the temperature readings of vaccines fall in out of-control range, the batch of vaccines may be damaged, and it usually leads to a huge loss. Many researchers have been working on the studies of logistics for “cold-chain”, e.g., food, flowers, agriculture products such as vegetables and fruits, etc. recently. However, few studies addressed to the temperature monitoring in the distribution of vaccines in the literature. In order to solve this problem, we employ the techniques of Business Process Reengineering (BPR) and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to propose a Standard Operating Procedure and develop an information system for monitoring the distribution processes of vaccines in this study. Our results show that the proposed RFID-based information system is very helpful for the distribution processes of vaccines since it monitors the temperature readings in a real-time fashion that significantly improves the as-is situations in which the users can not detect the occurrence of any incident/failure until the distribution process of vaccine has been out of control. Therefore, our proposed system also highlights its alerting function that is able to show warnings and to allow the users some time for taking actions in advance. We assert that our proposed system is able to save considerable costs by avoiding the occurrence of the failure of vaccines. With the view of social warfare, the proposed RFID information system can assist the users to monitor the temperature readings so as to avoid the concealment of damaged vaccine and to effectively improve the reliability of the distribution processes and to security the quality of vaccines.