logistik initiative duisburg niederrhein

Transponders / rifd technology

Radio frequency identification or in short RFID will lastingly change logistics processes. Yet the wireless information transmission technology has not yet replaced the ubiquitous barcode. The technology is still undergoing testing. Barely 5 % of German companies with more than 500 employees have so far indicated pressing forward with testing and use of RFID systems. Absent still is worldwide standardisation, however surveys among American industrial companies show for example, that some 40 % wish to implement the new technology by 2010.

It is logistics in particular which will be irrevocably changed by this technology. Even today various systems, which show the way forward, are undergoing testing. In Neuss, for example, the Metro Group are testing RFID technology in its Innovation Centre. The work platform enables Metro Group partners to test the hardware and software for the RFID rollout under realistic conditions. The Innovation Centre provides test situations which perfectly simulate trading processes. It is one of the best-known laboratories in the world for professional use of RFID in the trade sector.

On a total site area of some 1,300 m2 over 30 different test rigs are installed. Goods receipt, commissioning or supply chain work areas are of interest not only with regard to trade processes, but also to logistics companies overall.

It it will be possible in future to read out the total contents of a Europallet independently of the pallet labelling, this is basically nothing other than readout of a fully packed shopping trolley as tested in the Future Store in Rheinberg. Nor is RFID a dream of the future. The research establishments still master events. The Logistics Initiative supports dialogue between research establishments and companies. In the Duisburg Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuitry and Systems the region has one of the key players in RFID research. Together with logistic experts of Fraunhofer workgroups the latest concepts are undergoing testing and solutions are being worked on, such as for example how tacks can be applied to metallic carrier materials.

Self-organising radio solutions also developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuitry and Systems are additional points of departure for designing more efficient logistic processes. The Initiative supports dialogues between regional players with events such as the international "RFID and Wireless Networks in Logistics Systems" convention on 16 November 2005. As coordinator commissioned by North Rhine Westphalia Local Government in matters relating to embedded systems the Fraunhofer Institute additionally contributes to systematic onward development of competences in the region.

Contact: Michael Gollerott, Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuitry and Systems, Tel.: 0203 / 3783-227, E-Mail: Michael.bollerott@ims.fraunhofer.de