Thailand’s NIA pushing for RFID expansion
22 September, 2009
category: RFID
In an effort to lower logistics costs, Thailand’s National Innovation Agency (NIA) has released a report advocating nation-wide adoption of RFID logistics tracking systems for managing transportation and the shrimp industry.
For monitoring metropolitan transportation, the NIA has singled out B-Move, an RFID system co-developed by Southeast Asia Technology and Burapha University’s Logistics Department. Under the system, RFID tags placed in vehicles interact with RFID readers installed in phone booths. The data is relayed to a control center via copper telephone lines where it is used to improve bus schedules and re-tool routes.
The NIA is also pushing for the use of RFID in Thailand’s shrimp industry to improve quality control and supply chain visibility. The NIA wants all shipments of shrimp tagged with RFID labels containing quality control information such as the origin of the shrimp, how long they have been traveling and what they are being fed. The project involves another system called C-Move, developed by DX Innovation and partially funded by the NIA, that uses GPS technology to track vehicles outside of cities.
Currently Thailand spends 19% of its GDP on logistics costs, compared to 9.4% for the United States. Although both of these projects push into the multi-million baht range, the NIA believes they will dramatically cut logistics spending in the long run.
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