EPC Gen 2 RFID technology are used to track 10,000 freight wagons, locomotives and passenger cars, helping the company to manage rail cars and work processes within its rail yards. (http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/8594 )
Finnish state-owned railroad operator VR Group and its VR Transpoint subsidiary, Finland’s largest logistics services provider, are employing EPC Gen2 RFID technology to track 10,000 rail-freight wagons, locomotives and passenger cars, thereby helping the company and its subsidiary to manage rail cars and work processes within its rail yards.
VR Group implemented radio frequency identification to improve the efficiency of its rail-yard processes, better manage rail-car inventory and maintenance orders, and provide improved customer service—for instance, by delivering detailed information to customers regarding which shipments have arrived, and when.
VR workers use RFID handhelds to read the cars' Confidex Ironside RFID Metal Rugged Tag
Mikko Särkkä, VR Group’s head of logistics IT, believes the application is the world’s first full-scale implementation of an EPC Gen 2 RFID system in the rail industry. The solution relies on Confidex’s Ironside tags, protected by plastic housings measuring 8 millimeters (0.3 inch) think, that are read by a RFID UHF handheld readers. The system is currently operational at 50 locations throughout Finland. VR Group invested roughly €2 million ($2.8 million) in the project, for hardware, software and consulting.
VR Group attached two tags to each rail car on both sides, complying with the technical specification regarding interoperability for telematic applications for freight (TAF/TSI), as regulated by theEuropean Railway Agency (ERA).
Each rail car was fitted with two Confidex Ironside passive RFID tags.
One advantage of the RFID system, Särkkä says, is that VR Transpoint personnel can now identify wagons automatically, and at a distance, by using the handheld readers—workers can walk alongside a train and use the devices to interrogate each rail car’s tags. As they do so, the wagons are identified and the information is automatically transferred to the logistics system. If, for instance, a train car is slated to be removed from one train and shifted to another, this information will be displayed on the employee’s screen. Likewise, after wagons have been shifted and a new train has been assembled in the yard, workers can confirm that the cars are located behind the correct locomotive, and in the intended order.
Prior to VR Transpoint’s adoption of the RFID system, this process involved manually using pen and paper, and took much longer to notify customers about which cars had arrived, as well as each wagon’s position on the train (for example, first, third or fifth).
Such information is vital for the companies receiving the goods, so that they can know whether a particular rail car will arrive with the front end or the back end facing forward (since cars can be connected on a train in either orientation). Since each of a car’s two RFID tags is encoded with a bit of data to indicate whether that tag was installed on the car’s left or right side, the system knows the direction in which each car is being pulled—that is, whether it is facing forward or backward.
The RFID system has also improved yard-management, by automating work orders, speeding up the process of reporting car defects and ensuring correct train composition. All work orders are digitally delivered to workers through the handheld devices at the time that they are required.
In the past, managers at individual sites assigned tasks to the employees at those locations, thus making the central oversight of work processes cumbersome, in addition to creating manual reporting tasks.
Mikko Särkkä, VR Group's head of logistics IT
“The company had lots of people planning what would be done with each incoming and outgoing train, and giving manual work orders with pen and paper,” Särkkä explains. “Once the task was finished, those people entered the information into a database.”
Once all instructions regarding incoming and outgoing trains were automated, Särkkä says, the company was then able to consolidate such planning from 50 sites down to 14. He adds that the system has been well received by employees, since it simplifies work and adds no extra steps to the process.
Särkkä sees potential for the system, particularly by including supply chain and logistics partners in the RFID-based processes. “A harbor operator should be able to tell us electronically which cars are needed at which terminal,” he states. “The level of process automation is not so good yet, but by using RFID, we could automate more.”
Tags: Confidex, Ironside, Logistics, Metal Tag, Rail, Transport
London Underground use Confidex Ironside Tag on Escalators
(06.04.2009)
More than 10,000 Confidex Ironside UHF Gen2 Hard Tag are being used to improve the escalator maintenance of London Underground Subway in the UK.
Although Confidex has shipped Ironside tags to several customers in substantially larger volumes, the London Underground application is of great relevance to other escalator operators around the world. Maintenance and safety of escalators is important for Metro Subway operators such as London Underground and for shopping malls and other public places.
The escalators of the London Underground carry more than three million passengers every day from the street to the platforms and back again. Most commuters and tourists don’t give the travelling metal staircases a second thought; a fact that is a testament to the reliability of the system and the care taken over the maintenance of escalators. The steps that make up these escalators are subject to constant wear from the feet of passengers and from the mechanical movement on the escalator track. A failure in an escalator step could cause serious injury. If an escalator step were to fail during rush hours, lives could be put at risk and serious disruption to travelers would result.
To prevent such an event, London Underground, has implemented an inspection / maintenance regime that ensures the structural integrity of every step is checked at least once during the course of every year. With almost 30,000 escalator steps, in almost 200 escalators, needing to be checked this requires significant effort by London Underground’s engineering staff.
