Land Rover Test-Drives RFID to Track Parts Containers

At the start of the pilot, suppliers began affixing Savi's ST-614 active 433 MHz tags to containers with rivets. Since then, Savi interrogators and EchoPoint "signposts" have been installed at the gates at 16 of the 22 participating suppliers, all based in the United Kingdom. EchoPoint signposts are deployed at dock doors or other portals, or placed in specific storage locations or parking slots. Each signpost uses a short-range inductive low-frequency (123 kHz) signal to awaken the dormant tags so they'll begin transmitting a 433 MHz signal.

The use of active tag technology for the Land Rover pilot is critical, says Kempton Cannons, Savi's business development director, because "these containers are not gently and slowly carried through a narrow portal." Rather, he explains, the cage-like containers filled with metal car parts are driven at high speeds through wide warehouse-style portals. "The key," says Cannons, is to have the ability to read at distance and speed," and to do so in a metal-rich environment.

When a tagged container leaves the supplier site, it is loaded onto a truck and the vehicle passes through a gate. At that gate, the EchoPoint signpost wakes up the tag, which transmits its unique ID number to the nearest reader. Because each supplier tends to provide only one specific product, the ID numbers are not linked to any other data, such as the container's contents.

Although Savi provides a Smart Chain Platform to translate and route (via the Internet) the ID number, date and time of the read to the appropriate users (such as Land Rover), the WMG opted to use a simpler, less expensive method for the pilot, Foster says. That was due, in part, to the automaker and suppliers not wanting to have to integrate the RFID readers with their local area network—an integration necessary to obtain Internet connectivity—because of security concerns. Instead, the interrogator's data (time, date and location of a read, along with the tag's ID number) is routed via a GPRS connection to a server hosted by the WMG. That data is then made available via a secure password to pilot participants—namely, the automaker, the suppliers, Savi and the WMG. The university research team wrote the software that routes and translates the data.

When the truck arrives at Land Rover's assembly plant, it passes through another gate equipped with RFID interrogators, thereby alerting Land Rover and the supplier that the product has arrived. The automaker routes the containers to the appropriate assembly location, where they are unloaded with forklifts and driven through another RFID portal. In this way, Land Rover and the suppliers can know the items have been received in the proper location and are ready for assembly. If a shipment is late, a voice or text message can be sent automatically to Land Rover or the supplier.