Demonstration of the use of passive RFID in logistics services in Finland

The use of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) offers possibilities for improving the efficiency and automation level of various processes in logistics. The paper describes the results from the "Improving logistics through RFID" project in Finland, in which the technology was demonstrated in various applications. These include identification of pallets to and from a cold storage, identification of pallets in a terminal of logistics service provider, product and pallet identification in a warehouse of a hardware store and identification of stacks of plastic boxes. Two pilots included the tracking software. In addition, a simple tool for calculation of ROI was developed. In related projects, vehicles were identified in a parking building and paper reels in supply chain. As a conclusion, the more controlled the application, the better the RFID results. In order to speed up RFID implementation, cooperation is needed between the different actors in the supply chain, since a single actor cannot take the process alone forward.