Toppan Printing Co., Ltd. (hereafter Toppan Printing; head office: Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo; President & CEO: Naoki Adachi) and Toppan Forms Co., Ltd. (hereafter Toppan Forms; head office: Minato Ward, Tokyo; President & CEO: Shu Sakurai) have developed a document storage box management system that uses UHF band RF tags. Full scale sales will be launched from October 1, 2009 targeting the trunk room industry, which offers document storage services, as well as financial institutions’ administration centers and companies’ archives.
This system is specifically for document storage boxes and is a UHF band RF tag solution system developed by Toppan Printing based on know-how concerning the inventory functions of "Easy Checkout", a piece of document management software developed by Toppan Forms. By introducing this system, it will be possible to considerably reduce the management burden for document storage boxes that contain companies’ stored documents and also to improve the efficiency of storage.
In an industry first, Toppan Printing and Toppan Forms will introduce this system to Teisoh Co., Ltd. (hereafter Teisoh; head office: Koto Ward, Tokyo; President: Taisuke Ota), a leader in the trunk room business, and operation will begin on October 1, 2009 at Teisoh’s Yachimata Warehouse No.2 in Chiba Prefecture.

Copyright 2009 TEISOH CO., LTD.

Background
Due to the introduction of the J-SOX and Financial Instruments and Exchange Laws in Japan, companies and government bodies are being required to implement internal control and bolster risk management. Therefore, the number of documents with a stipulated storage period and those that need to be stored for a certain period of time is increasing. Because considerable space is required for storing documents, the number of companies using document storage services such as those offered by trunk room operators is increasing. The scale of the market is estimated to exceed 60 billion yen.
Until now, document storage box management has been performed visually, with barcodes or using purpose built systems called automated rack warehouses. However, with visual checks or barcodes it is necessary to attend to every single document storage box, meaning a considerable workload. With automated rack warehouses, the workload is reduced but the significant cost is an issue. When managing visually or with barcodes there are restrictions on the methods of storage of the boxes such as requirements to create passageways for working. Therefore a new management system that solves these issues was required.

Features
- Speedy introduction and operation is possible
The document boxes with UHF band RF tags, special racks, devices, software and support functions necessary for management of document storage boxes are all provided together in a comprehensive all-in-one package.
The system can be applied for existing document storage boxes and storage shelves.
- Considerable reduction in initial introduction and operation costs
Compared with automated rack warehouses, the cost of initial introduction can be reduced by around 40% and the cost of operation for 10 years by around 90%.
- Management workload is reduced
With the introduction of this system, by introducing just 1 reader/writer to each location it is possible to read RF tags for around 600 boxes in 1 minute.
Therefore inventory for several hundred thousand boxes can be performed smoothly in a short time.
- Increase in the quantity of document storage boxes that can be permitted for storage
Because UHF band RF tags, which have a long and broad range transmission distance of 2 to 3 meters, are used, it is possible to reduce the number of pathways that have been required for management performed visually or with barcodes, and therefore to increase storage space.
At Teisoh, where the system will be introduced, it is predicted that it will be possible to increase the storage space to 1.5 times what it was previously.
- Convenient options
Options are also available such as data sharing between multiple locations using networks, functional restrictions depending by operation, location, or personnel, and functions to prevent unauthorized removal of items.

Price
- Basic package: 4.8 million yen per set
Breakdown
- Software license for 1 location
- UHF band reader writers (handy type, stationary type (2 antennas)) - one of each
- 500 UHF band RF tags samples for document storage box management
- UHF band RF tags for document storage boxes: 50 yen each (when 100,000 tags are purchased)

Sales targets
Fiscal 2009: 200 million yen
Fiscal 2010: 1 billion yen

*This system will be displayed in the Toppan Group booth at Auto-ID Expo 2009 (Organizer: Japan Automatic Identification Systems Association; Venue: Tokyo Big Sight) held from Wednesday September 16 to Friday September 18, 2009.