A net-centric RFID-solution developed by IBM and Telenor will
create a more efficient delivery chain and stop infiltration of low
quality flower containers in the European horticultural industry.
The project is one of the largest RFID-implementations in Europe so
far.
The horticultural industry consists of fully integrated delivery
chains carrying flowers and plants from growers to retailers across
Europe. Danish ContainerCentralen plays a major part in this chain
by providing CC Containers, a de-facto industry standard container
for distribution of flowers. By February 1st 2010 3.5 million
containers will be tagged with RFID and more than 20000 of
ContainerCentralens customers and users all over Europe will be
able to benefit from the possibility of positioning containers in
real time. In time this may make the logistics and transportation
more efficient. The solution also prevents low quality copies of
the containers to enter the delivery chain. Over the last few
years, an increasing number of low quality containers in the
delivery chain has increased the maintenance cost and created
additional work for ContainerCentralen. - All parties in the
delivery chain have a mutual interested in securing top quality
containers, says Thor Steffensen, responsible for Sales and
Marketing in Telenor Objects.
IBM has signed the contract with ContainerCentralen and Telenor
is subcontracting to IBM on solution management and data collection
from RFID-readers distributed all over Europe. - We chose Telenor
as our partner in this contract because Telenor through its Telenor
IRIS initiative has created a strong environment for RFID solutions
based on IBM technology. In this particular case it is very
important that the solution is produced with high availability and
that potential faults are taken care of with great effort. Telenor
was also a clear choice due to its solid experience from management
and maintenance of advanced communications solutions for large
business customers in Scandinavia, says Boy Steiner, responsible
for Business Develpoment in IBM in Denmark.
Facts about the solution
The RFID project will during 2010 involve more than 80.000
ContainerCentralen users and involve RFID-tagging of altogether 3.5
million flower containers across Europe. IBM has developed an
advanced security model for RFID that will make it close to
impossible to copy the container identification.
All of the RFID reads that is made in Europe will be sent over
mobile infrastructure to Telenor's platform. The information is
then forwarded to ContainerCentralen's logistics application
located in Denmark.
The solution will be implemented and tested throughout 2009, and
will be ready to be started February 1st 2010.
This is a five year contract from go live date (February 1st
2010).
This will be one of Europes largest RFID implementations.
To Telenor this represents a break through - both for the RFID
technology and for Telenor's solutions in this area.
This is RFID
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a technology that allows
storing and transmitting small amounts of data by means of
extremely small units - called RFID chips.
A RFID chip is a small integrated circuit and antenna that may
be attached to or incorporated into a product.
The RFID chip's antenna allows it to receive and answer to Radio
Frequency signals from a RFID transceiver. Passive RFID chips do
not need a battery whilst active chips are dependent of a battery
to send information over greater distances.
Known use case scenarios for RFID is Autopass, traceability for
load bearers (such as pallets and containers), asset security and
access control systems.
RFID chips are also used for identification of pets and live
stock.
For more information contact
Market & Sale, Telenor Objects
Thor Steffensen, mobile +47 905 66 158
E-mail thor.steffensen@telenor.com
Or see www.cc-rfid.com for
more information on ContainerCentralen's solution