To address the need for faster, more accurate and more cost-efficient maintenance, London Underground decided to use RFID technology. A decision was made early on to use UHF Gen2 (ISO-18000-6C) technology as the only viable technology able to read tags attached on metal from a distance.
To address the need for faster, more accurate and more cost-efficient maintenance, London Underground decided to use RFID technology.
The choice of the ruggedized and extremely durable Confidex tag was seen as a key to the success of the pilot project.. “It was obvious to us that Confidex had the best solution here. The tags to be used had to last in the very challenging environment of an operating escalator with vibration, temperature variation, grease and dirt as well as magnetic fields all being a factor. Ironside Tag was selected.
“The tags are installed under the steps, attached with acrylic adhesive provided by Confidex and in spite of the very tough environment and constant movement, not a single Ironside Tag detached from its escalator step over the two months long trial period”. “However, in the future all new steps will come from manufacture with tags riveted on them.”
Operational deployment has now started across the Bakerloo, Central, and Victoria lines and other underground stations where London Underground is responsible for escalator maintenance.
Confidex Ironside is a “Hard Tag” in Impact resistant material. It is among the most durable, on-metal, high temperature resistant Gen2 tags available to date. The tag, which use NXP’s G2XM chip featuring 240bit EPC, UID and 512bits of user memory, was an early recipient of SAE’s AS5678 certification.“The flagship Confidex Ironside Hard Tag is already used in a variety of applications, on metal containers, airline food carts, postal roll cages, power transformers, stillages in automotive manufacturing and on road maintenance equipment to mention a few”
For more information, please contact info(a)ecosensa.com
EcoSensa is the Distributor for Confidex Product for South East Asia Region.
Tags: Confidex, G2XM, Ironside, ISO180006c, Maintenance & Repair Operation, MRO, On-metal
According to scdigest.com, it is coming up on six years since Wal-Mart first announced its intention to roll out an RFID tagging program with suppliers.
SCDigest took a look back, and came out with an excellent historical timeline of major announcements and events associated with Walmart RFID rollout. For a graphical view of this timeline, go here: Wal-Mart RFID Time-Line. (Note – may need to increase magnification in web browser. You can also right click and do a “save target as” to download the image file.)
June 2003: Wal-Mart’s then CIO Linda Dillman announces the start of the retailer’s EPC compliance program at a meeting of the VICS organization, saying Wal-Mart would ask its top 100 suppliers to begin tagging pallets and cases starting in January 2005.
August 2003: Wal-Mart says it will require all of its suppliers to put RFID tags carrying Electronic Product Codes on pallets and cases by the end of 2006. “We have asked our 100 top suppliers to have product on pallets employing RFID chips and in cases with RFID chips. By 2006, we will roll it out with all suppliers,” Wal-Mart spokesman Tom Williams says.
November 2003: Wal-Mart brings the “top 100 suppliers” into Bentonville to learn more details of its RFID program, qualifying its previous announcement by saying the initial requirement will be for the first 100 to tag pallets and cases being shipped to three Texas DCs in January 2005.
April 2004: Wal-Mart begins its RFID trial by receiving cases and pallets of product with EPC tags at a single distribution center in Sanger, TX as part of a test being conducted with eight suppliers. The tagged goods are to track goods to the back of seven Wal-Mart stores in Texas served by the DC. The first eight suppliers, which each tagged just a small number of SKUs, were Gillette, Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark, Kraft Foods, Nestlé Purina PetCare, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever.
June 2004: Wal-Mart meets with its top 100 and “next 200″ suppliers in Bentonville to lay out its RFID tagging requirements and timeline. Suppliers are told that by June 2005, RFID systems will be operating in up to six of its distribution centers and 250 stores. Wal-Mart further says that it expects to be using EPC technology in up to 13 distribution centers and 600 Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores by the end of 2005.
Deadline for the “next 200 suppliers” to start tagging cases and pallets is set for January 2006, though what shipments to what DCs is not clear.
October 2004: Wal-Mart says it plans to start shipping RFID-tagged cases and pallets to a Sam’s Club store in Plano, Texas very soon, starting the division’s RFID program.
January 2005: Many, but not all, of the “top 100” start shipping some tagged products to three Wal-Mart DCs in Texas.
March 2005: CIO Linda Dillman says Wal-Mart is on track to support RFID capability in 600 stores and 12 distribution centers by the end of the year.
October 2005: Wal-Mart says that by the end of this month, it will have installed radio frequency identification systems in more than 500 stores and five distribution centers.
October 2005: Wal-Mart says it expects the next wave of 300 suppliers (making 600 total) to start shipping tagged cases and pallets by January 2007.
