Toppan Printing Co., Ltd. (hereafter Toppan Printing; head office: Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo; President & CEO: Naoki Adachi) and Toppan Cosmo, Inc. (hereafter Toppan Cosmo; head office: Minato Ward, Tokyo; President & CEO: Koji Iwasaki) have developed a UHF band RF tag-based metal pallet management system for housing manufacturers’ material logistics together with Senko Co., Ltd. (hereafter Senko; head office: Osaka; President and Representative Director: Yasuhisa Fukuda).
For this system, Senko carried out planning and operation, while Senko subsidiary Senko Information System Co., Ltd. performed development. Toppan Printing and Toppan Cosmo selected and provided the UHF band RF tags and reader/writer, constructed the system and provided operational support.
Leading the industry, Senko will introduce this system at 9 logistics center in Japan including its Atsugi Logistics Center, and full scale operation will begin in early October 2009.

This management system improves the efficiency of pallet management by attaching metal compatible UHF band RF tags to metal pallets managed by Senko. Specifically, the RF tags on the metal pallets are read when they are loaned out to equipment or component manufacturers from Senko’s logistics centers and when they are returned, or when they are sent out to or returned from construction sites. This enables management of when and where pallets are being used. Until now RF tags with a frequency band of 13.56MHz have been used but it takes time to read them because of the short communication distance. By using UHF band RF tags, it has become possible to read a maximum of 30 metal pallets at one time and the workload required for management can be reduced.

Metal pallets used at Senko (left) and a UHF band RF tag attached to a metal pallet (right) Copyright 2009 SENKO CO., LTD. / TOPPAN PRINTING CO., LTD.

Background to development
Logistics is of great importance for companies but warehouses, delivery vehicles, software and human resources are essential for carrying out efficient logistics activities. However, since it is difficult for each company to expand such resources, 3PL (Third Part Logistics) businesses that undertake integrated long- term operations such as optimal stock storage, allocation of vehicles and delivery are growing as the focus of the logistics industry.
Senko is advancing 3PL business concentrating mainly on 3 areas - distribution logistics, housing logistics and petrochemical and resin logistics. Senko is the industry leader in integrated 3PL business undertaking material logistics operations for housing manufacturers. Senko performs logistics operations involving the use of metal pallets at equipment and component manufacturers that are the trading partners of housing manufacturers, logistics centers and construction sites. Aiming to improve operational efficiency, in 2004 Senko led the industry by introducing and operating a metal pallet management system that used 13.56MHz band RF tags for Asahi Kasei Homes Corporation (Head office: Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo; President: Shingo Hatano). However, the communication distance of 13.56MHz band RF tags is short, meaning that each tag has to be read individually and reduction of the workload became a challenge.
To solve this problem, a metal pallet management system using UHF band RF tags has been developed for the 8000 or so pallets used at 9 logistics centers in Japan including the Atsugi Logistics Center. UHF band RF tags have a long communication distance of 2 to 3 meters and enable bulk reading of multiple tags at the same time.


Features of the system
- Improvement in the efficiency of RF tag reading and reduction of stock management and inventory workload
UHF band RF tags, which have a long communication distance of 2 to 3 meters, are attached to metal pallets, and the pallets are managed by using a handheld reader/writer. This means that RF tags for a maximum of 30 pallets can be read at one time and workload can be reduced for managing inventory and the sending out and return of pallets.
- Reduction of environmental burden
Through the dynamic management of metal pallets, appropriate pallet supply is possible and the use of energy in logistics can be reduced. A reduction in waste materials brought about by improvement of the collection and operation rates of the pallets also contributes to a reduction in environmental burden.


Structure of the system
- Number of sites where system is to be introduced: 9 locations in Japan
Atsugi Logistics Center (Atsugi, Kanagawa), Toda Logistics Center (Toda, Saitama), Kashiwa Logistics Center (Kashiwa, Chiba), Hamamatsu Logistics Center (Hamamatsu, Shizuoka), Chubu Logistics Center (Niwa-gun, Aichi), Kansai Logistics Center (Amagasaki, Hyogo), Okayama Logistics Center (Okayama, Okayama), Higashi Hiroshima Logistics Center (Higashi Hiroshima, Hiroshima), Fukuoka Logistics Center (Fukuoka, Fukuoka)
- Number of pallets used : Approximately 8000
- RF tags : Metal compatible UHF band (952~955MHz) RF tags manufactured by Toppan Printing
- Reader/writer: AT-870 handheld reader/writer manufactured by ATID


Future schedule
Senko will further expand the scope of RF tag-based management in housing logistics and build an operation process management system through a linkup with core systems. Toppan Printing and Toppan Cosmo will provide operational support for the system. Using the technology of this system, Toppan Printing and Toppan Cosmo will continue to develop and propose RF tag-based solutions for the logistics industry.

* This metal pallet management 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.