“Flashing Tag,” Zero Incorrect-shipment System of Logistics Center with Active Tag
In logistics warehouses at a drug company, picking, i.e., collecting products out of tens of thousands of items into baskets according to orders from customers is conducted. To gather the products that are picked up from large shelves, the products in a basket are put into the appropriate container for each order, which moves on a conveyor. If products in basket are put into the wrong container, a costly incorrect shipment occurs. The system designed to solve such incorrect shipment is “flashing tag,” which uses 429-MHz wireless active tag.
Immediately after the barcode on the container is read, the tag which is attached to the corresponding target basket flashes by radio signal. Since an operator simply picks up products from the flashing basket and puts them into the correct container, the number of incorrect shipments can be reduced to almost zero.
The leading pharmaceutical wholesaler, Toho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. has operated 800 “flashing tags” at the logistics center of the Kanto area since November 2006. Zero incorrect shipment per month was accomplished immediately after the introduction of “flashing tag.” The company maintains the accuracy rate of 99.9997％ with the current shipment system.
* “Flashing tag” system was jointly developed by Toho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and YRP Ubiquitous Networking Laboratory.
