Gulf States Toyota, a regional Toyota distributor for 145 dealers, is using an active RFID system to help track and process the more than 190,000 cars that flow through its facility annually.
The company has deployed a real-time locating system from WhereNet Corp. and IBM Global Services to locate new Toyotas at its 84-acre processing center in Houston. The system has helped reduce processing time and labor costs, and improved customer service.
The system enables Gulf States Toyota to track and manage the processing of every new vehicle, as well as to conduct flow analysis for continuous improvement and optimized throughput and quality.
"Continuous improvement is the Toyota way. So we are pleased to have the IBM/WhereNet vehicle tracking and management system which will help us serve the dealers in our region more efficiently," said Gary Cole, senior manager for planning and logistics at Gulf States Toyota.
The company originally approached WhereNet to help solve a capacity problem. With volumes going up, the distribution facility was operating at capacity.
"Instead of trying to build out, they wanted to get more utilization out of the current facility," said Gary Latham, WhereNet's director of industry marketing and business development for automotive.
When new vehicles arrive via rail car at the processing center, each is assigned an active RFID WhereTag transmitter that is "married" to the vehicle identification number. The tag remains on the vehicle until it has been customized according to the buyer's specifications and is ready to ship.
The system uses business rules combined with capacity constraint information to direct work based on model types, customization processes, and order priority by dealer. Gulf States can dynamically shift its processing operations to respond to unexpected disruptions in its own facility, or to demand shortages in particular regions.
IBM led the project, which included meshing business process consulting and back-end integration with WhereNet's RTLS architecture, including 40 WhereLAN access points and 74 WherePort devices. These devices trigger the tags to emit a signal that automatically records such information as arrival, dwell, and departure time of the vehicle without human intervention. Employees also use hand-held devices (from Intermec Technologies) to read the tags.
Gulf States expects a complete return on investment in less than one year through reduced labor costs, reduced on-site dwell time and better throughput, and higher quality vehicle processing.
"We have partnered with IBM on several projects in recent years and are pleased to formally announce our partnership," said Matt Armanino, senior vice president for corporate development at WhereNet. "This partnership will help fuel expansion of our growing customer ecosystem in the automotive industry and help us accelerate our growth in emerging markets like the aerospace industry."
www.wherenet.com
www.ibm.com/services
About Brian Albright
email: balbright@advanstar.com
