Application of RFID in the field of railway cold chain logistics

As we all know, railway transportation is suitable for long-distance and large-volume transportation of goods. Our country has a vast land area and the production and marketing areas of refrigerated food are far apart. This provides favorable external conditions for the development of cold chain logistics by railway. However, judging from the current situation, my country's railway refrigerated transportation volume is small, accounting for less than 1% of the total social demand for refrigerated transportation, and the advantages of railways in long-distance transportation have not been fully utilized.

This article deeply discusses the application of RFID technology in the field of railway cold chain logistics after the completion of the railway cold chain logistics center.

1. Main problems existing in the traditional model

1. The transportation process is not transparent

In order to reduce costs, third-party transportation companies may turn off the refrigeration machine during transportation and turn it on again when they are about to arrive at the destination. They cannot achieve a full cold chain. When the goods were delivered, although they were frozen well on the surface, the quality had actually deteriorated.

2. Stored procedures are not transparent

Due to cost considerations, warehousing companies may turn on the equipment during low power periods at night and shut down the equipment during the day, causing the temperature of the cold storage to fluctuate by more than 10°C and reducing food quality.

The traditional monitoring method is to use temperature recorders to measure. This method requires network and manual intervention to export the data, and the data is in the hands of the carrier and warehousing company. If the cargo owner wants to obtain the data, it will be difficult. At present, some large domestic pharmaceutical companies and food companies would rather invest large sums of money to build their own cold storage and transportation fleets than use the services of third-party cold chain logistics companies, and doing so is obviously extremely costly.

3. Invalid transportation

When the transportation company picks up the goods from the production company, if it cannot transport the goods with a pallet, workers need to move the products from the pallet to the refrigerated truck; after the goods arrive at the storage or retail enterprise, workers need to unload the goods from the refrigerated truck and put them on the pallet. This operation may easily cause damage to the packaging and affect the quality of the goods.

4. Low warehouse management efficiency

When entering or exiting the warehouse, paper documents need to be provided first and then entered into the computer manually, which is inefficient and has a high error rate.

5. Waste of human resources

Loading, unloading and palletizing of goods require a lot of labor.

2. Optimization strategy

1. Build a modern railway cold chain logistics center to provide a full range of services from transportation, warehousing, sorting, and distribution of goods.

2. Pallet application based on RFID technology, introducing it into the field of cold chain logistics (that is, electronic tags are built into the pallet). The realization of pallet electronic informatization is of great significance for improving the level of Logistics Management and reducing logistics costs.

3. Introduce the concept of pallet sharing. Pallets with embedded temperature labels are provided free of charge or leased to cooperative manufacturers to achieve consistent transportation of pallet operations in the railway cold chain logistics center, improve logistics efficiency and reduce costs.

3. Optimized cold chain logistics model

1.Storage

When warehousing, the basic information of the pallet of goods (including production date, type, weight, etc.) is bound and written through the handheld terminal.

2.Transportation

The goods are transported together with the pallet. The temperature sensor in the electronic tag can collect temperature information at any time and transmit it to the enterprise in real time through GPRS, so that the enterprise manager can grasp the temperature situation in the carriage while sitting in front of the computer. Once there is an abnormality, the system will Automatic alarm.

3. Warehousing

The forklift removes the goods and pallets together and places them on the conveyor line. The detection door is equipped with a fixed reader. When the RFID tags on the cargo boxes and pallets enter the reader's radiation range, they can be read. The staff only need to Check the basic information in front of the screen, no need to manually unbox and inspect the goods.

4. Departure from warehouse

(1) Distribution. After receiving the order, arrange the sorting of goods and update the RFID information of the pallet goods. The sorted goods will be loaded into new pallets, and the information will be bound to RFID tags. After acceptance by the enterprise, the pallets are brought back by the warehousing center.

(2) The company picks it up by itself. Workers unload the goods directly from the pallets and load them onto the transport vehicles (there is no need to provide pallets at this time).

4. Expected effects

1. Increase the transparency of cold chain management. Due to the unique code characteristics of RFID, it can be used to track goods throughout the cold chain.

2. Simplify the operation process and improve logistics efficiency. Embedding RFID tags on pallets and using automated equipment to send goods out of/into the warehouse not only reduces labor but also saves time.

3. Improve the quality of inventory. Cooperate with the warehouse management system to achieve real-time inventory and ensure accuracy.

4. Reduce costs and increase revenue. RFID is used for inventory management, which can reduce manual review work and ensure the safety and accuracy of the quality of stored goods. The sharing of pallets can reduce transportation costs and improve the competitiveness of railway cold chain logistics centers.

5. Conclusion

The application of RFID technology has brought about a turn for the informatization and intelligent management of cold chain logistics centers. As the technology continues to mature, RFID will be more widely used in the entire cold chain supply chain.