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Packaging Logistics Services (PLS), a UK provider of plastic pallets and reusable containers, also manages its customers’ pallets and containers, and now uses RFID technology to track company assets-also helping European customers to provide their reusable pallets and containers. Established RFID tracking system for containers. Because PLC uses RFID tags on pallets and containers owned by the company and its customers, and returnable shipping packaging materials, the products they transport have been better tracked in the European supply chain, said Jon Graves, general manager of PLS.
This RFID system is provided by Xterprise. PLS chose Xterprise because of the company’s cooperation with other reusable transportation packaging companies in the United States and around the world. Xterprise provides Clarity Reusable Transport Item (RTI) systems for companies such as Intelligent Global Pooling Systems and Continental Automotive Group, including RFID hardware and software. “We understand the logistics industry” said Xterprise Chairman and CEO Dean Frew.
Xterprise and PLS spent a year planning the system and signed a contract two weeks ago. PLS began labeling its products and installed RFID readers in four warehouses in Europe (three in the UK and one in Germany). In addition, PLS has reached a cooperation agreement with a global beverage manufacturer who did not want to be named to provide RFID tags for the company’s plastic pallets to track the process of loading pallets to retailers and returning the pallets to the distribution center.
PLS manages the reusable containers and pallets of some European customers, tracks the transportation, receipt, location and condition of these assets, and is responsible for the cleaning and repair of the containers. In this way, customers can ensure that there are a suitable number of normal containers available when needed. PLS also rents out plastic transport packaging. The company currently has approximately 2.5 million containers and pallets.
By adopting RFID technology, Graves said, PLS provides customers with another way of asset management. Xterprise provides UHF EPC Gen 2 labels from Avery Dennison and Alien Technology, which are affixed to the corners and edges of reusable packaging. The vast majority of containers and pallets will use 2-4 labels, Frew said. All labels attached to a single container or pallet are encoded with a unified global reusable asset identification (GRAI) code. Moreover, in addition to providing Motorola handheld readers, Xterprise also installs Alien and Motorola RFID readers for PLS warehouses and third-party warehouses in some cases.
The Xterprise Clarity software running on the PLS back-end system receives the ID code, date, time, and location of each tag read, and then uses PLS or the customer’s ERP system to provide these data. According to Frew, Xterprise can also provide a server operated by a third party if needed.
PLS’s goal is to label all assets in the next 12 months. Graves said that in addition to PLS’s 16 third-party warehouses for pallets and containers in Europe, RFID readers will be installed in 4 warehouses. “Once the system is in place,” he said, “we will also install readers in customer warehouses.”
By matching the retailer’s order with the RFID number of the pallet or container, and reading the tag when the pallet is loaded or unloaded, PLS customers can also track the location of the product.
“By using RFID to effectively manage containers,” Frew said, “PLC and its customers can store fewer containers to ensure that they are not insufficient.” The price of each reusable container is 65-75 US dollars. RFID system saves container costs and storage space
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