The distribution of finished vehicles from factory to customer usually involves transportation by railway through several countries. In order to guarantee reliability, regularity and economic efficiency, real-time information is needed to manage the vehicle movements and to allocate supportive resources when needed.
With RFID tags on each vehicle, and terminals equipped with long-range RFID systems to update the EDI system with identities of the transported vehicles, optimisation and physical management of the stock is ensured. Each step during the transport of vehicles, from the ordering party to the final destination can be better managed.
Before the vehicle can be delivered to the end user, each individual vehicle needs to move between different processing areas for inspection, services related to the technical inspection and aesthetic preparation. In addition, a number of local activites will be performed, such as installation of accessories and equipment, repairment and reconditioning. In all these process, automatic identification of the vehicle is needed.
Using RFID for all of these activites facilitates, through a centralised set of data, the work to follow the vehicle at each step in the transportation process.