OATSystems says its asset tracking and work-in-process solution is now generally available. The RFID solution, which has already been implemented at a number of customer sites, including Hewlett-Packard Brazil and Tesco, enables industrial, aerospace and automotive manufacturers as well as retailers to improve asset visibility and utilization, enhance work-in-process manufacturing, increase supply chain efficiencies, reduce shrink, and error-proof deliveries.

The solution can integrate data from heterogeneous tag sources, including passive, active and sensory tags.

OATSystems says that with the new solution HP Brazil has reduced its printer inventory by 17 percent by increasing visibility into the location of its products. Using the asset tracking solution, HP tracks its printers from their origin on the assembly line through critical transition points to their eventual outbound shipment.

HP also uses the system to create product "DNA" to save unique information on the RFID tag for each printer. By saving information such as install-by dates and testing results, HP tracks and identifies printers returned for repairs under warranty. Having a full record of the printer's history has enabled HP to improve its repair service and allowed it to return printers to customers much more efficiently. Today, the OAT solution is supporting nine RFID-enabled manufacturing and product completion lines producing over three million products annually.

"You can't measure the return on investment in the traditional way," says Marcelo Pandini, manager of RFID and Business Development at HP Brazil. "You can't presume a savings because you don't know what you don't know. With RFID, we have learned that we can make our operations better."

Tesco, with more than 2,000 stores and thirty distribution centers around the world, faces the complex challenge of ensuring that the right inventory reaches the right store at precisely the right time. Over the past year, Tesco has been working on a project using OATSystems' asset tracking solution to track inventory shipments from its distribution centers to stores. This solution error-proofs the shipping process by alerting store staff when a container is delivered to a store in error.

"OATSystems has given us visibility into our supply chain that was not possible before," says Chris Brocklesby, director of UK IT for Tesco. "It has enabled us to see where and when delivery errors occur and better understand how this impacts stores and therefore customers."

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