Sensors

The assignment of transponders in the field of automobile logistics is currently confined to few applications in closed circuits. The main reasons are high costs as well as insufficient standardisation and performance of RFID-systems. Combined with other new information and communication technologies RFID becomes increasingly important for positioning and communication tasks. Based on the processes of an idealised E.H.Harms Automobile-Logistics terminal this article describes the basic options of utilizing transponders in this specific industry and introduces a potential solution to cope with unsatisfactory cost-benefit ratios.

Transportation and sortation of bins and similar units in conveyor systems have reached a high level of automation. Nevertheless the combination of state-of-the-art technologies can breed innovative solutions for typical problems arising in planning and operation of such installations. The source of upcoming developments is an increasing distribution of control functionalities.

RFID systems are yet waiting for their breakthrough in logistics. Today, radio-based identification systems are restricted to closed-loop supply chains and selected high-value applications. Mass applications are still tested in first pilot projects. The article describes the state-of-art in RFID and the foreseeable technology roadmap. Today’s and future applications of RFID are discussed with a focus on retail and manufacturing logistics. Finally, the most important issues of standardization and privacy are addressed.

Coordinating and optimising the logistics of special containers within the production plants and the container flows between manufacturing facilities of the Volkswagen AG is task of the plant related logistic unit. The complexity of this task and the potentials for optimisation and economisation are made visible and measurable by the use of transponders.

Increasing competition in product costs leads worldwide to the need of process improvement - especially in small and medium-sized enterprises. Projects of production and logistics, with the aim of optimising process organisation and manufacturing control are assumed to have the knowledge of decisive system parameters and adequate possibilities in interference. Against this background the efficient use of the resource information is very important in future. Precisely because the use of RFID in production control has even more rationalisation potentials, when the process monitoring of production process must be fast, safe and efficient real time close controlled.

Using case studies, this article describes the business impact that Ubiquitous Computing could have on future organisations. Not only human beings but also products want to communicate a specific image. The article shows how this will affect future business processes. The product becomes the agent of the producer and communicates with its environment in order to comply with the performance objectives given by the producer. By using Ubiquitous Computing, possible future product functions will outperform the current industrial communication design by far.