Jul 14, 2006Cargo terminals in Georgia, including those at the Port of Savannah, are being outfitted with RFID readers and software to allow terminal operators and their customers to track shipments coming in from all over the world. The implementation is designed to let terminal operators collect real-time information on RFID-tagged containers so they can provide their customers—U.S. logistics companies, retailers and product suppliers—with greater levels of efficiency, real-time visibility and condition statistics for containerized cargo. In addition, the RFID infrastructure will serve as a test bed for research and development of RFID and other technologies applicable to maritime supply chains and processes.
The project is being directed by the Maritime Logistics Innovation Center (MLIC), a state program designed to facilitate collaboration between private industry, academia—including the Georgia Institute of Technology—and federal and state authorities such as the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA). Savi Networks, a joint venture of RFID systems provider Savi Technology and seaport operator Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), is providing technological assistance.
GPA owns and operates the Port of Savannah's two terminals: Garden City and Ocean. The Port of Savannah is the country's fourth-largest port, in terms of 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs), a standard measurement of volumes that move through ports. (A 40-foot shipping container, for example, equals two TEUs.) A little more than 2 million TEUs pass through the Port of Savannah every year, according to Page Siplon, MLIC's executive director.
The MLIC's overall mission is to promote creative technology development and commercialization to improve efficiencies within the maritime supply chain. It also strives to foster economic growth among Georgia's ocean and inland river ports. Since the fall of 2003 (around the time it was created) the MLIC began looking at RFID technology as a promising technology that could aid in improving the visibility and efficiencies of maritime supply chains, according to Siplon. "These happen to be problems Georgia is facing," he says. "But as I talk to others, they are also looking at ways to improve how fast they can move goods. If RFID can help, than we're interested."
The RFID implementation will leverage Savi Networks' SaviTrak, an RFID-enabled global container shipment-tracking service. Many of Savi Networks' customers are the companies that actually ship goods, such as shipping logistics firm Mitsui USA, the New York-based subsidiary of Japan's Mitsui & Co. (see Savi Networks Starts Tracking Cargo).
At its Savannah terminals, the GPA will use Savi Technology's 433 MHz Series 600 active RFID readers affixed to all their cranes. The interrogators will be placed in the cabs of the cranes, which are several hundred feet in the air, and will read tags on containers being lifted off and onto ships. In addition, the readers will be placed at various gates throughout the terminals' facilities and yards.
The terminals will utilize SaviTrak's network software, which coordinates all tag information and funnels it to the hosted SaviTrak system. Terminal operators will be able to log into the hosted system to track when shipments arrive and leave, as well as where containers are while at the port. Savi expects the implementation, now underway, to be completed and operational by year's end.
Meanwhile, the MLIC was able to leverage the RFID implementation to establish a partnership with the Georgia Electronic Design Center (GEDC). This research and development organization, affiliated with Georgia academic institutions, is funded by state and federal agencies and private industry. The two partners are working to further RFID-based research, and will leverage the Georgia Ports Authority's SaviTrak implementation to test different RFID tags and technologies.
The GEDC team's expertise lies in high-read-range, high-efficiency, low-cost, multifunctional UHF RFID antennas and integrated circuits. The GEDC's developments targeted for testing include thin, flexible organics (liquid crystal polymer, for instance) and hydrophobic paper-based substances, such as substrates into which RF antennas and ICs can be embedded.
