More RFID Journal Sites: RFID Journal Espanol RFID Journal Brasil RFID Journal Events RFID Journal Awards
Home / Supply Chain / RFID Channel / Inventory/Warehouse Management / Asset Tracking / Transport / Logistics / Defense
Defense NEWS
Text size:
T
T
T
Navy, Marines Track Assets on Oahu
GlobeRanger designed a system that will work for the legacy management systems now in use, and could easily be transferred to SAP. XIO Strategies provided program management to coordinate the various systems to which data would be transmitted. GlobeRanger's iMotion edgeware manages the interrogators, and the GlobeRanger middleware enables the translation of read event data to the military's legacy back-end systems. "That was the biggest challenge for this application," Bigbee says.
When an item arrives at the DLA depot in Pearl Harbor—whether intended for the Marine Corps or for the Navy—it is tagged with an Alien RFID tag, then scanned and linked to information about that item. As the item enters or exits a dock door at the DLA facility, or at the Navy's warehouse in Pearl Harbor or the Marine Corps' Kaneohe Bay warehouse, an Alien RFID portal reads its tag. The interrogators at the DLA site had already been installed in a previous deployment, Bigbee says. GlobeRanger has installed an RFID portal at the Marine Corps warehouse, as well as at each of three Navy warehouses at Pearl Harbor.
Data from each read is captured by the fixed interrogators and transmitted via a cabled connection to the Navy and (when applicable) Marine Corps back-end systems. When a driver picks up a tagged item, he employs a Psion Teklogix handheld computer with a built-in RFID interrogator to scan the tag once more, indicating the item has not only left the dock doors, but been picked up by the driver. Upon delivering the item to another base, the driver again scans the RFID tag. This is useful in situations in which items are not immediately brought in through dock doors, or when they are too large to fit through them.
The military can utilize the data from RFID reads not only to locate items, but also to conduct such business analytics as tracking transportation time, or to receive or send notices when items are delivered.
The Navy provided four days of classroom instruction for warehouse employees to explain how the system works, and the staff also received hands-on training in the warehouse. The Navy intends to continue deployment of the GlobeRanger system at other Navy and Marine Corps locations as well, though the sites being targeted have not yet been specified.
more Defense articles
When an item arrives at the DLA depot in Pearl Harbor—whether intended for the Marine Corps or for the Navy—it is tagged with an Alien RFID tag, then scanned and linked to information about that item. As the item enters or exits a dock door at the DLA facility, or at the Navy's warehouse in Pearl Harbor or the Marine Corps' Kaneohe Bay warehouse, an Alien RFID portal reads its tag. The interrogators at the DLA site had already been installed in a previous deployment, Bigbee says. GlobeRanger has installed an RFID portal at the Marine Corps warehouse, as well as at each of three Navy warehouses at Pearl Harbor.
|
| Michael Bigbee |
The Navy provided four days of classroom instruction for warehouse employees to explain how the system works, and the staff also received hands-on training in the warehouse. The Navy intends to continue deployment of the GlobeRanger system at other Navy and Marine Corps locations as well, though the sites being targeted have not yet been specified.
