EastPack, a New Zealand fruit pack house operator which handles about 15% of that nation’s $1 billion annual kiwi fruit crop, has announced it is implementing an RFID-based system to keep track of pallets in its warehouse.
Traditionally, the company experiences a spoilage rate of about 6%, which fits the industry-wide statistics, and much of that loss can be blamed on the complicated logistics of shifting 80,000 pallets of perishable fruit through 42 cool storage rooms to make sure the right fruit gets to the right ship at the right time.
The RFID system places tags linked to the company’s inventory system on each pallet. Each storeroom’s ceiling has scanners connected to electronic displays, which can be read by cameras on the facilities’ forklifts, helping them to locate specific pallets.
Industry experts say Eastpack’s system is one of the largest of this type of RFID applications in use in the Asia-Pacific region ![[end]](/resources/bullet/rfidnews-4.gif)
