Apallet probably isn't the first image that comes to mind when you think about cutting-edge applications for wireless.

And yet a pilot program at a Florida pallet repair center illustrates an emerging trend in automatic data capture (ADC) using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to manage inventory and assets.

In this case, CHEP, an international pallet and container pooling company (407-370-2437, www.chep.com), has embedded an RFID tag in a plastic board on its pallets.

'Each time a pallet leaves or returns to our depot, we'll automatically read the RFID tag,' says Brian Beattie, senior vice president of marketing. 'We'll know when it left, when it returned, and how long it was out.'

Initially, CHEP expects internal benefits like more accurate billing from the tracking system from Savi Technology (408-743-8000, www.savi.com).

But collecting data is just the first step. Install RFID readers in customers' facilities, and CHEP could provide item-level visibility of the goods on those pallets as they move.

'This technology will let us take dollars and inventory our of our customers' supply chains,' says Beattie.

The CHEP project illustrates an evolution in wireless ADC applications in warehousing, a shift summed up by the title of a Beatle's song: Here, there, and everywhere.

Wireless solutions used to be about capturing information from a bar code with an RFDC-enabled scanner/terminal for use in the warehouse, and then later-often much later-by the rest of the enterprise.

Today, it's about sharing information across the supply chain - in real time. That means no more batching.

In addition to bar codes, the wireless tool box includes emerging technologies like RFID and RTLS, or real time locator systems, that track mobile assets like trailers and totes over an area as broad as a receiving yard.

Combine these with wireless printers and mobile computing devices, and you have the beginnings of a real-time, integrated wireless warehouse.

That integration also enables visibility into the activities in the warehouse.

'Getting visibility to timely and accurate information is driving wireless today,' says Piyush Sodha, CEO of Matrics (410-872-0300, www.matricsrfid.com), an RFID solutions provider. 'Companies need more robust ways of tracking transactions in the warehouse.'

RFID, bar codes, and other wireless data collection solutions that enable mobile workers to capture information at the point of a transaction fill what Sodha calls 'the visibility gap.' That's the gap between what supply chain software systems say they can do, and the information those systems need in order to perform their jobs.

Put another way, wireless is the real-time link between the warehouse, the enterprise, and the rest of the supply chain.

Thanks to the Internet, that information can also be made available to sales and service personnel on the road, or to third-party logistics providers and contract manufacturers.

'We're seeing manufacturers with a physical warehouse attached to their facility that is being run by a third party logistics provider using a warehouse management system in a remote location,' says Clark Richter, business development manager, Intermec Technologies (800-934-3163, www.intermec.com). 'The ability for third parties or mobile personnel to access data beyond my four walls is an important change.'

Visibility is also enabled by the development of truly mobile devices.

Warehouse management system (WMS) vendors are taking advantage of advances in wireless technology to extend access to the warehouse management systems over a Web-enabled cell phone or PDA running on DOS, Windows CE, or the Palm operating system.

'A great WMS that forces a warehouse manager to sit behind a terminal all day isn't doing anyone a lot of good,' says David Landau, director of product management for Manhattan Associates (770-955-7070, www.manh.com). 'With a PDA, a warehouse manager can get out from behind the desk and still access the WMS down on the floor.'

That same idea is now being applied to wireless mobile printers. For instance, Bluetooth, an emerging short-range wireless technology, allows mobile devices to talk to one another without cables. That allows a mobile worker to receive picking instructions over a scanner from the WMS using the facility's local network.

Meanwhile, the scanner communicates with the worker's portable printer through the Bluetooth network. 'The point is to empower the mobile worker,' says Jeff Kaufman, director of product management for printer manufacturer Zebra Technologies (847-634-6700, www.zebra.com). 'With Bluetooth, you can take the printer and the mobile worker to the point of the application without rewiring a work center, and without cables.'

By installing a network card, wireless tabletop printers can be relocated and reconnected to a network in a new work area without reconfiguring the printer.

For years, bar codes have been the source of real-time data and for good reason. A bar code is affordable and proven.

