newsworthy
HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL INC. HAS ROLLED
out a shipment-tracking solution for high-value and
perishable goods, adding another page to its growing
catalog of products for retail and supply chain management operations.
Honeywell said its “Connected Freight” system could
help users reduce damage, loss, and theft by providing
real-time location and status details for critical freight in
transit, whether it’s moving by road, rail, or sea.
The system works by attaching sensor tags to pallets
or individual packages, collecting their signals through a
mobile gateway placed inside
a truck or shipping container, and transmitting the
data over cellular networks
to a cloud-based platform,
Honeywell said. Users can
monitor the variables that
most affect their cargo, such
as temperature, shock, tilt,
humidity, pressure, or intrusion detection, Honeywell
said.
Technology companies
like BlackBerry Ltd. and
Roambee Corp. also provide
asset-monitoring tags that
bolt onto trucks and containers to track data over
wireless sensors. Honeywell
said its system is different because it collects data from a
handful of relatively inexpensive sensor tags—tags that
are priced so low they are considered disposable, Sameer
Agrawal, vice president of supply chain solutions at
Honeywell’s Safety & Productivity Solutions unit, said in
an interview. The system then routes the data through a
reusable “smart gateway” that contains enough computing power to perform “edge” data-processing functions
and alert local warehouse workers or truck drivers of
immediate problems, he said.
LOOKING FOR CONNECTIONS
The Internet of Things (Io T)-enabled system was orig-
inally developed by chipmaker Intel Corp. to track the
movement of high-value supplies through its corporate
supply chain, Intel Corporate Vice President CJ Bruno
told reporters at an online press event last month.
Honeywell then brought the system to market through a
collaboration with Intel and third-party logistics service
providers Deutsche Post DHL Group, Expeditors Inc.,
and Kuehne + Nagel International AG.
The tags are used to protect high-value goods such
as medical devices, precision equipment, high-tech-nology items, and perishable goods, Agrawal said. But
Honeywell’s long-term
vision is to extend that model
to a much broader market by
driving down the cost of sensors through mass production of “smart labels” that
can be affixed to individual
items of far lower value, he
said.
“The Internet of Things
can play a significant role in
the connected supply chain,
but [we] need to figure out
the places where we want
to connect and figure out
why we want to connect,”
Agrawal said. “Today’s con-
sumers are ordering prod-
ucts off of Amazon, and they
can get shipping and tracking information easily. It’s
a lot harder for businesses to get similar information
for their shipments, and the accuracy is severely
limited.”
Morris Plains, N.J.-based Honeywell entered the
supply chain management market when it acquired
data-capture equipment supplier Intermec Inc. in 2012.
It has steadily expanded its presence since then, acquir-
ing material handling automation specialist Intelligrated
in 2016 and announcing a partnership with Intel earlier
this year to develop Io T solutions for retail and logistics
applications.
—Ben Ames
Honeywell launches freight-tracking
tool for high-value goods
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