Advantages of RFID in Transportation & Logistics - Motorola Solutions

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WHITE PAPERRFID: DRIVING THE VISIBLE SUPPLY CHAINReaders work by sending an RF signal at a selectedfrequency, energizing tags to send their stored informationto the reader and system server. Depending on your project,you can choose from UHF “passive” tags that use the RFIDreader for power, or “active” tags that cost more but havetheir own batteries and can be used for projects that requirelonger read ranges. UHF passive tags are increasingly beingdeployed because the lower tag costs allow increasedvisibility into broader categories of goods and assets. Nomatter which tags are right for your solution, the benefits ofRFID can be significant. In general, the industry is seeingabout a 10 percent improvement in counting efficiencywith RFID.RFID VISIBILITY BENEFITSEssentially, RFID gives transportation and logisticsoperations increased visibility into equipment, inventory andbusiness processes. It increases your efficiency byshortening processes and and streamlining your datacapture procedures, and increases accuracy by minimizingor eliminating error-prone, time-wasting manual processes.It reduces labor costs with automated processes that utilizealways-on fixed RFID readers and it increases productivitywith mobile and on-demand handheld readers. RFIDprovides real-time data that gives you up-to-dateinformation across your entire supply chain. RFID solutionswill help you lower your operating costs, increasethroughput in your distribution centers, maximize on-timedeliveries and improve customer service and satisfaction.In addition, for most transportation and logistics businesses,the visibility provided by RFID provides benefits well beyondthe supply chain. Forward-looking companies are using RFIDtechnology to increase efficiency in numerous otherapplications such as receiving and put away, deliveryconfirmation, returns processing, inventory and security.RFID HARD AT WORKEven as RFID is poised to transform transparency andefficiency throughout the entire global supply chain, it isalready a hard working transportation and logistics solution.Over the last few years, RFID systems have been helping agrowing number of operations optimize both asset andinventory management, using both internal, or closed loopimplementations, and external, or open loop systems. Intoday’s logistics industry, companies are using RFID forshipment and asset tracking and management, warehouseand distribution management and yard management.Tracking ManagementOne of the biggest business issues in our industry is lack ofvisibility of shipments and goods and the implications thatthis lack of visibility can have on in customer service. Whenyou don’t know where a trailer, container, or pallet is at anygiven time, you don’t know where your products are, andneither do your customers. Efficiency suffers, assetutilization shrinks, labor costs increase, asset productivityand value lessen and payments are delayed. RFID solutionsare currently solving these internal asset management andtracking problems for a growing number of logisticscompanies and departments all over the world.One of Asia’s largest logistics organizations, Toll GlobalLogistics needed to more efficiently track goods andshipments at its Singapore facility. With goals includingreducing manhours by decreasing reliance on manualprocedures and increasing visibility for the company and itscustomers, the organization deployed a system that tagged“INCREASED SUPPLY CHAIN VISIBILITY BASED ONRFID READS COULD GIVE COMPANIES A BETTER VIEWOF WHEN INVENTORY PROBLEMS MIGHT BE ARISING,ALLOWING THEM TO TAKE EARLIER ACTION THATMIGHT RELIEVE THE NEED FOR (AND COST OF)EXPEDITING FREIGHT.”– SUPPLY CHAIN DIGEST ARTICLE, APRIL 2009PAGE 4
WHITE PAPERRFID: DRIVING THE VISIBLE SUPPLY CHAINeach of the location’s 150,000 pallets with UHF passive RFIDtags. When shipments arrive, staff members scan thebarcodes on the boxes, then use a portal to read RFID tagson the pallets these boxes are loaded into (or taken out of).The pallet identification data are then linked and sent viaWiFi to software that stores the data and makes it availableto both internal users and customers. Toll Global Logisticsestimates that the system will save about six minutes ofstaff time per pallet, resulting in more than 600 man-daysper year.Warehouse ManagementIn warehouses and distribution centers, RFID solutions arehelping to deliver process improvements that positivelyimpact customer satisfaction and your bottom line. RFIDautomation helps increase efficiency in receiving, sortation,routing, locationing and shipping, Use of RFID-enabledequipment, such as forklifts and handheld RFID readers,automates information capture, allowing thousands ofitems to be scanned simultaneously and eliminating costly,error-prone pen and pencil recording or time-consuminghandheld barcode scanning. RFID automation increasespicking and putaway efficiency, maximizes order accuracyand minimizes re-deliveries. Your labor productivity isenhanced throughout the facility. Most important, with RFIDstreamlining end-to-end workflow, you assure that the rightgoods reach the right customer at the right time.Southeastern Container manufactures plastic bottlepre-forms in three injection-molding facilities in the easternUnited States. Pre-forms are then shipped to bottlemanufacturing plants in cardboard containers and plasticbins, with empty containers being returned to the moldingfacility to repeat the cycle. But problems in the returnprocess were costing thousands of dollars a year due to lossand damage. The company replaced existing containerswith RTIs, returnable folding plastic bins designed toincrease efficiency and reduce cost. Since these newcontainers cost nearly ten times the cost of a cardboardcontainer, Southeast Container introduced an RFID-drivenend-to-end cycle counting system to track containerlifetimes against the number of cycles guaranteed by themanufacturer. Each container is permanently identified witha passive RFID tag for locating and tracking each unit in realtime, enhancing visibility and extracting maximum businessvalue from each container. The company expects to achievepayback on this project in less than two years.Yard ManagementIn many transportation and logistics organizations, yardmanagement is the last bastion of manual processes. Theprocess is virtually the same—and just as inefficient— theworld over. You have an employee moving through the yardon foot or in a vehicle, counting how many pieces ofequipment, containers and vehicles are in the yard andnoting their location on paper with pen or pencil. It’s atime-intensive and error-prone process that causes anumber of visibility-related problems, including redundanttrailer moves, shipping delays and costly penalties, yard andgate congestion, product shrinkage, excessive use ofrefrigeration, wasted fuel and lost time. To address theseproblems, numerous organizations across the supply chainare turning to RFID systems that automate asset trackingand locationing and reduce or eliminate manual processesin these yard-based environments. RFID is able tosignificantly reduce human intervention by, enablingmachine-to-machine information sharing to greatly enhanceaccuracy.In a large Kimberley-Clark production facility, eight differentdepartments are requesting trailer moves every day. Tryingto manage the yard, the company performs daily four-hourmanual yard checks. Even so, significant time and dollarsare being wasted trying to locate trailers; trailer re-handlingand multiple trailer moves are often required to managestatus and location. Efficiency also suffered from a lack oftools for management of trailer pools and third-partyservices. Kimberley-Clark solved its yard managementproblems with a complete RFID system that included fixedreaders at gates with handheld readers as backup. RFIDtags were attached or detached to trailers entering orleaving the gate. Readers were also installed on yard trucks,along with GPS and Wi-Fi for faster, more accurate, moreautomated yard management that eliminated manualchecks. Results were outstanding, including trailer locationin 10 minutes as opposed to up to three hours, a 19 percentreduction in trailer detention, 31 percent reduction inthird-party service costs, a 23 percent reduction in trailerrental, and an overall 6 percent reduction in total costs.The Future of RFIDThese and many other successful uses of RFID are openinga lot of eyes to the value of its applications in transportationand logistics. Around the world, a great many organizationsare using RFID to increase visibility not just internally butPAGE 5
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Advantages of RFID in Transportation & Logistics - Motorola Solutions

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