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Volkswagen Tracks Vehicles with Active RFID
Article courtesy of Frontline RFID
Sept. 19, 2005 -- Volkswagen is using an active RFID solution to speed up vehicle pickup and improve customer service. The system, based on RFID technology, is used to quickly locate a car in the holding lot, which has more than 10,000 automobiles, and to track the vehicles' progress through a pre-delivery system.
Volkswagen's Autostadt (Auto-City) allows customers to see the latest trends in the auto industry, and to experience and select cars. Before customers can pick up their selected cars, a series of pre-delivery actions, such as washing, vacuuming, cleaning and quality control, are required. All work must be completed as quickly as possible. To expedite the process, Volkswagen deployed RFID technology to optimize the workflow for delivery and to improve the efficiency in tracking vehicles.
After the production line, every vehicle is equipped with an active tag that contains a unique identification number and pre-delivery tasks. The vehicle is then delivered to the holding lot. A van with an RFID reader identifies the targeted vehicle when approaching the car. After the pre-delivery tasks are completed, the status is written to the active tag.
After deploying the system, Volkswagen has reduced the vehicle delivery time and productivity has been improved by as much as four times. The solution also provides additional benefits such as improving quality control, electronic work-in-process tracking and automatic status update.