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Company
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Company
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2016
Company
Application
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Company &&Application
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2016 2017
Company & Application Guide 2017
Volkswagen Group
globally realises
an efficient load
carrier management
Shared services and UHF RFID technology
are the basis of a concept for a globally
standardised process
In order to fulfil the increasing
demands in the field of intralogistics, Volkswagen Group
already successfully deploys
RFID technology in various
applications for many years. The
company developed a concept
for a globally standardised process for the registration of load
carriers, specifically for load
carrier management.
By Martin Meinshausen, Head of Group IT
RFID Competence Center, Volkswagen AG
Positive business case
due to scalable solution
In order to effectively and costefficiently realise roll-outs of
this magnitude in plants worldwide, all interfaces and system
components have to be defined
and coordinated with each
other. The required hardware
and software has to be available in a standardised fashion.
In order to achieve comparable
and stable functions in all RFID
applications worldwide, an internal shared service was established in the central IT. The
advantage for the specialist sections in the plants is that an experienced RFID team is placed
at disposal to support them
during the implementations.
Moreover, a central IT infrastructure can be used that may
develop into a positive business
case in a timely manner due to
scaling effects.
Secure registration
of direction of movement
with intelligent RFID
systems
In the bigging of 2015 the company already decided to offer a
standard load carrier management application within the framework of shared services for
particular Volkswagen plants
and brands in the group. The focus lies on the tracking of serialised load carriers. This has not
been possible with previous sy-
stems. Intelligent RFID systems
by Kathrein, for example, do not
only support the secure registration of load carries but also
define the course and direction
of movement of the objects at
the loading gates or as a mobile
reading point in transport vehicles.
Central template
software solution via
shared services
In load carrier management and
in AutoID device management,
the product CrossTalk by Nofilis is being used among others.
Volkswagen‘s shared service
offers a central template software solution with the load carrier management application.
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38 Company
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Company & Application Guide 2017
End-to-end transparency in the supply chain
Then, the solution is easily and swiftly extendable
with regard to local demands of the plants, for example, via specific reporting and analysis formats
for other group brands or key suppliers. The entire load carrier management application runs as a
shared service in the data centre of Volkswagen.
The individual decentralised reading points in the
plants are connected via RFID readers with integrated management software.
Due to the connection of external tracking points,
an end-to-end transparency is being created that
leads to better planning for Volkswagen and the
supply chain partners such as suppliers or logistics
service providers. As a result, the supplier or external partner can gain direct insight in the container
stocks that are relevant to him via the load carrier
management application, and can then set new
component supplies in motion within logistics optimisation in a timely manner, for example. In return,
Volkswagen has insight into the container stocks at
the supplier, enabling a more efficient use of load
carriers. Dwindling can be mostly avoided as well.
The long-term objective: Connecting
suppliers and service providers
The core objectives of the application consist of
the tracking of load carriets to optimise the stock
via the efficient usage of containers and via easy
planning and procurement. An additional extension of the registration and analysis on the level of
material tracking via the connection of parts and
material with the load carrier is already planned
in the phase model regarding the roll-out. The
long-term objective includes the control and automatic entry of goods movements including load
carrier management. Moreover, the connection of
suppliers and service providers is also planned in
order to automatically receive information about
supply chain events outside their own Volkswagen
boundaries.
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Roll-out to other plants
In the load carrier management application a status
that gives information on the individual state – for
example, full, empty, damaged, in maintenance, cleaned, soiled – can be assigned to each individual load
carrier. This leads to a high transparency regarding
numbers, state, and position of the individual load
carriers. As a result, costly transports between the
plants and the suppliers cease to apply, just like the
expensive procurement of new containers in order to
counteract the permanent dwindling of containers.
The load carrier management application has already been installed in several Volkswagen plants – in
Wolfsburg, in Bratislava as well as in Zwickau among
others – and is still being rolled out worldwide.
The load carrier management application has already been installed in several Volkswagen plants.
RFID at Volkswagen Group
Volkswagen Group has been operating with
RFID technologies in intralogistics, also for container and cargo management, for many years.
At the beginning of 2015, it has been decided
to offer a standard load carrier management
application for particular Volkswagen plants
and brands in the group within the framework
of shared services. Initially, one goal of the load
carrier management application is to establish
a more efficient usage of containers, followed
by the integration of suppliers and service providers in the supply chain. The application has
already been implemented in the Volkswagen
plants in Wolfsburg, in Bratislava as well as in
Zwickau among others and is still being rolled
out.
UHF RFID systems ensure reliable identification of the load carriers at the loading gates. The intelligent
antenna and reader technology by Kathrein RFID makes it also possible to recognize the course and
direction of movement of the objects at the loading gates or as a mobile reading point in transport
vehicles.