Savi Media Coverage Snapshot
- 1. Greater efficiency, or getting there faster and better, is the goal of many logistics enterprises, whether Amazon.com, DoD, FedEx or UPS, according to David Lincourt, a former Canadian military officer and vice president for field services for SAPs Global DoD Business. Thats not to mention the goal of having items spend less time in warehouses and more time in the possession of operators who need them. DoD officials are trying to use radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and change management within their logistics enterprises to gain greater in-transit visibility of items and containers in their logistics enterprises. This will go a long way toward eliminat- ing errors such as duplicated orders, as well as reducing duplicative technology, according to vendors. Over time, it is clear that DoD logis- ticians and the vendors that they work with will pay close attention to commercial logistics breakthroughs and best practices, and DoD is seeking to implement them within their supply chains. Not only do military logisticians have to carry side arms and pre- pare to be engaged in battle when in a theater of opera- tions, but they also should be prepared to read Business Week and The Wall Street Journal to stay on top of what the Global 500 companies are doing in logistics if they want to get ahead. Through in-process visibility, We want to know the status of the order, SAPs Lincourt saidsimilar to how customers using Amazon.com, FedEx and UPS want know the status of their product orders, regard- less of whether the product is in the physical custody of the logistics enterprise. It may be in a container or in a warehouse, Lincourt said. The reality of asset vis- ibility, he said, is that it can be very fragmented within a military enterprise. Regardless, logisticians then have to make their supply chains more mobile, to get their assets as close as possible to operators within the enterprise, he said. With the ending of the war in Iraq and the draw- down of American troops in Afghanistan, Lincourt understands that the logistics community will play a large role in making decisions on equipment to be shipped out of theater. Much like Iraq, the retrograde from Afghanistan is a huge operation with the added challenge of geography. DoD suppliers have to ensure that all items transitioning through military distribution centers are RFID tagged, a requirement that started in 2004-2005, according to Michael Fein, service product manager for RFID at Zebra Technologies Corp., an RFID company in Lincolnshire, Ill. Fein sees the influence of commercial logistics companies such as Walmart, which instituted a tracking requirement for palettes and cases for its 1,500 vendors that became mandatory in December 2006, eventually giving way to a mandate that covered indi- vidual items. Zebra sells both active and passive RFID technologies. DoD requires passive RFID tags, which are less expensive than active RFID tags. Active tags have batteries to send signals to readers that provide real-time updates. An emerging requirement to use RFID on heavy metal containers might be driven by DoD, according to Fein, whose company claims to spend four times as much on research and development as its closest competitor. Overall, he has seen improvements in accuracy and range in RFID solutions deployed by DoD in recent years. With continuous asset visibility that provides loca- tion and status information at the container and item level, the wireless networking technology to be used in the Army and Defense Departments Next Generation Wireless Communication (NGWC) for Logistics Appli- cations could result in reduced operations and main- tenance expenses and better accountability throughout the supply chain, according to Jim Kilfeather, vice presi- dent of global engineering and operations for Cubic Corp. of San Diego. DoD officials will need to conduct audits to determine the effectiveness of the NGWC for Logistics Applications. The Army is using this technol- ogy at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, and in Kuwait. They dont care how its collected, Kilfeather said of military logisticians and the data they seek on assets. Some of the information they collect comes through satellite and WiFi networks. The information flows into the back end systems, he said. DoD has also been implementing least cost rout- ing, which means selecting a route from origin to destination for an item or container based on least cost, and keeping a close eye on the cost of tag readers and sensor networks, he said. TECHNOLOGY AIDS TRACKING THE MOVEMENT OF MATERIEL. BY WILLIAM MURRAY MLF CORRESPONDENT David Lincourt James Brian Kilfeather www.MLF-kmi.com MLF 7.6 | 5