RFID Streamlines Slab Logistics, Opening The Way For Significant Cost Savings

Tracking goods as they move through the supply chain from suppliers to manufacturers to customers has been and continues to be a critically important business activity. Evidence of this activity is all around us in the form of barcoded products, and more recently, products bearing radio frequency identification (RFID) tags.

Increasingly, companies in a variety of industries including healthcare, manufacturing, retail and transportation have been exploring the benefits of using RFID to address a host of business issues. Their goals include streamlining processes, gaining greater product and supply chain visibility and controlling business assets to enable the companies to realize increased productivity, competitive advantage and profitability.

ThyssenKrupp Steel, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of steel products, has become the first steel producer to use RFID technology for steel slab identification and streamlined slab logistics. Its Automated Slab Identification Solution was developed with the help of Accenture, the distinguished global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. The solution relies on RFID Anywhere from Sybase iAnywhere.

This recently piloted RFID solution will be used in ThyssenKrupp Steel’s new steel mill at the Bay of Sepetiba, Brazil, as well as at the harbors in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, and Duisburg, Germany, to automatically identify steel slabs and to speed up the unloading process.