One of Australia’s successful RFID applications, the ‘Suncat’ Inventory Management solution, has been recognised with a High Commendation in Information Management in the 2007 Australian Supply Chain & Logistics Awards. ‘Suncat’ was jointly developed by BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance , Norwich Park, and Syscan International.
The Information Management Award is for significant achievement in the use of communications, information management, technology and e-business in any aspect of Supply Chain & Logistics Management, with particular regard to the added value produced by the achievement.
According to Scott Austin, President, Syscan International Australasia ‘the ingenuity of the application has the potential to totally change inventory management’.
“In the simplest of terms, Suncat automates the issuance process by establishing Chain of Custody records of transactions through associating SAP generated work orders with the inventory removed from the warehouse,” Austin said.
“The Suncat system has been running live since February 2007, with results to date showing strong business benefits. A full business review will be done in the next few months.”
The cooperation and specification between the Sunshine, BMA and CSC teams goes to the core of the success of the project.
Other BHP sites are also rolling out RFID asset management solutions for tool store management, vehicle management, container tracking and tyre management just to name few.
Products used for this project include some of the world’s leading RFID companies represented through Syscan, such as Alien Technologies, Zebra and a newcomer providing the direct stick metal RFID tags called Omni-id from the United Kingdom.
Syscan International, formerly Sunshine Technologies, was the 2006 winner in the same category of the Australian Supply Chain & Logistics Awards.