When Novo Packhouse in Paarl built two new cold stores which used mobile pallet racking, Farsoft was called to devise a solution. In conjunction with Appsource, it implemented an RFID solution that enables real-time stock location management at the mobile racking cold stores.

Appsource MD André Swart explained, “RFID Tags were positioned at each pallet location within the store and an RFID reader was mounted on the fork carriage of each Linde reach truck. A total of 1 600 locations were tagged. The solution allows the operator to select between placing a pallet into a position or removing it.

“Thus the operator can scan the pallet ID from the reach truck cabin and when the pallet is placed in an available location, the RFID tag, along with the Pallet ID is sent to ViTrax over the wireless network.”

In this way, ViTrax knows exactly where each item is located in the warehouse. When the pallet is picked, the storage location is again identified via RFID and the pallet is logged out of the host system. So, not only is the pallet space freed up physically, but also within the system itself in real-time.

Swart detailed the benefits as: 100% stock location accuracy; time saved during picking and putting away tasks; an overall increase in efficiency for both management and operators.

Farsoft business manager Gerhard Nel said this was definitely revolutionary technology in the fresh produce industry.