The company is using EPC Gen 2 tags to track the shipment, receipt,  
inspection and repair of 150,000 returnable plastic containers.

CHEP, a pallet and container pooling services company  owned by 
Australia-based Brambles, is running an RFID-based  application 
that tracks returnable containers for the automotive  industry at its 
facilities in countries across Europe, according to  Floris Kleijn, 
CHEP's director of RFID as a service in Europe, the  Middle East 
and Africa (EMEA).    The industrial-grade plastic containers, 
known as foldable large  containers (FLCs), are used to transport 
large automotive parts from  the supplier to the assembler of a vehicle. 
CHEP issues, collects and  conditions the containers from its service centers.
      Floris Kleijn  As CHEP launched the project, it decided to approach 
the idea of  tracking containers by considering not only the benefits such an
  application could bring to the company, but also those that could be  
delivered to automotive suppliers, such as an enhanced ability to  locate
 goods within the supply chain.    CHEP opted to implement and test the 
application itself before  involving clients in developing and operating
 the RFID system. It  wanted to first prove to the market that it could 
build a cross-border  RFID application. Currently, CHEP shares information
 regarding the  movement of containers into and out of its facilities with
 customers;  in the future, it hopes to offer RFID-based tracking services
 for  suppliers.    CHEP put the tracking application into operation in May
 2008, and now  has 150,000 tagged FLCs in circulation. The tags, produced
 by RF  Identics and containing Impinj EPC Gen 2 chips, are attached to the
  container's underside, with two bar-coded labels applied to the  external
 sides to enable operators to visually differentiate tagged  containers from
 those not tagged. RFID interrogators manufactured by  Sirit are being installed
 at nine facilities in Germany, Hungary, the  United Kingdom, Turkey, Poland,
 Spain and France. Each facility has an  average of two dock-door portal 
readers, with a total of 14 handhelds  employed throughout the system.
CHEP Tracks Auto-Part Containers in Europe    CHEP's container-tracking
 process includes four read points: shipment,  receiving, inspection 
and post-repair. First, tagged containers are  identified as they are moved 
on a forklift through the RFID portal at  the dock door en route to CHEP's 
customers—automotive parts suppliers.  The forklift driver pulls up a work 
order from SAP software on the  touch screen of his onboard computer, then 
selects the dock door  through which he plans to drive. The order number 
identifies the name  of the company to which the containers are being shipped,
 thereby  associating the customer with those particular containers. When empty 
 containers are returned to CHEP, the same process happens in reverse.    
Upon return, the containers must be inspected to determine if repairs  are
 necessary. An operator spreads the containers out on the floor,  using a 
handheld interrogator with a touch screen to read their tags.  If he sees 
damage, the operator notes it to the system by selecting  the type of damage
 from menus on the screen.    Once a container has been repaired, the operator
 utilizes the handheld  to read the tag and record the work done. Because the 
system knows  which customer the container was shipped to, and since CHEP knows
  which automakers its clients supply, the company can determine the  "trading 
channel" the container was circulating in and collect damage  statistics by channel.
    "After analyzing variance in damage statistics, we can talk to our  customers
 about how to avoid damage," says Kleijn, who described the  system at RFID 
Journal LIVE! Europe, held last week in Prague. "This  will help remove 
unnecessary cost from the supply chain."    The project's initial goal 
was to prove CHEP could gain value from  using RFID on returnable assets
 so it could have a credible  conversation about extending benefits to customers.
 The project,  Kleijn says, has indeed confirmed the application offers better
  accountability for containers, including those that are damaged, and  
provides better brand recognition for CHEP—something that helps  automakers 
return the proper containers to the company. What's more,  the system allows
 CHEP to easily track inspection and repair data.  Before the RFID application
 was implemented, containers—worth about  €150 ($188) apiece—were not uniquely
 identified.   	  The implementation of the RFID application was managed in
 house by  CHEP, with help from systems integrator Infosys, which wrote code
 for  the software used in the application, based on Microsoft's BizTalk and
  SAP's Auto ID Infrastructure (AII) and Event Management (EM) software.  
The next challenge for the application, Kleijn says, involves  expanding it
 to its customers' premises.    By doing so, CHEP could provide suppliers with
 real-time information  regarding the location of their goods in the supply chain
, thereby  helping those companies reduce their inventory. Such data could also 
 be valuable if a firm needed to switch from building one model of a  vehicle
 to another on short notice.    "Right now we track the container ID when it
 leaves, and when it comes  back to CHEP facilities," Kleijn says. "We know how
 long it is in the  field. But if a customer associated the contents of the
 container with  the container ID, it could use the software to know where 
specific  parts are in the supply chain. With the system we have in place 
today,  we can now approach the customer to work with us to build the  
association between the part number and the container ID."    RELATED ARTICLES 
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CHEP was presented with an eLogistics Award from AKJ Automotive,
 an  association of automotive manufacturers. The award was for 
the largest  cross-border RFID application for automotive containers 
in Europe. In  its press release, AKJ noted, "CHEP's RFID initiative
 will provide  significant benefits to the automotive industry, 
delivering control,  cost savings and improving the efficiency of the 
supply chain."    Kleijn states, "We are very pleased that the system
 is working well,  and is already demonstrating the positive benefits
 that RFID can  deliver across the automotive supply chain."