US - Visitors to the ProMat 2011 exhibition in Chicago later this month will have an opportunity to see the very latest cutting edge technology entering the supply chain. Three separate suppliers are working together to modernise the handling and tracing of freight within the warehouse environment and beyond.

Egemin, epcSolutions and iGPS are working together to deliver the warehouse of the future with the most technologically advanced and flexible tracking system available today. The three companies each specialise in their own fields, Egemin Automation Inc has produced automatic guided vehicles (AGV’s) since 1976, iGPS operates the world’s first pallet rental service providing shippers and receivers with lightweight, 100 percent recyclable all-plastic pallets with embedded RFID tags and epcSolutions provide the management platform for the radio frequency identification (RFID) of the cargo position.

Utilising each others speciality the three can offer a system in which a pallet, embedded with a GS1 standard RFID tag is loaded onto an automatic guided vehicle (AGV) and dispatched to take products to a put-away location or immediately into an awaiting truck or railcar. The unerring accuracy of RFID ensures the right product was picked up and that it was put into the correct location thus avoiding incorrect deliveries and ‘missing’ freight.

Attendees visiting the Egemin ProMat Booth, #2347, will see how easily an operator can interrupt automatic AGV operations, move product manually, and then place the forklift back into fully automatic laser guidance mode. iGPS operates the world’s first pallet rental service providing shippers and receivers with lightweight, 100 percent recyclable all-plastic pallets with embedded RFID tags. iGPS say their pallet is also a major advance in supply chain hygiene providing a platform that is easily cleaned, will not absorb fluids that can lead to contamination and never requires treatment with toxic pesticides and fungicides.

Since 2004, with over 200 implementations a month and thousands of installations of epcSolutions RFID software, titled ‘Any Asset, One Network™ RFID’ is an asset management platform which allows communication between things themselves, at any time, any place, plus rapid connectivity for everyone and everything involved in the supply chain.

The three companies say by using advanced robotics technology, global pallet pooling and industry-leading radio frequency identification (RFID) software, the warehouse of tomorrow is rapidly gaining momentum.