Delivery provider TNT Express is expanding its
multimillion-pound RFID programme in trials to optimise global
supply chains.
The first pilot involves a PC manufacturer, which has been
tagging a single product line at key points in its supply chain
from China to Europe. The first phase began at the start of 2005
and finished during the third quarter. It is now being scaled
up.
"Half a billion items were read during the nine months of the
trial," said Onno Boots, director of global account management at
TNT Express.
The first phase of the trial showed how RFID could create
efficiencies across the supply chain, from the equipment
manufacturer in China to delivery in Europe. Tracking items at this
level, Boots said, allowed TNT Express to provide its customer with
information on individual items in a shipment. Its mainstream track
and trace system can only provide information on a single shipment
that can contain 10,000 or more items.
The pilot used technology called Trax from RFID supply chain
specialist Xterprise and a software "bridge" to feed information to
TNT Express' systems.
"The Xterprise software captures all RFID data and passes it
through to our enterprise systems," said Boots.
Boots is now embarking on the next phase of the project, which
will see item-level tracking through RFID extend to multiple
product lines.
This involves the deployment of an enhanced Trax 2.0
application, which provides system integration with SAP and other
enterprise packages. This phase is expected to enable streamlining
and improve the accuracy of sorting at TNT's facilities in
Europe.
All sites in the supply chain - the original equipment
manufacturer in China, TNT's gateway in China, the European TNT
gateway and the German wholesaler - were equipped with RFID
hardware, including readers, a PC and software to link back to
TNT.
Along with Xterprise, the project is using Zebra RFID printers
and Alien Technology UHF-based RFID tags. Xterprise's Trax RFID
visibility application is built on Flexnet, an adaptive
manufacturing system from Apriso, designed to support process con-
trols and regulatory compliance.