1、 Application background
Today, supply chain has become a key area of competition among enterprises, and the integration and management of supply chain also means that enterprises will face a series of new technological challenges.
The intensification of market competition and the variability of demand require traders in product production and sales to constantly accelerate their pace, launch personalized and flexible products, ensure commitment, deliver on time, and quickly respond to the constantly changing demands, preferences, and external economic competition environment of customers. In supply chain solutions, speed, efficiency, accuracy, and information integration are the key goals pursued by the solution.
Reasonable and efficient supply chain management can obtain customer demands, share information throughout the entire supply chain, enable enterprises to accurately predict the possibility of inventory shortages, and timely replenish to avoid any delays that may arise, ensuring synchronization between planning and execution from beginning to end. Through supply chain collaboration, enterprises can reduce the scale of inventory, shorten the return on investment cycle, improve the quality of products and services, and accelerate their response to the market.
Supply chain refers to the process of moving all physical items from raw materials to end-users. This includes supplier selection, procurement, product planning, material processing, order processing, inventory management, packaging, transportation, warehousing, and customer service. Successful supply chain management can seamlessly integrate all partners into the supply chain.
In supply chain management, the most critical technology is the tracking of goods. Currently, barcode technology is widely used for information identification and tracking in supply chain management systems. The various shortcomings of barcode technology, such as reading only one label at a time, limited data volume, poor environmental adaptability, and the same barcode for the same product, limit the improvement of supply chain efficiency.
The use of RFID technology in this solution can effectively solve these problems.
RFID is a radio frequency data acquisition technology and the best means of tracking goods. Its advantage over barcode recognition technology is that RFID can dynamically identify high-speed moving objects and simultaneously recognize multiple electronic tags, with a large recognition distance and the ability to adapt to harsh environments. At the same time, because electronic tags can uniquely identify goods, they can track goods throughout the entire supply chain and grasp in real-time where the goods are located in the supply chain.
Implementing an electronic tag system solution can achieve the following goals and achieve expected economic benefits:
1. Shorten the workflow
2. Improving the quality of inventory assignments
3. Increase the throughput of distribution centers
4. Reduce operating costs
5. Logistics tracking on the supply chain
6. Increase the transparency of supply chain management
7. Capture data in the process
8. The transmission of information is faster, more accurate, and more secure.
Goods flow throughout the entire supply chain, with the most frequent operations being inbound/outbound operations and warehouse management,
The following is a comprehensive introduction to the electronic label system solution, focusing on the application of RFID in inbound and outbound management.
2、 System Introduction
How can we quickly complete the rapid verification and collection of large quantities of goods when facing the repetitive work of receiving and storing goods every day?
How to quickly find designated goods in the warehouse? Nowadays, the vast majority of warehouses still differentiate storage locations by pasting handwritten cards on shelves, which is a time-consuming and laborious task for these warehouses. Moreover, there are often errors in picking up the wrong goods and repeating the process multiple times.
Does inventory have to be closed before it can proceed? The losses caused by the closure and inventory of large warehouses are obvious and absolutely unacceptable to businesses. However, without conducting inventory, it is impossible to truly grasp the situation of the warehouse, which is also something that enterprise managers are unwilling to face. Is there a way to conduct warehouse inventory without affecting the normal operation of the enterprise?
Can the scheduling of forklifts be more reasonable? Forklift resources are relatively scarce throughout the entire warehouse operation, and how to fully utilize them is a key factor in improving the efficiency of the entire warehouse. To fully utilize forklifts, it is necessary to schedule them through a management system, ensuring that they always operate at full capacity on the most efficient route.
A reasonable RFID application system will provide a good solution to these problems.
（1） Packaging and labeling system
Before the goods are stored, set up the packaging area (this step can also be completed on the product production line).
According to the actual requirements of warehouse management applications, the corresponding individual items are packaged separately according to the specified quantity, and the operation information is written into the label, which is hung or pasted on the label and packaging box.
