Looking back instead of reconstructing. Per item, with a timestamp.
When something goes wrong the digging starts: who had it, when did it leave, was it even loaded. Right now those questions can only be answered by calling people and laying documents side by side. Every reading point an item passes records the answer in advance. And the other way round, the clock keeps running while something sits still: if that takes longer than agreed, you hear about it while it is still standing there.
We start with one passage that is not recorded today, and measure how often that question comes up.
Sound familiar?
This shows up as soon as items pass through several hands or locations and questions follow afterwards.
- With a complaint you cannot trace what was shipped when.
- Roll containers and crates go missing in the chain and get written off.
- The maintenance status gives no record of when it expired.
- Tools do not come back and nobody knows who had them last.
- Returned material comes back but is never posted back.
- A batch has to sit for a set time first and that is tracked on a note.
What it costs
What digging it out afterwards costs per year
Questions per week
Minutes digging
Weeks
Per year
202 hours
Calculated with euros per hour, and with the share of the theoretical gain you actually achieve:
- Conservative
- 81 hours3,643 euros per year
- Expected
- 121 hours5,465 euros per year
- Potential
- 162 hours7,286 euros per year
Worked example based ontwelve times a week a question that has to be dug out, at twenty-two minutes per question, across 46 working weeks. Only the hours of the person doing the digging. Not a measurement at a customer. The numbers are adjustable: put your own situation in and the outcome follows along.
How a chain records itself
You do not record a route but a series of passages. That is less than a tracking system promises and it answers almost every question that actually gets asked.
01 / One number per item
Every item, every carrier and every piece of packaging gets its own number. Not per item type but per piece, because the question later is about this one unit and not about the type.
02 / Reading points at the moments that count
At a dock, a doorway, a line or an issue point. You pick the spots the question will be about later, not as many spots as possible: every reading point costs money and only pays off when there is a question behind it.
03 / A timeline per item
In STOCKflow you see per item which points it passed and when. A complaint becomes a half-minute lookup instead of an afternoon of reconstruction.
What item tracking with RFID does and does not do
What item tracking with RFID does and does not do
Wel
- Record per item which point it passed and when
- Carry batch and best before date, so you find the best before date on the item itself
- Track packaging and carriers that go into the chain and have to come back
- The big things too: trucks, trailers and containers in the yard, and since when they stand there
- Read the meter readings per machine or vehicle, so a service interval announces itself
- Show afterwards that something was loaded, shipped or returned
- Register issue and return without a list, a signature or a separate notice
- See how long something has been in a zone or a step, and report it once that runs longer than agreed
- A batch that has to sit for a set time first reports itself once that time is up
Niet
- Track between two reading points: in between, the item is simply in transit
- Track items outside your own sites, unless the receiver reads too
- Reconstruct a route in places where you deliberately put no reading point
- Give the reason for a deviation: the system shows the fact, not the cause
This is not track and trace the way a parcel carrier shows it. You get the points where you have hung a reader yourself, and nothing more. That sounds more limited than it is: almost every question asked in practice comes down to a handful of moments, and those can be pinned down precisely before you hang a single reader.
What changes in practice
Where has that pallet been
Every reading point records what passed. Reconstructing from who worked that day is gone.Proof that it shipped
In a dispute with a customer or a carrier you have a reading and not a memory.The step that takes too long
If something sits longer than agreed, that reports itself today. Not next week in a lead time nobody can do anything about any more.The batch behind a complaint
Find one batch instead of searching the whole stock. In a recall that is the whole difference.
What this looks like in your operation
The same solution lands differently on a production floor than in a warehouse. Pick your own situation and you will see what changes for you, and what a Proof of Value measures there.
Logistics, warehousing & distribution
Receive, count and ship goods with fewer manual scans and fewer errors. Prove it first on one inbound or outbound process.
Assets & equipment
Find tools, equipment and carriers faster and lose fewer of them. Measure your time spent searching and prove it on one asset category.
How we prove it: a small, paid Proof of Value
One passage that is not recorded today. We put a temporary reading point on it and count how often the question comes up that it would have answered.
Scope
- One passage or issue point
- One item group or carrier type
- Temporary labels and a temporary reading setup
- Baseline measurement: how often this question is asked today and what digging it out costs
- Read reliability at that point is recorded separately
Go or no-go
After the test period you know how reliably that point reads and how often the question came up that it answers. If it came up rarely, that is the outcome and you hang no permanent reader there. If it came up often, you have a list of points you want to fit out next.
What you are probably thinking
We already scan at shipping, is that not the same thing?
Almost, with one difference: a scan happens when someone does it. On a busy day one gets skipped, and that is exactly the shipment the question comes up about later. A reading point records whatever passes without anyone performing an action, so the gaps in the record fall away.
How many reading points do we need?
Fewer than you think. Start with the question that costs you time today and put one point in front of it. Every extra point costs money and only pays off when there is a concrete question behind it. Fitting out a whole chain because you can is the most expensive way to start.
Our pallets already carry a pallet label, what does this add?
Then the hard part is done: that pallet has its own identity and not just a type. What a pallet label does not do is report itself. Someone has to read it and note it down somewhere, and on a busy day that does not happen. Replace it with the same label with RFID in it and every passage records itself. If it only matters inside your own halls, that is where it stops too: you need no reading points at a customer, and that saves on cost.
Our customers have no RFID, so the trail stops there.
True, and we say it that plainly. At the door it ends, unless the receiver reads too. What you keep is provable evidence of what left your site and what came back, and that is exactly the part most disputes are about.