ODIN's Self-Inventorying SMART Container® Breaks New Ground in Automated RFID Tracking
Posted by Patrick Sweeney on Mon, Apr 27, 2009
Complete solution deploys in under a minute and provides item level visibility of assets from anywhere in the world
ORLANDO, FL and ASHBURN, VA - April 27, 2009 - ODIN, the leader in the physics of RFID solutions for healthcare, aerospace, financial services, and government agencies, introduces the ODIN self-inventorying SMARTContainer® - a first in automated technology for the tracking of critical assets. The SMART Container goes beyond basic security and location tracking for a given container. In fact, it provides detailed visibility of items inside the container via passive UHF RFID and can transmit item level data to any ERP system over various communication mediums, to include satellite, cellular, and active RFID. Innovated for specific and sensitive Department of Defense (DoD) applications, the ODIN self-inventorying SMART Container allows users to locate, track and assess the status of materials critical to military operations or imperative to the commercial supply chain.
The ODIN self-inventorying SMART Container was initially conceived to close the gap in the supply chain where items were put into closed containers. It has been refined over the past several years to help fulfill the Office of Secretary of Defense (OSD) order to suppliers to provide low cost passive RFID (pRFID) tags on assets shipped to the government, and provide visibility from "the factory to the foxhole". The ODIN self-inventorying SMART Container automatically reads the tagged items from suppliers as they are loaded or unloaded from shipping containers of various sizes and configurations. The items can also be inventoried from anywhere in the world with the click of the mouse. The SMART Container depends on ODIN's patented Blackbird technology to provide unparalleled visibility, security, accuracy and efficiency.
"The SMART Container is reinventing RFID. It is the first solution that not only closes the biggest gap in the supply chain, but is deployable and configurable in under a minute," said Patrick J. Sweeney II, founder of ODIN. "Always knowing not only the location, but the contents of military containers down to the unit level at any point in transit is a major breakthrough in supply chain management for Military and Defense, and other industries that are soon to follow. In military parlance, the SMART Container is a UAV for logisticians."
The ODIN self-inventorying SMART Container in the Field
A blend of technologies including active and passive RFID, WiFi, Satellite and GPS provides an "always-on" connection from a warehouse, from the deck of a ship in the middle of the ocean, or from the mountains of Afghanistan. Retrofitted and working in just minutes with existing supply chain networks, the ODIN self-inventorying SMART Container can easily be installed in the nearly one million existing DoD containers around the globe. To learn more about ODIN's SMART Container solution, watch this video:
Currently in use with the U.S. Navy, ODIN self-inventorying SMART Container technology has proven to solve critical in-field challenges regarding the tracking and location of critical assets that travel in a variety of containers. Previous active RFID (aRFID) systems attempts at total asset visibility (TAV) within standard shipping containers did not accurately represent the contents of the container.
The ODIN self-inventorying SMART Container is helping:
- Decrease unnecessary asset ordering (duplication) due to loss of tracked assets,
- Reduce time simply looking for assets and time wasted manually recording the movement and location of assets therefore impairing mission readiness,
- Increasing accuracy of command level visibility to the location of critical assets of all types, and all times.