NOVEMBER 2019
to IoT at once, or make any infrastructural changes at all,” Jones emphasized. “We can gradually feed integrated pallets into customers’ pallet operations as new pallets are required, or even outfit older pallets with integrated components. Also, part of the initial appeal was understanding that, for most applications, it isn’t really necessary to track all or even most pallets. A sample set will do just fine.”
Tyson Steffens, also a principal at TPAI, stressed that the IoT solution will also benefit users of custom sized pallets and other applications where plastic pallets may not be a good fit.
Pallet Tracking Technologies
A number of technologies now exist for tracking pallets. Here are the main ones to consider for tracking pallets in the supply chain:
Barcode: The use of barcodes as part of a barcode system provides a low-cost, widely used approach to tracking. Simply put, the barcode, affixed to a reusable asset, provides a unique license plate. The barcode is scanned by the barcode reader, and that record is captured in a database. A barcode system includes labels, scanners, and related software. Barcode systems provide a relatively inexpensive approach to asset tracking compared to other more automated solutions. Barcode visibility is limited to scan points, however, which creates gaps in monitoring. Other considerations include barcode durability (adhesion to wood), the amount of data the barcode is required to store, and barcode compatibility with the supply chain application.
The Membership Drive Is On!
This year's membership drive is now underway, and as always, the competition will be intense.
In addition to valuable cash prizes, the winner now also receives the membership plaque, presented at the Annual Meeting. With the highly successful 2019 Annual Meeting now in the books, it is time to work toward 2020.
When you recruit new members, the entire WPA membership is the winner!
New members can join and pay on the website. Here is the link: www.westernpallet.org
Establishing an ROI for Reusable Asset Tracking: It Takes a Village
The future is at hand for affordable, effective tracking of pallets and other reusable packaging assets, according to participants of an expert panel at PACK EXPO Las Vegas this September. The session, Asset Technologies for Reusable Packaging, included: Shawn Stockman, Director of BusinessSolutions at ReturnCenter, who moderated; as well as Ernest Wood, Operations Manager at C2it; David Kalan, Vice President at Paxxal; and Gail Peter Wong, Product Manager at AT&T IoT.
For Wood, his biggest takeaway from the recently released RPA asset tracking technology white paper was the importance of involving all of the key stakeholders and mapping out a plan “before you start investing and then looking forward to seeing what are the unintended consequences of what you’re trying to do with it.”
Kalan remarked that he was enthusiastic about the availability of tracking technologies, as well as their potential for opportunities such as artificial intelligence. “So that was my big walk away from this paper,” he said. “Wow, it’s (tracking technology) here and it’s here now.”
“…From the very beginning, I naively thought that at the end of the day, we could put together a little decision tree about how do I decide which of these technologies to use,” added Stockman. After months of conversations and research, he came to realize that the process wasn’t linear. Various tracking technologies exist which overlap in their capabilities, as the white paper outlines.