NEC Contributes to Success of Transportation and Logistics Pilot between China and the U.S.

(Business News & Technology News, 4 Mar 2008)

NEC Corp. has participated as a solutions provider in an international transportation and logistics pilot carried out on a route from Shanghai to Los Angeles. Utilizing WebOTX RFID Manager, the RFID middleware product, NEC has developed pilot systems complying with EPCIS specifications created by EPCglobal.

The pilot was conducted by the Transportation and Logistics Services Industry Action Group of EPCglobal, the global RFID standards organization. The pilot's goal was to determine whether technical specifications created by EPCglobal contributed to realization of more advanced and efficient international logistics processes, with a view toward the application of these specifications in practical systems. The pilot was supported by numerous international logistics companies, solutions providers, hardware vendors, and others.

Specifically, the pilot targeted processes related to the transportation of tires—produced in China by a leading American agricultural equipment manufacturer—from China to the U.S. The pallets and containers used for loading the tires were equipped with RFID tags conforming to EPCglobal standards. Information based on the RFID tags read by RFID reader/writers installed at various checkpoints, including factories, warehouses and port terminals, was shared in real time among the companies involved, in order to track and trace the cargo throughout the transportation process.

The results of the pilot confirmed that it was possible to share and visualize, in real time, the time, date, location, and status of the cargo at every step throughout the transportation process, including handover of cargo by shippers and logistics companies and the arrival of containers at port terminals.

NEC contributed to the success of the tests as follows:
(1) Dramatically increased the efficiency of the system development through the utilization of the RFID middleware product WebOTX RFID Manager.
The system was constructed in a short time using the WebOTX RFID Manager Information Service application development framework, which was one of the first RFID middleware products in the world to obtain EPCIS certification from EPCglobal in October, 2007.

(2) Played a leading role in the development of pilot systems suited to real-world operations.
Using its extensive know-how in the development of products conforming to EPCglobal specifications and its experience in the implementation of such products, NEC contributed to the testing of the international distribution system model's effectiveness by designing and developing an EPCIS-based logistics management application system that was suited to real-world logistics processes.

Click here for more information on NEC


RELATED ARTICLES

NEC to Participate in Advanced ICT Collaboration Experiments for Creating International Info-communication Hub

Alcatel-Lucent and NEC Announce Long Term Evolution Joint Venture

NEC Exhibits LiMo-compliant Mobile Handsets in Mobile World Congress 2008

NEC and O2 Trial Femtocells in the UK

NEC Electronics to Team with Intel to Develop Power Management IC Solution for Mobile Internet Devices

NEC to Accelerate Service Platform Solutions Business for Push Content Delivery to Mobile Operators

WirelessHD 1.0 Specification Launches With Widespread Industry Support