Establishing the Technical Requirements
“We want to make our crates to be identifiable without gaps,” explains Kai Porankiwitz the decision for an combination of RFID and bar code technology, that is now allowing an optimisation in the processes of meat production logistics. An essential requirement for this plan was the creation of a centralized management system for the crate identification. Migros Ostschweiz therefore decided to deploy an EPCIS system which was initially tested in a pilot between February 2013 and February 2014. Another requirement for the gap-less identifiability is the process standardisation that was realised after founding a new expert team at the Migros head quarters in Zurich.
Seamless Illustration in Real Time
When having finished all sub projects, the Migros Ostschweiz has established consistent goods tracking. This is already realised in the own meat production and logistics, where the shipments can already be transmitted to the SAP system at the production. Kai Porankiwitz substantiates this as follows: “After finishing one pallet, the system shows the information that it is ready for the shipping but is not yet in the transit phase. As soon as a pallet was loaded, the status is updated in the system with the help of RFID technology and the branch receives a note about the time window in which the goods will reach the supermarket.”
More Safety for Meat Products by Using RFID
With the RFID-based goods tracking, Migros Ostschweiz also avoids differences between planed and actual delivery such as missing or wrong goods that is inter alia of high importance for the fresh product meat. Migros Ostschweiz avoids the dangers of a false delivery by multiple measures: Not only are the individual crates passing by 10 of the total number of 40 RFID identification points before being loaded but also the trucks themselves are equipped with transponders and identified by the loading gates. A truck loaded with the wrong goods would be shown in the system enabling correction in time.
Read the complete interview at "RFID im Blick" Online.