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North Sea Company Uses RFID to Catch Fish Crates
Pack and Sea thus required a solution that would increase the chances of its crates being returned, and that would also enable it to know whom to bill when containers are missing.
Before going out to sea, a fisherman goes to Pack and Sea and rents crates. The required number of containers are taken out of the company's storage area and assigned to that fisherman, who then loads them onto his boat and sails out. Upon catching fish, a mariner has two options: either using the crates for storing his catch without sorting the fish, and then delivering them to an onshore facility that does the sorting for him—or, more commonly, sorting them at sea based on species, sizes and qualities.
With the latter option, when the ship returns to the harbor, the loaded crates are delivered directly to an auction house, to be sold. The fish then travel to the buyer's factory for processing, or are exported to other European countries. In the first scenario (in which a variety of fish are packed in the same container), the crates have an added step—passing from the sorting company to the auction house for sale. On the boat, as well as in the harbor, the crates are stored in cooling rooms and freezers. When the containers are emptied, Jensen says, it is the responsibility of the factory or other party in possession of those crates to return them to one of Pack and Sea's locations in Denmark, where they are cleaned in a high-pressure, high-temperature washing machine before being placed into storage again.
There are several ways in which the crates can go missing: They can be stolen from the storage area, or from the companies processing the fish, they can fall overboard at sea, or fishermen can deliver their catch to a facility that then holds onto the containers. In addition, some are damaged during handling. The fishermen, the factories and the exporters pay a fee to rent each crate, and if Pack and Sea is aware that they are not returned, it will continue to charge that fee until the crate is fully paid for, assuming it can ascertain the party responsible.
In 2006, Pack and Sea began seeking a better solution. The firm began working with ProSign, which helped it conduct pilots in 2007 and 2008, in search of the best way to tag the crates, as well as the optimal RFID tags for the application. The fish industry can be hard on RFID tags, the company reports. The crates can experience temperatures fluctuating from -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit) when out at sea or in freezers, to +70 or +80 degrees Celsius (+158 or +176 degrees Fahrenheit) in the washing unit. The containers are exposed to water, corrosive salt and shock, due to being dropped or banged against other crates on the trucks or ships. Therefore, the company tested various makes and models of RFID tags, and chose the tag that performed best in those conditions—a UHF Gen 2 EPC Alien Higgs-3 Squiggle tag, encased in a protective plastic housing. The tags are now successfully operating under the harsh conditions, Jensen says.
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Before going out to sea, a fisherman goes to Pack and Sea and rents crates. The required number of containers are taken out of the company's storage area and assigned to that fisherman, who then loads them onto his boat and sails out. Upon catching fish, a mariner has two options: either using the crates for storing his catch without sorting the fish, and then delivering them to an onshore facility that does the sorting for him—or, more commonly, sorting them at sea based on species, sizes and qualities.
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| Michael Jensen, ProSign's CEO |
There are several ways in which the crates can go missing: They can be stolen from the storage area, or from the companies processing the fish, they can fall overboard at sea, or fishermen can deliver their catch to a facility that then holds onto the containers. In addition, some are damaged during handling. The fishermen, the factories and the exporters pay a fee to rent each crate, and if Pack and Sea is aware that they are not returned, it will continue to charge that fee until the crate is fully paid for, assuming it can ascertain the party responsible.
In 2006, Pack and Sea began seeking a better solution. The firm began working with ProSign, which helped it conduct pilots in 2007 and 2008, in search of the best way to tag the crates, as well as the optimal RFID tags for the application. The fish industry can be hard on RFID tags, the company reports. The crates can experience temperatures fluctuating from -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit) when out at sea or in freezers, to +70 or +80 degrees Celsius (+158 or +176 degrees Fahrenheit) in the washing unit. The containers are exposed to water, corrosive salt and shock, due to being dropped or banged against other crates on the trucks or ships. Therefore, the company tested various makes and models of RFID tags, and chose the tag that performed best in those conditions—a UHF Gen 2 EPC Alien Higgs-3 Squiggle tag, encased in a protective plastic housing. The tags are now successfully operating under the harsh conditions, Jensen says.
