RFID Keeps Sweet Stuff Rolling at Spanish Refinery

If the truck is bringing raw materials (generally, sugar beets) into the facility, it proceeds to a scale where its gross weight is recorded, both in the SAP software and on the tag itself, along with a timestamp. After the vehicle is unloaded, it is weighed once more in order to determine the load's weight. Again, this information and a timestamp are recorded in the SAP platform, as well as on the tag's memory.

A truck entering the facility in order to pick up a load of finished product and bring it to the harbor is also issued an RFID tag, after the driver presents his order information to the front-gate personnel.

If the truck makes multiple trips between the refinery and the harbor on a single day, the driver keeps the tag in the truck so that the interrogator will read that tag and automatically trigger the gates to open as the vehicle re-enters and re-exits the factory. This is important, because it gives Azucarera a means of tracking the amount of raw materials brought into the facility, and also lets it know which supplier shipped those goods. This automates the billing process.

Trucks carrying multiple loads of finished material out of the refinery, and to the harbor, are tracked similarly. Before leaving the facility for the last time on a given day, the driver returns the tag to a gate employee, so that the pool of tags is reused continuously.