There is tremendous concern about the supply chain for food and pharmaceuticals. Counterfeit medicines are just the start; simply maintaining the right conditions when shipping can make the difference between medicine being effective or food still being edible.

Numerous companies have developed sensors to protect the supply chain, and many of these sensors also come with cloud-based solutions to track any changes. With its new ZS300 sensor solution, including the ZB200 Bridge and Android Sensor Discovery app, Zebra Technologies is throwing its experience into the ring with a new product that moves far ahead of previous Zebra products.

“For decades, Zebra has been enabling our customers to monitor and track products throughout the supply chain with barcodes and RFID technology, across various markets,” said Tony Cecchin, VP and GM, Supplies and Sensors, Zebra Technologies. “We have extended our capabilities with the environmental sensing portfolio, which includes label sensors and now electronic dataloggers – the ZS300 solution. This gives customers layers of visibility across the supply chain.”

Cecchin noted that the ZS300 Electronic Temperature Sensor and ZB200 Bridge will be demonstrated for the first time publicly at ProMat 2023, March 20-23.

Zebra’s new ZS300 electronic sensor solution provides cloud-based visibility of asset conditions across the supply chain, such as temperature and moisture. The ZS300 sensors, together with the ZB200 bridge, APIs, developer tools and the Zebra cloud data platform, enable customers to sense, analyze and act upon an excursion in real-time, allowing users to take corrective action quickly and driving smarter business decisions, improving profitability, maximizing productivity, reducing waste, and increasing efficiency.

The connected ZS300 datalogger uses high-performance Bluetooth Low Energy v5.2 for faster and easier access to data capture without manual intervention. Sensors can be configured to meet specific temperature requirements and can be used once or many times for the life of the battery, which is approximately 12 months.

“Zebra’s cloud-enabled developer tools and APIs allow our specialized ISV partners to develop apps that easily integrate within existing workflows and systems,” Cecchin observed. “The integration is powered by the Zebra cloud, an enterprise-level data platform designed with embedded security to ensure data integrity and authenticity.

“We don’t just help our customers reduce waste in their supply chain,” he added. “Zebra also offers a unique no-cost recycling program that makes environmental responsibility easy.  Customers simply request a pick-up, and the used sensors are collected and broken down for recycling.”

The difference with Zebra compared to other companies in the field is its breadth of offering. In recent years, Zebra has added a wide range of capabilities to its own sensor, RFID and computer portfolio, allowing it to take the best of what it has acquired and incorporating it into the ZS300.

For example, the 2019 acquisition of Temptime gave Zebra access to new technologies, leading to the Ready-to-Use Indicators, which are visual sensors, and Printable Indicators, where Zebra added chemical sensing technology to its traditional barcode labels.

“The acquisition of Temptime expanded our portfolio with environmental sensors,” Cecchin said. “The Ready-to-Use Indicators that monitor temperature-sensitive items are now available to Zebra customers. Since the acquisition we’ve expanded the environmental sensor portfolio with the Printable Indicators, and now the ZS300 Electronic Sensors solution. Our newest product – the ZS300 Electronic Sensor – provides an even higher level of visibility with the ability to log temperatures throughout the product journey and provide real time alerts if an excursion occurs.”

Cecchin noted that Zebra’s knowledge in RFID is playing an impotant role in the new ZS300 series.

“Zebra’s expertise in RFID, and the knowledge gained from helping customers integrate RFID into their workflows, has informed our design of the new ZS300 electronic sensors solution,” Cecchin said. “And we will continue to leverage this expertise to advance our environmental sensors portfolio.”

So far, the early returns on the ZS300 sensor solution have been positive.

“We have worked extensively with a wide array of global ISV partners to jumpstart integrating the ZS300 electronic sensors into customer platforms and systems,” Cecchin concluded. “It has been exciting to see how quickly they can build their solutions and provide easy-to-use workflows for our joint customers.”