Saavi Technologies

Project:
“Quad Wants To Be A Savi Player In Agribusiness”
Taking a Closer Look at Radio Frequency Identification Technology (RFID)

Table of Contents
I. Objective 3
II. Existing Case Study 3
a) Issues With Current Conveyance System 3
b) RFID Objectives 4
C) Savi’s Conveyance Management System (CMS) 4
III. What is RFID? 6
IV. Benefits of RFID 6
V. Cons of RFID 7
VII.RFID vs. Barcode Costs 9
VIII. Long Term vs. Short Term Savings 10
a) RFID Implementation: 12
b) Possible Industry Applications 12
X. Use of RFID in Conveyances (Reusable pallets/containers) 14
XII. A Parallel Case 16
XIII. Conclusion 18
XIV. Acknowledgements 19
* Quad vs. Savi Case Study 19

I. Objective
The objective of this case study is to acquire knowledge inregards to the application of RFID technology. We will look at the benefits, disadvantages, costs and savings of implementing RFID technology as well as the reasons to why this technology makes the tracking of assets much easier. Also, we will take into account the use of Reusable Plastic Containers (RPC’s), and how the transition from cardboard conveyances to RPC’s has made the integration of RFIDtechnology even more profitable.

II. Existing Case Study
Our case study involves Savi Technology, a leader in RFID technology, and Quad Logistics, a company that wanted to be able to track their conveyance assets throughout their customers supply chain.

a) Issues With Current Conveyance System
* Had a hard time tracking the conveyances it leased. (hard to know where each one wasat a particular time)
* No guarantee that it would come back
* No one to blame for damages
* Difficult to prove that certain amount of conveyances were shipped or received
* Reusable Plastic Containers were not very popular in the farm-retail industry
Asset tracking offered a value added benefit to consumers to gain visibility into the supply chain including transportation times,delays, and storage times.

b) RFID Objectives
(1) Improve customer satisfaction
(2) Reduce safety stock and pipeline inventory
(3) Reduce supply chain costs
(4) Reduce obsolescence

C) Savi’s Conveyance Management System (CMS)
Savi’s CMS offered real-time conveyance tracking, usability features, customer management, work-in-progress management, in-transit visibility, business logicand alert notification.
With real-time conveyance tracking, owners used accurate and timely information from sources like RFID, Barcode, EDI and custom legacy system integrations. Data appliances captured conveyance activity and maintained up-to-date information on location and status. Manual data entry and adjustments were included.
Usability features consisted of working with a standard webbrowser that users used to run inventory reports as well as add new customers and sites. They could access the system from any Internet connection.
With customer management, the CMS provided the ability to monitor, manage, and measure customer activity leading to improved product quality, availability, and knowledge of key business performance indicators. Users could create and organize customeraccounts by product, industry, etc. and find ways to increase sales with existing customers. CMS also led to turn-based billing and demurrage fee (charges for short term storage time during loading and unloading) management for the leasing company. Customers who took longer to return the conveyances could be charged more than those who returned the containers quickly.
With work-in-progressmanagement (WIP), owners were required to service their conveyances, namely washing and repairing them. CMS was built to support these activities and provide information, such as dwell time, inventory, and loss alerts, to improve operating efficiencies. This helped to assign accountability for damaged or missing conveyances and maintain a faster turn cycle.
By having in-transit visibility...