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| [September 21, 2005] |
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Savi Networks Launches SaviTrak with 1st RFID-Tagged Containers for Major Supplier of Consumer Goods from Asia to the U.S.
SUNNYVALE, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- Sept. 19, 2005 -- Savi Networks LLC:
-- Network-Enabled Active RFID Container Tags and EPC Compliant Carton Tags Offer Japanese CPG Manufacturer 'Source Tagging' and 'Nested Visibility'
-- Network Solution Designed to Help Major Consumer Goods Supplier Meet and Exceed RFID Mandates While Providing Logistics and Security Value
Savi Networks LLC, a provider of RFID-enhanced information services for global container shipments, today announced the operational launch of its SaviTrak(TM) information network with the first commercial shipments of consumer product goods from a factory in China to a distribution center in Southern California. Savi Networks and Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.) Inc. (Mitsui USA) are providing real-time information and logistics services within the Network to a large Japan-based supplier of consumer goods to major U.S. retailers, including Wal-Mart.
The shipments, currently on the water, are proving the commercial benefits the Network brings to major consumer goods suppliers in meeting and exceeding Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) compliance mandates while improving security, logistics data accuracy, visibility, and the operating metrics of containers and their contents. The information services, called SaviTrak, are provided on a per-container trip basis.
An innovative aspect of the project is "source tagging" of cases with EPC-compliant passive labels at the manufacturing facility, and tagging the containers they're stuffed into with active RFID tags. This is called "Nested Visibility," and enables the customer to automatically build the container manifest, and then automatically track the container and its contents along its end-to-end journey throughout the shared Network.
"This initial trade lane project marks the operational readiness of Network and SaviTrak, and demonstrates how managed services that leverage information from passive and active RFID technologies helps international suppliers meet the business challenges of retail RFID mandates, transportation security concerns, as well as the pressures for better operational efficiency and customer service," said Lani Fritts, COO of Savi Networks. "We are delivering managed information services to shippers that enable innovative buying, planning and transportation decisions through our real-time network."
"We're pleased that our strategic partnership with Savi has led to an operational program that involves a number of benefits to one of the major customers of our logistics services, and will demonstrate business value for other major suppliers shipping into the United States," said Masahiko Tsumoto, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Transportation Logistics Division of Mitsui USA. "Mitsui USA believes that a new generation of software driven by real-time, RFID-generated data already is helping to transform how shipments are managed and secured in the global supply chain."
Shipments originating at a factory in Guangdong, China, are trucked to and placed on vessels leaving the Port of Yantian. Then, they are shipped over the ocean to the Port of Long Beach, Calif., and finally are transported to a Distribution Center in California. The initial phase of the solution is designed from the supplier's perspective to substantiate a number of supply chain and technology "best practices," including:
-- Continuous Improvement Through Supply Chain Innovation. By leveraging innovative, standards-based technologies, users will gain business value and competitive advantages with the latest, advanced and proven technologies.
-- Nested Visibility. By linking data from EPC-compliant passive RFID labels (supplied by Symbol Technologies) on cartons and cases to information stored in and transmitted by Savi Technology's ISO-compliant active RFID tags affixed to cargo containers, users have real-time visibility of container shipments and their contents at the same time.
-- Source Tagging. Tagging EPC-compliant labels at the source factory provides a more cost-effective means than further downstream in the supply chain, and enables users to move beyond "slap-and-ship" compliance programs to gain economic benefits within their own supply chain.
-- Dynamic Management. The "sense and respond" Network, combined with automated event- and exception-driven alerts, provides real-time information and reports on the location, status, and security of shipments as they move through the supply chain.
"Our recent research shows that a 'Nested Visibility' solution like this using both passive and active RFID can help major shippers more cost-effectively comply with RFID mandates from major retailers while also gaining significant ROI for themselves, in terms of greater security assurance, inventory reduction, lower transportation and labor costs, fewer stock-outs and more," said Philipp Jung, a principal with A.T. Kearney. Jung recently co-authored, "Synchronous and Secure Supply Chains: Application of RFID for Global Container Shipments," based on research interviews with logistics executives at 25 of the world's largest importers and exporters.
The program is deploying several types of active RFID tags, including Savi Technology's latest advanced Savi Tag ST-676 ISO Container Security Tag, which clamps onto the container's door and communicates the container's identification, contents, location, security status and interior environmental conditions to the network.
Today's announcement on the operational launch of Savi Networks culminates experience the past several years in a number of international government- and industry-driven programs validating the same kind of RFID technologies and software deployed by Savi Networks. Additionally, the RFID technologies and networked software used by Savi Networks are based on successful solutions provided the past decade for the U.S. Department of Defense, and more recently implemented by other international defense organizations, in which more than 1.5 million RFID-tagged shipments have been tracked.
About Savi Networks LLC
Savi Networks LLC operates a global information network initially based on active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) equipment and software in participating ports to provide users with information on the identity, location and status of their ocean cargo containers as they pass through such ports. Shippers, logistics service providers and transportation companies can connect to the network by installing compatible equipment at their own locations to further improve the efficiency, effectiveness and security of global supply chains. Savi Networks functions much like a telecommunications network service provider, and owns and operates the network's core infrastructure while providing information services, called SaviTrak(TM), on a per-container trip basis. In addition to active RFID, the network is built on an interoperable architecture designed to accommodate Automatic Identification Data Collection (AIDC) technologies, such as barcodes, passive RFID technologies such as EPC, and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) used to track ships and trucks that transport ocean containers.
About Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.), Inc.
Mitsui USA, incorporated in 1966, is engaged in import, export, offshore trade, and domestic wholesale. Aspiring to be "Your Global Business Partner(R)," the company is committed to be a global business creator and problem solver with distinct service capabilities by innovative combinations of Information Technology (IT), Financial Technology (FT), and Logistics Technology (LT). Mitsui USA's New York Headquarters has 12 divisions across industries. Other offices are located in Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Nashville, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. Its parent company, Mitsui and Co. Ltd., Japan, is one of the world's most diversified and comprehensive trading and service companies. Headquartered in Tokyo, it maintains a global network of 183 offices in 80 countries, and has 723 subsidiaries and associated companies worldwide.
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