Using RFID for real-time visibility across the supply chain

Horizon Lines uses the power of RFID to track assets as they move through the supply chain in real-time.

By Bob Trebilcock, Editor at Large -- Modern Materials Handling, 10/3/2007

In the intermodal shipping 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, the largest domestic ocean carrier with 21 vessels servicing trade lanes in Alaska, Hawaii and Guam and Puerto Rico. “In our industry, we spend a lot of money to have enough assets because of a lack of visibility.”

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. That’s why Horizon is investing in RFID technology to track the location of its intermodal containers across the supply chain. The system uses long-range active RFID tags 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 100% of its fleet of more than 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.

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 at the DC gate, when the container is loaded, and finally when the container leaves the DC and is 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 soon after its loaded and again when it leaves the 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 the DC 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 towards 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, which allows 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.”