30,000 RFID Tags Drive VAR's Automobile Tracking Solution

We take bar codes for granted. As such, we aren't surprised when we see these ubiquitous identifiers used in the most unusual applications. On the other hand, data collection projects involving radio frequency identification (RFID) technology are still rare, and thus intriguing, no matter what the application.

VAR Genesta (Rockwall, TX) has its share of RFID projects many people would find interesting. For instance, the company once used RFID technology to determine the weight of trailers full of recently harvested nuts. The project required 1,500 RFID tags and 6 RFID readers. But that installation's size pales in comparison to a job Genesta has been working on for the past three years.

Move Clients To Real-Time Tracking
One of Genesta's customers is a $7 billion company that distributes new automobiles to car dealerships in a five-state area. The client has three locations, the smallest of which is about 80 acres and the largest is nearly 240 acres. These are basically large, wide-open parking lots that have a paint shop, an accessories (e.g. wheel/radio upgrades, adding spoilers) building, a car wash, and a final dealer prep (e.g. check air pressure and fluids) building. After the vehicles are unloaded from ships or railcars, the distributor uses bar codes to track them as they are processed through each location. The bar code data is transmitted via narrowband, wireless LANs at each location.

"Although their system for tracking vehicles was very efficient, they wanted to move to a real-time tracking system," explained Kelson Elam, managing partner at Genesta. "They wanted to make changes to vehicles and even swap vehicles between dealers, up to the last minute before a vehicle is shipped."

The distributor's tracking system included printed work orders placed in each vehicle. The work orders listed all of the changes to be made to a particular vehicle. If a dealership wanted to make a change to a vehicle's initial configuration before shipping, the distributor would need to locate the vehicle and place a new work order inside. Not only was this a time-consuming process, it didn't take into consideration if any changes had already been made to a vehicle.

Genesta responded to the customer's RFP (request for proposal) with an RFID solution. "We were already familiar with the customer's operations, so we determined RFID was the best fit for this application," Elam said. "However, after a year of researching this project, we settled on a hybrid system of RFID and bar codes. We did so because in certain areas of the customer's process it made more sense to use a bar code."

Combine RFID Handhelds, Fixed Readers
With the new system, once a vehicle arrives at the distributor, its bar code containing the vehicle identification number (VIN) is scanned using an Intermec (Everett, WA) Sabre 1555 handheld. This unit is also used to encode (i.e. write) the VIN information to a 915 MHz Intermec RFID tag hung on the rearview mirror of the vehicle. The Sabre 1555 handhelds are tethered to Intermec 700 series mobile computers. The VIN information is sent wirelessly via the 700 series mobile computers to the distributor's server, automatically adding the vehicle to a site's inventory.

Genesta designed portable reader stations (i.e. gates) located at specific points throughout the grounds of each distribution facility. These devices contain Intermec's Intellitag UHF (ultra-high frequency) fixed reader for the Intermec 2100 Universal Access Point. The reader stations are connected to the facility's inventory server. Once a vehicle is within 15 feet of a reader, its tag is read and a light indicating where (e.g. accessories building, storage) to take the vehicle next is activated, or a work order ticket is printed.

"The customer also can use the handhelds for inventory tracking," Elam stated. "For example, we mounted RFID tags to the asphalt of the parking areas. An employee conducting an inventory can point the handheld readers at the vehicle's rearview mirror tag and then at the parking spot's tag. That information is transmitted wirelessly back to the server. Essentially with this new system, the customer knows exactly where all of the vehicles are located at any given moment."

At the guard shack, as the vehicles are loaded for shipping, the hang tags are read one final time. The tags are then removed, erased, and sent to the receiving area to be used again.

30,000 RFID Tags
In addition to real-time inventory visibility, Genesta was able to reduce the number of handhelds the customer had been using. "To receive this type of real-time information, they would need to give every driver and supervisor a handheld," Elam explained. "Instead, we were able to install 20 RFID portable reader stations that replaced approximately 150 handhelds. To the customer, that was a good deal." In total, the distributor purchased from Genesta:

• 30,000 Intermec RFID tags used throughout all three locations
• 10 Intermec Sabre 1555 handhelds per site
• 50 Intermec 700 series mobile computers per site
• 20 portable reader stations per site.

Genesta continues to work with the distributor on hardware upgrades and completing interfaces to the RFID system.