Bolaji,
I have a meeting planned with Applied DNA Sciences and will try to get more information as to cost and the associated road map. Both the verification and authentication costs will be addressed. Stand by for a more detailed article than this present one.
Openers,
I talked with Applied again this week. As to the cost, the application of the DNA tag or marker is less than a penny a part. Currently, they are only marking packages but are experimenting with die level approaches. I was told that the app,I cation cost would be almost nothing as the volume and use of this technology increased. They did stress the initial scan did not verify the sequence but only that the DNA marker was present. The sequencing authentication was still big bucks and required lab level forensic equipment and procedures. But, just verifying the presence of the DNA can take the confidence level to a high number. I will be meeting with their science team to get more understanding. I will write more about the company and their technology then.
From what I have read and heard (http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=406&sid=2740667) the cost would be pennies per unit and the technologiy has proved "un-copyable" in all tests, including one done by the Idaho National Laboratories.
I was also concerned about the cost factor and whether it would be worth to spend it to have DNA tag with every product. It may make sense to use these if the initial research cost is high but the per-unit cost is low
Apart from this, is there absolutely no way that counterfeiters will be able to fake copies of these DNA tags?
Douglas, What's the cost of all this to manufacturers and is the viability of the option dependent upon the product and the depth of the problem for the individual supplier?
Prabhakar, Counterfeiters won't go out of the business of faking anything they can simply because manufacturers are getting help from applicaitons like DNA tagging. I believe the war will be long fought though eventually one side (manufacturers) will have the upper hand even if it cannot completely eliminate the competition.
Perhaps it would work rather like gadgets designed to ward off auto-theft. There is a way around all of them for the determined criminal, but the hope is that if your car is harder to steal than the next one, it will be the other guy who finds the car missing.
Don't be too quickly lulled into a false confidence, though. What can be made, can be taken apart. What can be taken apart, can be analyzed. What can be analyzed, can be reproduced
That is the main danger. Anything you devise the counterfeiters can also devise.The cost can be the only deterrent.
EBN Dialogue enables and encourages you to participate in live chats with notable leaders and luminaries. Not only editors and journalists, but the entire EBN community is able to comment and ask questions. Listed below are upcoming and archived chats.
Archived Dialogues
Thailand Stages a Comeback Join EBN contributor Jennifer Baljko on Thursday August 23, 2012, at 11:00 a.m. EST for a live chat on how electronic manufacturers in Thailand have shored up their supply chain to reduce the impact of future natural disasters.
Euro-Crisis: What It Means for High-Tech Firms Join EBN Editor in Chief Bolaji Ojo and Contributing Editor Jennifer Baljko on Thursday, July 12, at 10:00 a.m. EDT for a Live Chat on high-tech and Europe's economic difficulties.
Microsoft Surface: Potential Winners & Losers What are the implications for the electronics industry supply chain of Microsoft Corp.'s decision to launch its own tablet PC? Join industry veteran and EE Times' systems and OEM expert Rick Merritt on Tuesday, July 3, at 12:00 pm EDT for a Live Chat on this subject.
Join EBN contributor Jennifer Baljko on Thursday August 23, 2012, at 11:00 a.m. EST for a live chat on how electronic manufacturers in Thailand have shored up their supply chain to reduce the impact of future natural disasters.
Peter Drucker famously said "Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window." Yet in the razor's-edge world of electronics—with a lean supply chain and just-in-time demands—the need to know the future is vital.
While no one really can accurately predict the future, we can take guidance from another Drucker saying which is the best way to predict the future is to create it.
You've heard the saying "the No. 1 supply chain risk is your people." That hasn't always been the case. But today's complex global supply chain requires a new type of multitalented employee. It's one who understands, finance, marketing, economics, is savvy with technology, graceful with relationships and can think analytically.
Where are these people? Are universities properly preparing the next generation supply chain professionals? How do train your existing workforce for these new, demanding positions?
Brian Fuller, editor-in-chief of EBN, will lead a 60-minute Avnet Velocity panel discussion that will ask and answer these and other questions swirling around today's supply-chain talent challenges.
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