More recently, RFID applications like the CHEP pilot, and real time locator systems (RTLS) have been getting attention thanks to three breakthroughs. First, RFID is up to 99.99% reliable today, comparable to bar codes. What's more, read ranges that used to be limited to five feet or less are now up to 20 feet. Finally infrastructure and RFID chip costs are coming down.

Some have even predicted the death of bar codes.

In reality, the three technologies are complementary. In they future, says Sodha and others, bar codes, RFID and real time locator systems may work together to provide different levels of detail in the warehouse.

Bar codes are still the most cost efficient way to provide SKU-level information about the individual items on a warehouse shelf or in a carton. Nothing yet matches bar codes for putaway and picking operations.

Even with lower costs, RFID tags are still too expensive to place on all but high-value assets. But RFID has great potential at the carton and pallet level.

'With RFID tags, you can automatically receive a pallet with hundreds of cartons into your WMS just by passing it under a dock door equipped with an RFID reader,' says Sodha. 'As pallets get disaggregated and rearranged, you can still keep track of what's on the pallet.'

Despite the interest in RFID, most experts believe it won't truly take off until a large retail channel master or manufacturer adopts the technology and drives a standard for their supply chain. For broad-based use, the price of an RFID tag needs to drop to an estimated nickel per tag. Today, they are closer to 20 to 50 cents per tag.

While RFID is useful for read ranges of under 20 feet, real time locator systems are like a GPS system for the warehouse. They allow a user to track the movement of mobile assets like containers, totes and trailers across a large facility or yard.

Ford, for instance, is using a real time locator system from WhereNet (408-845-8500, www.wherenet.com) to track transmission racks in an assembly factory, and finished vehicles in a storage lot.

'Bar code scanning and a WMS do a great job of tracking inventory in standard racking,' says Matt Armanino, vice president of business development for WhereNet. 'But when you're talking about companies implementing lean manufacturing, inventory goes right from the trailer to the manufacturing floor in containers. Knowing where those containers are located when you need them can be critical to keeping the line moving.'

Scanning devices that can accommodate all three technologies are around the corner. 'Our challenge is to develop a single device that can incorporate all three technologies,' says Mitch Allen, director of manufacturing and supply chain verticals for Symbol Technologies (631-738-5200, www.symbol.com). 'It's not off the shelf technology yet, but we believe it's going to be an industry requirement in the future.'

While emerging wireless applications promise connectivity here, there, and everywhere, there are still dark holes in the supply chain, even with a wired warehouse and wireless access to the WMS from a PDA and cell phones.

Once an order leaves the warehouse on a truck, for instance, only the largest carriers have the capability to track and trace orders in route to their next stop.

That may change in the near future as the cost of air time comes down in price, as does global positioning technology through a satellite connection.

Radcliffe Systems, a provider of supply chain execution solutions, is developing a tracking system that will marry RF technology for when a truck and trailer is in the yard with satellite communication for when the truck is on the road. The system would provide real-time communication, and track and trace capabilities down to the SKU level.

'From a user's standpoint, there shouldn't be anything that breaks the seamless operation of data transfer and information transfer,' says

Rob Coleman, a technologist with Radcliffe (905-881-1466, www.radcliffesystems.com). 'When the truck pulls into the warehouse, it can upload and download information over the local network. Once it leaves the facility, it can continue to communicate with the system over a cellular network or a satellite.'

Make no mistake about it: while the technology exists today to create a wireless supply chain, we are still in the early adoption phase of a wireless evolution.

Many companies have already made significant investments in existing systems that get the job done for now. In a tough economic environment, they're not likely to rip those systems out all at once to start over without a tangible return on investment.

Going forward, that is the challenge wireless system suppliers need to confront.

'Everyone is talking about wireless, RFID, and cellular solutions,' adds Adrian Gonzalez, of ARC Advisory Group (781-471-1000, www.arcweb.com). 'One day, those will be here, and warehouse and logistics professionals need to keep that in mind when they're implementing solutions so there's a smooth transition when that day arrives.'

Click on this icon to read how Farmland Foods uses RFDC to track products through its warehouse.


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