Dave Savastano02.20.14
Veiling Holambra, the biggest cooperative and distributor of flowers and plants in American continent, has partnered with Coss Consulting to supply RFID (radio-frequency identification) smart labels from Confidex. The RFID smart labels will be used for identifying and tracking more than 1.1 million returnable assets from production and distribution centers, to delivery to customers including florists, supermarkets, and finally the return on the returnable assets. The returnable assets vary from baskets and carts to shelves, as an example.
The project is expected to be completed in May 2014, on Brazilian Mother’s Day eve, a period when the flower market is at its most active.
The deployment of RFID smart labels aims to improve the efficiency of logistics processes. Since the products, flowers, are perishable there are various critical goals to be monitored in the supply chain: to reduce the time of loading and unloading at product docks, ensure the accuracy of inventory control, reduce deviations and material losses in distribution, promote the reduction of operating costs and maximize financial results. The RFID smart labels will be read by mobile readers and fixed portals installed at the docks and in all logistics processes.
The selection procedure included extensive tests with labels from several manufacturers as well as a pilot test, where Confidex’s RFID smart labels performed best among the tested products.
Confidex Carrier Pro is a specialty RFID smart label designed for tracking various returnable plastic container (RPC) types from crates to plastic dollies. The structure of the tag is designed to resist harsh washing processes which RPCs face during their lifecycle. These smart labels perform well close to content with high dielectric constant, meaning fruits, fish, flowers or anything that has high water content.
“We will eliminate the manual labor involved in collecting data from the assets. Previously, the reading process was carried out using bar codes and batch counting, which took too long and was subject to errors and fraud,” said Francisco Roberto Pereira, cooperative logistics coordinator at Coss Consulting. “Several other gains are being considered: speed and accuracy of reading the data of each returnable asset, reducing operating costs and also meeting the security and management policies determined by Veiling Holambra management board.”
The project is expected to be completed in May 2014, on Brazilian Mother’s Day eve, a period when the flower market is at its most active.
The deployment of RFID smart labels aims to improve the efficiency of logistics processes. Since the products, flowers, are perishable there are various critical goals to be monitored in the supply chain: to reduce the time of loading and unloading at product docks, ensure the accuracy of inventory control, reduce deviations and material losses in distribution, promote the reduction of operating costs and maximize financial results. The RFID smart labels will be read by mobile readers and fixed portals installed at the docks and in all logistics processes.
The selection procedure included extensive tests with labels from several manufacturers as well as a pilot test, where Confidex’s RFID smart labels performed best among the tested products.
Confidex Carrier Pro is a specialty RFID smart label designed for tracking various returnable plastic container (RPC) types from crates to plastic dollies. The structure of the tag is designed to resist harsh washing processes which RPCs face during their lifecycle. These smart labels perform well close to content with high dielectric constant, meaning fruits, fish, flowers or anything that has high water content.
“We will eliminate the manual labor involved in collecting data from the assets. Previously, the reading process was carried out using bar codes and batch counting, which took too long and was subject to errors and fraud,” said Francisco Roberto Pereira, cooperative logistics coordinator at Coss Consulting. “Several other gains are being considered: speed and accuracy of reading the data of each returnable asset, reducing operating costs and also meeting the security and management policies determined by Veiling Holambra management board.”