October 2005: A Wal-Mart sponsored report from the University of Arkansas’ Information Technology Research Institute, a part of the Sam Walton College of Business, releases a report based on its preliminary study of the impact of RFID on reducing retail out-of-stocks (OOS). The researchers conclude that RFID reduced OOS at store level by 16% over non-RFID based stores.
January 2006: Wal-Mart says it is piloting a program with a few suppliers and EPCGlobal to generate advance ship notices for supplier shipments based on RFID reads.
January 2006: Supposed deadline for the “next 200 suppliers” to begin sending some tagged product to some DCs, though relatively few do in any meaningful way.
March 2006: Wal-Mart says it is working on two “proof of concept” pilots for using sensors along with RFID tags to track produce and environmental temperatures as the products move along the supply chain.
April 2006: Wal-Mart says it will phase out the use of Gen 1 tags by in favor of Gen 2 by mid-year, saying it will no longer accept the use of Gen 1 tags on the cases and pallets it receives from its suppliers after June 30.
April 2006: Linda Dillman leaves as CIO to take an executive role in Human Resources. Rollin Ford, previously head of supply chain and logistics, becomes CIO. Ford subsequently takes a much lower profile approach to RFID.
September, 2006: Wal-Mart announces that by January 31, 2007, another 500 of Wal-Mart’s 3,900 stores will have RFID readers installed. If it happened, that would bring the total of RFID-enabled Wal-Mart stores up to 1,000.
February 2007: The Wall Street Journal runs an article entitled “Wal-Mart’s Radio-Tracked Inventory Hits Static.” The article says, “Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s next leap forward in ultra-efficient distribution is showing signs of fizzling,” given a lack of internal progress in rolling out the technology and a lack of value for suppliers.
Rollin Ford writes rebuttal letter to the WSJ, and Wal-Mart finds the CIO of Campbell’s Soup and the chairman of Smucker’s to support RFID value prop. Meanwhile, CIO of Sara Lee says at the same time that RFID isn’t making sense at the current level of cost and performance.
October 2007: Wal-Mart announces a major change in its RFID strategy, largely abandoning the initial pallet/case focus on shipments going to Wal-Mart stores in favor of three focus areas: (1) shipments going to Sam’s Club; (2) promotional displays and products going to Wal-Mart stores; (3) tests to see RFID’s impact in improving category management in select areas. “We’re coming at RFID from a different angle,” Wal-Mart’s VP of Information Technology, Carolyn Walton, says at the EPC Global conference.
January 2008: Wal-Mart announces its first real compliances “penalties” for failure to tag products, specifically for shipments to its Sam’s Club chain. Wal-Mart says in letter to suppliers that a failure to tag pallets sent to its distribution center in DeSoto, Texas, or directly to one of its stores served by that DC after January 31 will be charged a service fee, starting at $2 per untagged pallet on Feb. 1, and capping at $3 per pallet on Jan. 1, 2009.
Wal-Mart also announced its plans for the Sam’s Club rollout (later changed):
- Jan 30, 2008: pallet-level tagging for DeSoto, Tex., distribution center.
- Oct. 31, 2008: pallet-level tagging for an additional four distribution centers, case- and mixed-pallet level tagging for Texas distribution center.
- Jan. 30, 2009: pallet-level tagging for remaining 17 distribution centers, case- and mixed-pallet level tagging for an additional four distribution centers.
- Oct. 31, 2009: case- and mixed-pallet level tagging for the remaining 17 distribution centers; selling-unit -level tagging for Texas distribution center.
- Jan. 30, 2010: selling-unit-tagging for an additional four distribution centers.
- Oct. 31, 2010: selling-unit-tagging for remaining 17 distribution centers
January 2009: Sam’s Club dramatically lowers penalties for failure to tag pallets from $2-3 dollars per pallet to just 12 cents – what Wal-Mart estimates it will cost Sam’s to do the tagging itself. It also pushes back the rollout schedule announced the previous January, saying the tagging requirement will apply only to pallets sent to the DeSoto DC or stores served by that DC in 2009. DC. Pallet-level tagging is expected to be rolled out chain-wide in 2010, while the deadline for tagging sellable units is “under review.”
February 2009: Procter & Gamble says that after “validating” the benefits of RFID in merchandising and promotional displays, it is ending its pilot program with Wal-Mart for those displays, implying Wal-Mart is not acting on the information to improve store execution.
Whats next? I wish I know …
Tags: AutoID Center, Distribution Center, EPC, EPCglobal, ISO180006c, linda dillman, RFID, rfid chips, RFID Tag, scdigest, Supply Chain Management, UHF Gen2, wal mart stores, walmart, walmart rfid
File Folder & Document Tracking with RFID UHF Desktop Table Top Reader.
File Folder & Document Tracking with RFID UHF Desktop Table Top Reader
Tags: Desktop Reader, Document Tracking, eDocument, eFile, File Tracking, Gen2, ISO180006c, RFID, Table Top Reader, UHF
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