One of the world’s largest steelmakers based in South Korea, POSCO, has implemented a proprietary RFID-based logistics solution, the Smart-Works System. The automated solution leverages custom UPM DogBone RFID tags to track and trace multi-ton metal coil products from manufacturing through customer delivery.
The modified ultra-high frequency UPM DogBone tags have two antennas and are applied upright inside heavy metal coils tags as flag tags. They are positioned perpendicular to the items’ curved surfaces, thus solves the problem of readability.
Metal coils are tagged during the packaging process and items are read when they are moved by cranes to the warehouse, during storage and again when they are readied for shipment. Customers can access real-time information Via the Internet on POSCO products, using data to plan and fine-tune their own production operations.
The POSCO system is comprised of UPM DogBone paper-based tags, hand-held industrial PDAs, fixed RFID readers placed attached to cranes and placed at factory gates, enterprise resource planning and manufacturing execution systems and a server.
The RFID system will make its debut at POSCO’s Kwangyang and Pohang plants for a select group of 17 customers. In October, POSCO will tag all of the items it produces, more than two million steel components annually. ![[end]](/resources/bullet/rfidnews-4.gif)
