More than 150,000 containers are now travelling around Europe carrying an RFID tag, as a result of a project by CHEP in association with suppliers Microsoft, Infosys and RF Identics.
The project has been tipped the largest cross-border roll-out of RFID tagged automotive containers in Europe.
The pallet and container pooling operator is deploying reader infrastructure at nine of its service centres in seven countries across the continent, from where the containers are issued, inspected and repaired if required upon return. The goal is to track containers during four critical phases of the supply chain – Issue Out, Return In, Inspection and Repair.
The company says this implementation is improving process automation – with the automatic capture of movements into and from CHEP service centres. It is also improving control – so avoiding transport costs associated with containers being retrieved from the wrong location and reducing the risk of damage by identifying high-damage channels.
CHEP, which counts Ford, Suzuki, Nissan, General Motors, and Jaguar among its customers, is also piloting RFID on its full range of pallet types with big name retailers and manufacturers in Europe.
CHEP won the eLogistics Award for the project, which was presented by AKJ Automotive, an association made up of automotive manufacturers and suppliers.
