Maritime Trade and Transport - HWWI

The future of the RFID
We have already noted that logistical processes may account for 10%–20% of the total
costs of a company, and, using the Airbus as an example, we have demonstrated the complexity
of transport structures. To ensure a company’s success, it is very important to
comprehend the importance of logistics as an integral part of the supply chain and to ensure
that it can be planned and monitored with end-to-end software solutions. After all,
especially in tightly linked supply chains, precision is absolutely indispensable. Even
minor errors can have fatal results. Shipments can be misrouted, arrive late, or get lost,
because they cannot be located. Entire production processes may come to a standstill. In
the future, RFID chips (see points 3.2.1. and 3.3) may prove to be the main monitoring
components. As is so often the case, RFID technology has military origins. As a further
development of radar equipment, radio frequencies were used for the early detection of
friend or foe, and were already in place in airplanes and tanks during World War Two.
The first civilian applications were for anti-theft systems for merchandise and animal
identification tagging (1980s). Numerous toll systems based on this technology have been
in operation in the USA since the 1990s. In the meantime, it is also being used for access
controls (on admission tickets during the 2006 Soccer World Cup in Germany), cashless
payments, or electronic car immobilizers (as part of the key). Basically needed are:
transponders/senders (RFID tag, smart label),
tag reading/scanning equipment, and
interfaces to servers, services, and other applications such as cash registers or inventory
control systems.
The future belongs to the active RFIDs with their own (battery) power source. They
have a longer service life (several years), larger memories, and can be reused/reprogrammed
numerous times. Data can be exchanged over large distances. This means that chips
can contain all the data – supplier, customer, merchandise amount, transporters (whether
ship, rail, truck, air) – and assume the necessary control functions. This is extremely
useful for container traffic. Lemmi Fashion (children’s clothes) was the first company in
the world to organize its entire logistics chain on the basis of RFID. Philips chips and
Microsoft modules are being used. Lewis Jeans intends to follow suit.
Secondary arena: The U.S. FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved the Veri -
Chip from Applied Digital Solutions in 2004. It is implanted under the surface of the skin
to transmit patient data. The major user at present is the U.S. Department of Defense.
All told, however, this has only involved 1% of the containers transported in the United
States. Problems: Global use is hindered by different regional radio frequencies, a lack
of uniform encryption methods, hardly any interfaces to other, complementary applications,
and costs that are too high. The simplest type of chip costs about $200 in 2005.
86 Berenberg Bank · HWWI: Strategy 2030 · No. 4