|
Vol 13 Issue No 4 17-30 Nov 2006
Mitsubishi Electric Asia uses RFID for inventory management
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 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.
Back
|
