Issue #195 | June 11, 2009 | by Andy Kowl

After the supply chain breakdowns the U.S. military experienced during the first gulf war, the ability to track assets was put on the fast track.

By the mid-90's, when the Dept. of Defense concluded RFID was probably the solution they needed, California-based Savi Technology had built extensive demonstration capabilities at the Davis-Monthan Air Base in Arizona. They won the contract and haven't looked back.

Savi installed tracking technology in aerial and sea ports around the globe, making them the only company to gain that experience and knowledge. "By 1999, they'd put up more than 140 nodes in 26 different countries, including Kuwait," Joe Leone, an early Savi team leader and currently president and CTO of RFID Global Solutions, shared with me in the past.

The surrounding commercial seaports, and the U.S.'s NATO allies, implemented the same technology. Building on this expertise has ensured continual work for the DoD, especially after being acquired by contracting giant Lockheed Martin. The U.S. Department of Defense’s In-Transit Visibility network has become the world's largest RFID network, tracking about 35,000 conveyances daily across more than 4,000 locations and 40 countries.

A new entry into RTLS
Yesterday, Savi unveiled a wireless Real Time Locating System (RTLS) to automatically locate assets in facilities or industrial yards. The presentation showed the ease of implementation of this new RTLS system. The announcement was made here in Washington at the National Press Club, along with availability of two other Savi innovations – a hybrid RFID/ SatCom GlobalTag and the upgraded SmartChain 6.0 Adaptive Application suite – on the company’s 20th year in business.

With Savi's military pedigree, it is no surprise this RTLS system is said to perform well in harsh and heavy-metal environments. The system uses the ISO 18000-7 protocol, a UHF 433.92 MHz active, battery-operated, RFID technology. It consists of two sets of what they call "hockey pucks," small plastic tags flat on one side for attachment to items or wall, with a slight done on the other.

One set of these tags are Location Markers which can easily be placed most anywhere in a facility or yard. Location Markers communicate their “reference points” to assets equipped with Savi’s new ST-632 active RFID asset tag. The tag collects and transmits its identity and nearby reference point to their SmartChain software, which triangulates that tag’s location and displays it on a site map of the customer’s facility.

Taking RTLS global
It should be ideally suited for supply depots; heavy manufacturing plants; oil and gas refineries; aerospace and automotive material; and other tough environments. A demonstration showed it can be configured for room level accuracy.

Steve Farrell, Savi’s vice president of Hardware Engineering, described the advantage this solution offers to buyers. “Because of the elegant simplicity of our design, the Savi RTLS Solution can be installed within hours, at very low cost, to reduce capital infrastructure investments.”

What has always fascinated me was Savi's ability, using the infrastructure built into ports around the world, to track shipments from the high seas to the nooks and crannies of port yards. With their announced product availability of the first asset and shipment monitoring device that combines a Global Positioning System, active RFID and Satellite Communications (SatCom). The ST-694 GlobalTag even provides precise location information of supply chain assets where there is no terrestrial reader infrastructure.

Users can use mapping software, such as commonly available via Google Maps, to chart the progress of each tagged asset as it travels. Both the present location and the path to that location become visible. The SmartChain 6.0 Adaptive Application suite now allows users to seamlessly manage assets, shipments and inventory moving both within their facilities and throughout the global supply chain.

59 square miles of asset visibility
One great example of how this works in the real world is at the 59-square-mile Sierra Army Depot in northern California. With 1,200 buildings that serve as the Expeditionary Logistics Center to store, maintain and assemble operational stocks for military needs. When tools such as specialized jigs are misplaced, which are uniquely built hold specific parts together during an assembly process, tremendous amounts of time could be lost.

Through use of the Savi system which is the precursor to yesterday's announcement, the depot achieved 100% elimination of lost materials. They reduced delivery times by 55% on getting "hot parts" (those urgently needed) to the aircraft being repaired.

With all of these mature wireless tracking capabilities, Savi's Director of Product Marketing, Roger Thomas, sees great growth potential in the commercial market. Although a handful of corporate giants like Dow Chemical are customers, "We will start looking to expand our offerings to the corporate marketplace, especially with our RTLS systems," says Thomas.

The GlobalTag tracking technology was co-developed, tested and trialed with M2M (Machine-to-Machine) solution and service provider Numerex Corp. The GlobalTag provides a new cost-effective solution to a market demanding new capabilities for continuous, in-transit visibility of shipments and mobile supply chain assets, such as transport vehicles, container shipments or large and valuable equipment.

Numerex’s satellite products support firefighting, hurricane relief operations, and other situations that benefit from an immediate highest ground perspective. Utilizing satellite technologies for emergency management organizations in need of general field logistics capabilities, Numerex delivers tracking solutions tailored to various industries from cargo tracking to defense logistics.