Toshiba and UPM Raflatac, a manufacturer of RFID tags and inlays, are working together to develop one of the largest Gen2 RFID projects in Europe.
Toshiba is implementing a system for the distribution of its laptop computers around the EMEA region, using Rafsec tags by UPM Raflatac. It hopes to unblock warehouse bottlenecks and increase productivity at its plant in Regensburg, Germany, by an estimated 57 per cent.
Managing director of Toshiba, Gerd Holzhauser, said that placing the tags will not result in the increase alone but it would come from not having to manually scan a barcode 36 times for 36 boxes on one pallet. “Not positioning the pallet at a buffer area to scan and than pick up again and move again to the stretching machine.”
Previously, when the pallets with 36 laptop PCs arrived at Toshiba’s warehouse for storage, handling staff would book in the delivery by scanning the barcodes on each box individually. Only then could the pallet move on. Now that each boxed laptop is fitted with a Rafsec G2 ShortDipole tag from UPM Raflatac, the entire pallet can be processed instantly by passing it through an RFID reader gate at the entrance.
When the implementation will be up to speed, Toshiba expects its warehouse to handle 15,000 PCs a day compared with the current 9,500, with an expected peak capacity of up to 30,000 units a day. With one RFID label per laptop, that means nearly 4 million RFID tags per year.
