The Supply Chain presents what is probably the largest and most viable market for RFID application deployment. Simply having the ability to track product or containers of product throughout the entire supply chain already lends itself to improved operational efficiency for ALL operators within the supply chain, from the supplier of raw material to the manufacturer, the transportation company, the wholesaler and the retailer. Knowing where product is and knowing when to expect product to be delivered, allows for pro-active decision-making, reduced loss of time (and money), improved productivity and effective planning and execution of all processes and activities within the entire supply chain, which ultimately leads to the ability to meet and satisfy customer demand.

Scheduling the transportation of product from manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer is an enormous task and even a single delay within the supply chain can impact tremendously on several operations and processes, which then causes a ripple effect. RFID cannot eliminate unforeseen uncontrollable situations, for example a transport vehicle breaking down, but RFID can facilitate quick corrective action being taken to minimize the negative impact.

Quality control becomes more manageable with the ability to track the events relating to the life-cycle of a product or batches/lots of product all the way back to its origin. Delivery scheduling and the monitoring of routes and schedules; especially in the case of food products with temperature intolerances and sell-by-dates is one of the most difficult and complex tasks in the FMCG supply chain. The real-time characteristic of RFID technology enables continuous, dynamic monitoring, which allows for more effective planning and pro-active response.

Imagine the following situation: a particular FMCG store is expecting six deliveries from different vendors on the same morning. One of these deliveries is delayed and could cause a serious problem for those scheduled to arrive at the same store shortly after. A vendor arriving with a load of fresh dairy product decides to start offloading anyway, whilst waiting in the cue and the product is subjected to temperatures, which cause it to spoil. This also leads to disputes between the retailer and the vendor and in the case of imported product being shipped over in container loads, further disputes arise between the shipping company and the insurance agents.

When RFID is used to identify and track containers and the whereabouts of all vendor vehicles, the task of re-routing and rescheduling to avoid congestion and avoid delays in the cold-chain, could in fact reduce the chances of spoilage and would resolve disputes between the various operators within the supply chain. These are only a few examples of ULR RFID applications in supply chain logistics. The possibilities are almost endless and solutions using Wavetrend's technology can be deployed to meet various business improvement objectives with the capability to integrate with existing and/or new security and enterprise software systems.