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Campos Gerais and Camp Coffee Farming Cooperative (Coopercam) are usingRFIDTechnology automatically manages coffee bean inventory. Coopercam is located in Camposlas, Brazil (the city produces 600,000 bags of coffee beans each year), and is jointly participated by coffee growers, milk producers and other agricultural and livestock product manufacturers.
Hendrix Brasiliense, a partner of the RFID project system integrator BrasilSync, said that the technology improves the flexibility of the process, reduces the time employees spend on coffee storage, reduces costs and simplifies the acquisition of coffee-related information.
(The RFID reader is installed on the forklift to help the warehouse automatically record the location information of the coffee beans)
Brasiliense said: “Managers need to track everything that happens in the warehouse. RFID technology has also proven to be a viable solution that can improve processes and increase reliability.”
Forklifts are equipped with RFID readers to identify each coffee bag and ensure that they are placed in the correct position. After the coffee arrives at the warehouse, the coffee beans and their storage location information will be bound to the bag tag ID and stored in the system. Brasiliense said: “The information is transmitted in real time via WiFi and can be easily accessed through a web-based platform.”
RFID tags are used to store the storage location information of each bag of coffee beans. Brasiliense explained: “The labels used to manage the location information generate a map of the warehouse. Each bag has a small bag for the label.”
Passive UHF RFID tags are also installed under the warehouse floor for forklift readers to read. If the bag is misplaced, a warning will be issued on the forklift screen to remind the driver to put it back in the correct storage location.
The RFID system can provide a warehouse map depicting the real-time location of each bag. The system also provides a filter function to search for a specific type of coffee. Brasiliense said: “The system also solves the problem of coffee beans certification. Now, we can intuitively check the location of the coffee beans in the warehouse, simplifying the audit work.”
(Each coffee bean has a small bag with a Smartrac RFID tag)
The middleware of this project is developed by BrasilSync. Brasiliense said: “The middleware is responsible for filtering the raw data collected by the forklift reader antenna, adding business intelligence and updating the system status.”
Coopercam decided to invest in an RFID system to manage the receipt and storage of coffee beans in the warehouse. Brasiliense said: “Another important aspect is that we want to obtain accurate coffee bean inventory information.”
After searching for the available solutions on the market, the company did not find a solution that could solve all the problems. In the end, Coopercam believed that the RFID solution was the basis of a feasible solution. Brasiliense said: “After the RFID system is installed, we can automatically track the storage and movement of coffee beans.”
Brasiliense said that for Coopercam, the technology makes warehouse processes simpler and agile. He said: “RFID helps locate 4500 bags of coffee beans stored in 1,200 storage locations in the warehouse. It is difficult to manage such a large amount of data using a paper-and-pencil recording system and is extremely error-prone.”
Each forklift is equipped with an RFID reader and connected to an on-board computer with a screen. The computer can communicate with the data server and display process information for the operator. These data are updated according to the preset configuration.
The project used two models of readers: M6e provided by ThingMagic and Edge-50 provided by Acura Global. Brasiliense said: “We currently have 4 readers installed and plan to install another 20. The company is using Smartrac Provided RFID tags. There are currently 16,000 tags in use. With the expansion of the system, this number will reach 65,000.”
The installation of the RFID system is recommended by the IT department of Coopercam after business analysis. Brasiliense recalled: “The company’s board of directors gave the team the absolute right to find solutions.”
Brasiliense said: “There are three people in the warehouse who are responsible for coffee loading and unloading. Using RFID technology, three employees can handle 500 coffee bags within 30 minutes.”
Brasiliense explained: “The RFID system can also display the location and type of coffee (category, appearance, color, etc.). Another advantage is that when the bag moves from an existing location to a new location, the change will be automatically updated in the system.”
(Exclusive manuscript of rfid world network, please indicate the source author for reprinting!)
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