RFID poised to change the face of storage and handling

SA misses out on global trend to rail ALAN PEAT WHILE THE South African warehousing industry tends to follow global trends by about 5-10 years, there are certain trends which have already impacted on the local scene, or will be part of the vocabulary of the industry in the near future. This is according to Martin Bailey, one of the country’s leading logistics academics for a large number of years, and now MD of the international logistics operation, Industrial Logistics Systems (ILS). “Warehousing worldwide is centralising big time,” he told FTW, “largely because the transport infrastructure is getting bigger and better.” So now it’s logical to warehouse goods in Johannesburg, for example, with the goods being able to be moved quickly and easily to Durban, or other destinations around the country. Warehousing in itself is also following a parallel course along the “bigger and better” path, Bailey added. Third party warehousing, the outsourcing of the function, is also a current trend. “The ‘biggies’ in industry can afford to have their own warehousing,” Bailey said, “but it’s just not economically feasible for the smaller companies.” There is also a significant international trend which SA, under the present conditions, might find difficult to follow, according to Bailey’s thinking. “There is an international move to rail, especially in the US and the UK and parts of Europe,” he said. “This because rail is faster and more efficient, creating the new demand for warehouses to be situated next to rail sidings.” But this is currently anything but the trend in SA. Why? “Because Spoornet is stupid,” said Bailey. Warehousing is also stacking higher to reduce costs, and using more electronically-controlled handling equipment. “This,” said Bailey, “means less people doing the same job.” In terms of “technicalities”, Bailey suggested that the advances in equipment sophistication had reached a plateau. “There has been nothing really “new” for about 10-years,” he said. But just on the horizon is one new factor which will change the face of cargo handling and tracking in the warehouse industry. That’s RFID – radio frequency identification. “All warehousing is going that way,” said Bailey, “using transponders attached to each consignment to track the goods. “As the tags get cheaper, this will eventually be on every product.” Bailey also points to rapid improvement in the information technology (IT) systems used to control warehousing operations and administration. “Software is getting better, and the whole of systems operations is also getting bigger, better, faster. “We are now in a warehousing world where more functional systems can do more things - making operations more and more efficient as time goes on.”