Application of RFID technology in refined oil distribution industry

Competition in the modern energy industry is extremely fierce, especially the newly introduced relevant policies that have made companies qualified to wholesale refined oil products become the focus of social attention. Facing the irreversible global environment - crude oil tension, how to establish an advanced and reasonable energy industry supply chain in an international environment that is in line with China's national conditions is a question that domestic energy companies need to think about. As the oil distribution company at the physical bottom of the energy supply chain, it is even more responsible for collecting information and sharing it with upper-level node companies in real time.

At present, it is very common to apply RFID technology to supply chains abroad. As early as the 1960s, various research organizations led by the MIT Automatic Identification Center were working on this aspect, especially when the retail giant Wal-Mart announced that starting in January 2005, it would require its 100 suppliers to After the announcement of the limited-time adoption of RFID tags by manufacturers, the world is particularly optimistic about the application prospects of RFID in the supply chain, and related technologies are also being continuously improved.

02The necessity and advantages of applying RFID technology

According to project experience and available information, the domestic application supply chain is still very immature. Although the application of supply chain thinking in the petroleum industry has begun as early as the 1990s, there are still many problems in the supply chain of the domestic petroleum industry. One of the important problems is the low degree of informatization of node enterprises and the lack of information communication. The lack of information technology support has affected the systematization, integration, and seamlessness of the entire supply chain construction and management. For example, the customer relationship management information input of the refined oil terminal did not realize automatic collection of data, and the electronic payment system was not established, etc. The direct consequences are increased inventory, low work efficiency, and serious oil loss.

The existing management methods in China are still stuck in the manual recording and invoicing stage. It is believed that the inefficiency and economic losses caused are very serious. At present, the main identification method in China is still realized by laser scanning barcodes. This method has shown many incompatibility in the process of rapid economic development, such as the amount of information is too small and the efficiency is too low. If such an identification scheme is directly transplanted to the current energy industry, it will definitely cause the same problem. Therefore, a new identification method with fast identification speed, large information storage capacity, and better security is a practical need, and RFID technology has the above advantages. The use of RFID technology has the following application values for oil distribution companies and the entire energy industry supply chain: 1. Improve work efficiency; 2. Reduce inventory; 3. Curb oil theft, etc.

03 Discussion of distribution plan

3.1 Traditional distribution plan

The traditional delivery process is relatively simple. The delivery route of the delivery person is relatively fixed. The delivery person and driver drive to each distribution point, visually observe the reading of the flow meter, calculate the accounts payable, and the transaction is completed after payment, invoicing and recording. At the end of the working day, return to the distribution center for settlement. The administrator checks the cash amount and bill, and after confirming that they are correct, the work is completed.

This delivery plan has the following disadvantages:

(1) The direct consequences of manual entry of information are low efficiency and error-prone;

(2) The delivery route is fixed, which easily creates an alliance between the delivery person and the customer. Causing adverse economic losses to the company;

(3) Because the total amount of oil in the tank truck is not clear, and there are no corresponding technical measures to ensure that the amount of oil produced is consistent with the money recovered. Leading to serious losses of illegal oil products.

(4) As the underlying physical node of the energy industry supply chain, refined oil distribution companies shoulder the important task of data collection. It is difficult to achieve timely sharing of data with traditional solutions. Causing inefficiency throughout the supply chain.

3.2 Discussion of new solutions based on RFID technology

This program is based on the entire energy industry supply chain as a background, and is a research topic focusing on the physical underlying node of the supply chain---the distribution process of refined oil distribution companies.

3.2.1 RFID system technical support:

The frequency used by the system's reader/writer is high frequency 13.56MHz. The reader/writer at this frequency is more stable, and the price factor has little impact on the system. The hardware components of the reader/writer are mainly microcontroller, radio frequency chip, antenna, power supply, display circuit and input circuit, etc. The microcontroller chosen is ATMEL's AT89S52 microcontroller. Its number of I/O ports, EEPROM capacity and support for online programming have made many designers choose this chip, which also makes the information in this area more complete. The radio frequency chip chosen is the MIFARE 500 chip of PHILIPS Company. This chip is the most powerful chip in the 13.56MHZ frequency band. The communication protocol it supports is ISO-14443A. This protocol is safe and simple. It is suitable for systems with high security and short communication distance.

This reader/writer controls the radio frequency chip through the microcontroller to generate a high-frequency electromagnetic field to drive the antenna. The power supply and control information affect the passive tags within the range through spatial coupling. After the tag receives the energy of the magnetic field, it will The returned information is sent back to the reader/writer through the space magnetic field, thereby completing communication.

3.2.2 Distribution workflow:

(1) At the beginning of the working day, the delivery person goes to the distribution center to receive the card A and the mobile storage device, and follows the administrator's instructions to the designated tank truck to start work. The mobile storage device records the customer list, delivery tasks and driving routes that the delivery person will deliver today. The delivery person inserts the mobile storage device into the card reader of the designated vehicle, and then reads the card A in front of the on-board reader. The LCD screen of the reader displays the first customer name (Customer A) and detailed information. The driver drove there.

(2) When arriving at customer A's location, with the customer's permission, the delivery person and the customer use their respective cards to swipe their cards in front of the on-board reader/writer at the same time. After confirmation by the reader/writer, the solenoid valve can be opened and the oil valve can be opened. When the customer indicates that the oil delivery can be completed, the solenoid valve is closed, and relevant information such as the oil volume and total price of the delivery is recorded on the flow meter. After the delivery person presses the settlement and print document button, the card reader automatically prints out the transaction amount and other information for settlement. This refueling mission is completed.

(3) The delivery person completes the refueling task for the day according to the same process.

(4) The delivery person returns to the distribution center with the vehicle, takes out the mobile storage device of the card reader, and hands it in to the administrator along with the personal card at the same time.

(5) The administrator reads the contents of the mobile storage device into the server and Stores them, and at the same time writes the new delivery route and customer list into the mobile storage device. And enter the next day's delivery code on the delivery person's card. This code will only be read by one of all tank trucks.

(6) At the beginning of the second working day, the delivery person received a new card and mobile storage device, read the day's delivery plan on the designated tank truck, and started a new delivery process.

3.2.3 This solution has the following advantages over traditional distribution solutions:

(1) The data entry of the entire distribution process and settlement process adopts automatic entry method, which greatly improves work efficiency and reduces human errors.

(2) Due to the confidentiality of the delivery plan, the delivery staff cannot know the delivery information of the day before delivery, thus avoiding possible cheating.

(3) Although it is still impossible to know the total amount of oil in the car, during the settlement process, the customer and the delivery person must confirm at the same time to complete the refueling process, and the entire process is machine-operated, which greatly reduces false accounting and manual calculations. The probability of errors occurring.

(4) Since the entire process uses electronic storage, the oil product distribution company at the bottom of the supply chain can share data with the upper node company. If necessary, GPRS can be used for real-time data transmission. Such a highly transparent supply chain maximizes its effectiveness and is of great help in reducing inventory.

04Conclusion

This article hopes to successfully apply supply chain ideas to the energy industry through rigorous and objective discussions, use RFID technology to build a data collection and distribution management platform for oil distribution companies at the physical bottom of the energy supply chain, and study and solve oil product problems. Problems related to the delivery process. This solution not only solves the above thorny problems, but also brings the management level of the domestic oil industry in line with international standards. While solving common problems, it can also specifically solve special domestic problems, such as oil loss due to human factors. Improving the service quality of enterprises will enable the domestic oil industry to take an advantage in international competition.