Using RFID for real-time visibility across the supply chain

Horizon Lines is using the power of RFID to truly track assets as they move through the supply chain in real time.

By Bob Trebilcock, Editor at Large -- Modern Materials Handling, 5/31/2007

The intermodal shipping business might be thought of as a "Goldilocks business": You want a fleet of containers that’s not too big and not too small.

"The goal is to have the right size fleet to maximize the turn time of your containers," says Rick Kessler, CIO and vice president of business service solutions for Horizon Lines(877-678-7447).

The impediment to that goal has been a lack of visibility into where the containers are located and how they’re moving through the supply chain. "In our industry, we spend a lot of money to have enough assets because of a lack of visibility," says Kessler.

That’s why Horizon, the largest domestic ocean carrier with 21 vessels servicing trade lanes in Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and Puerto Rico, is investing in RFID technology to track the location of its intermodal containers across the supply chain. The system was designed and implemented by Horizon Services Group (866-268-2157), the IT arm of the shipping line. It uses long-range active RFID tags (Identec Solutions, 972-535-4144) that can be read on a truck traveling at 70 miles an hour from as far away as 1,500 feet.

While Horizon has tagged nearly 100% of its Alaska fleet of around 6,000 intermodal containers, it is phasing in the implementation. The first route is in Alaska, where there is just one north/south highway and the state department of transportation allowed Horizon to install RFID readers along the highway. Other tradelanes will follow.

Tracking containers
The process begins when a customer books a container. Horizon builds a trip plan in its system for the scheduled events required for that trip.

Tracking begins in Tacoma and Seattle, where cargo containers bound for Alaska are loaded. Each container has an active RFID tag with a unique identification number. For now, that is the only information written to the active RFID tag. The cargo that will be loaded into the container is associated with the container in Horizon’s computer system, much like a load is associated with a license plate bar code on a pallet in a traditional solution.

The empty container is read:

• On arrival at the customer’s DC,

• On departure from the DC after it’s loaded

• When it’s loaded on a ship.

While those preliminary reads put events in motion, Kessler says that RFID really takes over when the container is off-loaded in Anchorage. Loaded onto a truck, the container is read when it leaves the port’s security gate for the highway. From there, the container travels to Fairbanks or Seward.

"We have readers in key locations along the highway that take readings and alert our customers right up to an hour before arrival that the container is in route," says Kessler.

Horizon’s customers use the alerts to prepare their staff to unload the trailer soon after it arrives and get it back on the road. Horizon reads the container on its return trip back toward Anchorage where it can quickly be put back into service.

The value from RFID
Kessler sees several key values from RFID.

"By getting containers unloaded right away, our customers avoid detention charges," says Kessler. "Plus, the sooner they get the inventory in their warehouses, the quicker they can make use of it."

Meanwhile, Horizon Lines has better visibility into how its containers move through the supply chain, allowing for better utilization of its assets.

While the system was first implemented in Alaska, "our goal is not to stop there," says Kessler, "but to roll it out in the lower 48 as well."

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