Some companies in Asia have gone beyond trials to implement RFID systems in their existing business operations. Mitsubishi Electric Asia is a good example.

The company is a major Japanese multinational that, among other things, makes devices for industrial automation, refrigerators, and air conditioners. It has a warehouse and logistics hub in Singapore that controls the movement of inventory across Southeast Asia, Australia and India. Singapore receives all the shipments from Japan and elsewhere and then ships them to the final destination. Mitsubishi wanted to apply a first-in, first-out system for its shipping policy. This means that the products are shipped out based on the order in which they come in. In order to do so, Mitsubishi needed a good way to track its inventory. It needed to know when products were received, and where the products were stored within its warehouse.

No easy task given that the warehouse has more than 80,000 sq ft (7,432 sqm) of space. Until recently, locating products by date received was a manual, time-consuming process that involved some guesswork. However, since August this year, Mitsubishi has been relying on an RFID solution that has sped the whole process up and taken the guesswork out of the equation.

Singapore-based consultancy TCM RFID Pte Ltd developed a solution for tagging the products on arrival in Singapore. Once a product is tagged, Mitsubishi can easily identify which products were received earlier and which later. Staff can also find it easily in their warehouse. When an item needs to be shipped, the workers in the warehouse can be told precisely where to pick up that item.

Said Tatsuya Saito, deputy managing director of Mitsubishi Electric Asia: "The RFID-based inventory tracking system is a breakthrough for the company. It will cut down our manpower by up to 10 per cent."

As the system offers quick information on the status and movement of inventories, it will facilitate timely, accurate and sound decisions on supply chain management, helping to achieve customer satisfaction and workflow efficiency. "We estimate that the benefit will enable the company to improve productivity in the logistic function by up to 25 per cent," Saito said.

Mitsubishi tried this system out with just one product line first, a device used in industrial automation. In future all products coming into the Singapore warehouse will be tagged.

The company is planning to spend S$5 million to extend this system to all its markets in Asia soon. This will enable the company to locate a product anywhere in the supply chain between Singapore and the final destination.