An Accurate and Efficient Asset Management Solution For Tobacco Manufacturers

With this RFID solution, the asset management of your tobacco manufacturing facility can be done simply by having an employee walk through the store while holding a handheld computer with an RFID reader, which tracks the tagged assets.

For more technical details, please visit the GAO RFID Tobacco Manufacturing Asset Management System page on our website.

What the GAO RFID Tobacco Manufacturing Asset Management System Tracks

Our RFID system can track all assets involved in tobacco manufacturing including:

• Equipment such as a cigarette rolling machines, steamers and air separators
• Paper
• Flavors
• Sugar
• Licorice and chocolate (used in the basic process, not as a particular flavor)
• Alcohol and other substances
• Packaging items
• Containers used in the preservation of leaves
• Moving supplies, such as trolleys, trays and utility carts
• Cash registers and POS machines
• Office supplies, such as printers, copiers, fax machines, computers, tablets and more
• All other assets your tobacco manufacturing facility may utilize

An RFID tag is attached to each asset. This tag is read by using the accompanying handheld RFID reader.

Applications of the GAO RFID Tobacco Manufacturing Asset Management System

Regardless of the size of a facility or the variety of products it carries, the GAO RFID Tobacco Manufacturing Asset Management System is designed to manage and match all necessities.

There are all kinds of tobacco products, including those that specialize in the following specific areas:

• Pipes
• Nicotine replacement therapy
• Shishas or hookahs
• Smokeless tobacco
• Smoking tobacco
• Roll your own
• Cigars
• Cigarettes
• Menthol and flavored cigarettes

The Tobacco Industry

The tobacco industry comprises the production, selling, advertising and distribution of products obtained from the cured leaves of the tobacco plant. Tobacco products can include both smoking and smokeless items, such as cigarettes, cigars, snuff, chewing tobacco and pipe tobacco.

The controversial plant’s usage started among the indigenous peoples of South America and the historical region of Mesoamerica, who believed it to be a universal medicininal plant for pain and disease, as well as being significant enough to have a role in religious and cultural ceremonies. This belief continued to be passed down through generations, with tobacco being popularly used for similar purposes even in the 17th century, at which point it was, amongst other things, being used as a supplementary currency. This belief finally began to change in the 19th century, when scientists concluded that nicotine, a toxic liquid contained in tobacco leaves, was a dangerous poison. Despite this new revelation, tobacco use continued, although it was now seen as being recreational rather than medicinal.

Tobacco first began to be used outside of the Americas and its indigenous population when it was introduced by them to European explorers, including Christopher Columbus, in 1492. These sailors then brought the plant back home to Europe, where it was soon being grown and commonly used all over the continent. Eventually the usage of the tobacco plant spread to countries and societies far and wide, resulting in an industry worth billions of dollars in market value. The history and evolution of tobacco manufacturing has captured the interest of many through the centuries due to the controversies surrounding the usage of the plant, and despite its disputable nature, negative impacts on health and the efforts of multiple governments to outlaw tobacco products, the tobacco industry has remained ever-powerful.

Despite health warnings in the 19th century, tobacco continued to be produced as chewing tobacco, with cigarettes being hand-rolled using its leftover scraps. The end of the century marked the breakthrough of cigarette rolling machines, providing easier access to tobacco for the general population. This was around the same time that governments began to take scientists’ warnings about the dangers of nicotine seriously, and forbade the advertising of tobacco. Tobacco producers then negotiated themselves a new initiative, which consisted of them sending the tobacco plant to be tested in laboratories for its nicotine content and other dangerous properties, with these scientific reports then being shared with buyers and displayed on product packaging, informing the public about the process, quality and dangers of the product. For this reason, the tobacco industry continues to be one of the biggest and most transparent brands today, publishing reports and creating movies with highly detailed information regarding their product, process procedures, substance quantity and financial results.

In the last decade, taxes on tobacco have increased steadily in an attempt to cut the number of its users due to the health risks it possesses. In spite of this, the tobacco industry has only grown during the last five years with a rate of 3.3%, with the tobacco manufacturing industry’s revenue reaching $47.8 billion in 2019. The tobacco industry has continued to increase its profits to this day, despite governmental measures, due to not only the addictive nature of the product, but also by devising smart ways to target particular groups, such as brand loyalty and marketing schemes companies build by investing millions of dollars in them. Tobacco manufacturers develop different categories of products, each designed to cater to a particular category of users.

In Canada, the the tobacco manufacturing market is segmented between Tobacco Canada (49% market share), Rothmans, Benson and Hedges (37%) and JTI-MacDonald (13%). As of 2015, those three companies had made a combined $23.4 billion in profits. In the USA, the most popular brands of tobacco products include Marlboro (40%), Newport (14%) and Camel (8%).

In recent decades, with the increasing awareness surrounding pollution and the environment, people have started to criticize the tobacco industry, stating that it needs to focus on the environmental impact their products cause. Cigarette butts thrown into the ocean are deadly for ocean wildlife, while butts discarded on roads also increase pollution, and deforestation due to tobacco growing is yet another major environmental hazard. The packaging of different products has also been brought under severe scrutiny, with people demanding for more sustainable and economically viable forms of packaging to be used instead. Sustainability is a trend that is fast gaining in popularity, and this is something that may harm the interests of the tobacco industry if they do not begin to focus on sustainability and environmental impact.