RFID-enabled cold chain monitoring to cut costs
service allows fresh food producers to trace their products across
the globe and achieve potential cost efficiency savings. Anthony
Fletcher reports.
Developed by Australia-based Global Licensing & Innovation (GLI) in partnership with Exago, the x_Tract system utilises KSW-Microtec TempSens 13.56MHz RFID 'Smart Active Labels', appropriate commercially available RF readers and patented monitoring and analysis software developed by Exago.
x_Tract is designed to monitor key environmental parameters, such as temperature and time, for thermally sensitive goods as they move through a supply chain. GLI claims that the product provides a more efficient and cost effective means of achieving 'near real time' traceability.
This is a critical time for food companies that rely on freight transportation. In addition to greater pressure to achieve complete traceability, there is currently a squeezed supply of refrigerated shipping containers in the US and elsewhere.
This has caused shipping rates to rise 10 per cent to 25 per cent since last spring, which has helped to push up prices.
To accommodate such changes, food companies of all sizes have had to change their transportation processes and identify where saving can be made. Waste has been identified as a key factor. Logistics industry sources have estimated that the overall cost of food spoilage in Australia alone due to temperature degradation through the supply chain is in excess of AU$200 million (€118m) per annum.
The introduction of technologies such as those used in x_Tract could therefore potentially eliminate the uncertainty that producers regularly face about their product reaching markets in prime condition, and enable greater supply efficiencies to be made.
GLI and its technology partners conducted extensive customer trials of the x_Tract service over an 18-month period in high value product categories including meat, seafood and dairy. The company is confident that x_Tract will become an important supply chain management tool for manufacturers of temperature sensitive products.
GLI argues that x_Tract can deliver improved transparency throughout the supply chain and offers an alternative to current data logging units, many of which need to be 'read' at the consignors own premises. Data is captured from the smart active label and uploaded via an RFID reader to the secure Exago database, where customers can remotely access important information about their shipments.
The TempSens smart active label is a small, self-contained data capture device that facilitates the measurement, storage and analysis of temperature and time information. Looking much like a credit card, this novel RFID device can be attached or inserted into a shipment of temperature sensitive products.
After initialisation, data is stored on within the label and then read by RFID readers located at strategic points throughout the journey. The data from the labels is then uploaded via a secure web-portal into a customised database and analysed by the proprietary x_Tract software.
In addition to fully customisable graphical outputs, user definable 'e-alerts'(sms/email) can be implemented to advise the consignment owner/ supply chain custodian when data is available for viewing in the database, or if there has been a temperature violation.
As soon as the consignment is received and the data uploaded into the secure Exago website, the temperature/time information is available for review. Utilising the 'e-alert' mechanism, the owner of the goods can then release or reject any consignment after reviewing the environmental conditions experienced during shipment.
The x_Tract Cold Chain Consignment Monitoring Service is currently available to customers in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Melbourne-based technology company GLI is the exclusive distributor of x_Tract in Australia and New Zealand, and partner agreements are currently in place in Singapore and Chile.
While this version of x_Tract uses 'first generation' RFID and Micro Electronic Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology, new applications are currently in development and may include measurement of other environmental parameters such as humidity (RH), acidity(pH), corrosion, gas saturation, shock and vibration.
In addition, new versions of the TempSens smart active label will feature extra memory and longer 'read ranges' for extended operations.
GLI is a Carter Holt Harvey business that licenses and distributes proprietary and externally sourced packaging and supply-chain related technologies. Exago is the designer and developer of software products to monitor, manage and improve the distribution of perishable goods.