（2） Inbound and outbound inspection system
1. System composition:
RFID Station for inbound and outbound: Fixed reader/antenna, sensor system, process controller, indicator lights, alarm, indicator panel (indicating shipping and receiving information, loading information, etc.)
Label selection and installation: tray label RPC, packaging box label (adhesive type)
2. Benefits brought by RFID to warehouse management
(1) Management personnel have real-time access to the inventory status of inventory materials, achieving information transparency in asset management
(2) No need to implement traditional inventory work, thereby reducing material backlog, accelerating capital turnover, and facilitating production guidance
(3) Solved the traditional management mode of human error and untimely information exchange in manual statistics
(4) Reduced the workload of manual statistics and improved operational efficiency
(5) To curb the occurrence of misconduct through technological means
（3） Forklift stacking and picking system
1. System composition
Forklift stacking and picking RFID Station: Vehicle mounted terminal (WLAN), Reader/antenna,
Label selection and installation: Tray label RPC2, typical application process
Forklift stacking and picking systems are typically used on pallets and large containers, with readers/antennas connected to industrial grade vehicle terminals (built-in WLAN).
3. Application revenue
Capable of automatically stacking and picking pallets, improving pallet cargo handling, planning, and prediction capabilities.
（4） Inventory
The staff uses handheld terminals to read the data from the tray labels, which record the actual quantity of goods carried by the tray. Real time data transmission can be achieved through wireless networks, or data can be collected in half a day and transmitted in batches to the backend management system. Therefore, through the automatic collection method of RFID technology, it is possible to achieve fully automatic real-time and partitioned inventory without human intervention, and ensure the rapid progress of inventory operations and the accuracy of inventory data.
（5） RFID system applications
Although there are various applications in various management stages of the supply chain, the application of RFID technology can be summarized into several abstract processes. That is: to solve problems such as sorting and identifying conveyor belt items, identifying the receipt and shipment of inbound and outbound products, and collecting product information during the packaging process for different packaging levels (single items, packaging boxes, pallets); The process of collecting and moving data during the operation of a forklift. For various processes facing different packaging levels, enterprises have different profit situations.
（6） RFID investment return model
（7） Issues to consider in the implementation of RFID projects
Successful Application Cases of RFID Technology in Logistics Supply Chain
RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) inventory tracking system refers to the automatic storage and transmission of information such as component specifications and serial numbers by attaching RFID tags to pallets, packaging boxes, or components. RFID tags can transmit information to radio frequency readers within a 10 foot range, eliminating the need for warehouses and workshops to use handheld barcode readers to scan barcodes one by one for components and work in progress. This to some extent reduces the occurrence of omissions and greatly improves work efficiency. The application of RFID can significantly reduce costs and clear obstacles in the supply chain.
This technology is closely linked to the logistics supply chain and is expected to replace barcode scanning technology in the coming years.
Market orientation and trends
Due to Wal Mart's strong advocacy and requirement that suppliers must adopt radio frequency identification (RFID) technology before 2006, many application system developers have upgraded their programs. Sun, SAP, Oracle, IBM, HP, MICROSOFT, etc. have also begun to integrate radio frequency identification (RFID) technology into the company's mainstream products.
Wal Mart recently said that it will no longer purchase goods from suppliers who do not use RFID technology in the future, which shocked the application industry greatly. Wal Mart's decision has affected RFID applications throughout the world, such as Oracle's database and application server and SAP's R3 system. Sun has decided to integrate RFID into SunOne integration platform, and IBM's DB2 will also send data from RFID readers to enterprise level application systems.
Nowadays, the identification of retail products is achieved using barcodes. When the products are sold, they are recognized by barcode readers, and the barcode data is only recognized once throughout the entire circulation process. On the other hand, RFID does not require manual identification of tags, and the reader can read location and product related data from the RFID tags every 250 milliseconds. Some readers and writers can read data from 600 tags per second, which is over 1000 times faster than traditional scanning methods.
