NEC Contributes to Success of Transportation and Logistics Pilot between China and US

Logistics Insight Asia - Top Story, 24/3/2008

Pilot conducted by global RFID standardization organization EPCglobal.

NEC Corporation has participated as a solutions provider in an international transportation and logistics pilot carried out on a route from Shanghai to Los Angeles. The pilot was conducted by the Transportation and Logistics Services Industry Action Group of EPCglobal, the global RFID standards organization. Utilizing WebOTX RFID Manager, the RFID middleware product, NEC has significantly contributed to the success of the pilot by playing a leading role in the development of pilot systems complying with EPCIS specifications created by EPCglobal.

The goal of the pilot was to determine whether technical specifications created by EPCglobal contributed to realization of more advanced and efficient international logistics processes, with a view toward the application of these specifications in practical systems. The pilot was supported by numerous international logistics companies, solutions providers, hardware vendors, and others.

Specifically, the pilot targeted processes related to the transportation of tires - produced in China by a leading American agricultural equipment manufacturer - from China to the U.S. The pallets and containers used for loading the tires were equipped with RFID tags conforming to EPCglobal standards. Information based on the RFID tags read by RFID reader/writers installed at various checkpoints, including factories, warehouses and port terminals, was shared in real time among the companies involved, in order to track and trace the cargo throughout the transportation process.

The results of the pilot confirmed that it was possible to share and visualize, in real time, the time, date, location, and status of the cargo at every step throughout the transportation process, including handover of cargo by shippers and logistics companies and the arrival of containers at port terminals.

A number of functions to fulfill the requirements from real-world operations were evaluated in the pilot. For example, based on standard transport times between checkpoints and time limits set by the shipper, an alarm sounds if the specified time limit has expired and the cargo has not reached the next checkpoint. In this way, the pilot confirmed that a distribution model using EPCIS was effective in resolving issues faced by the international logistics industry, such as creating more accurate distribution plans and enabling a rapid response to changes in these plans.

NEC Corporation,http://www.nec.com