Management truck tire information in logistic industry using RFID technology

Logistics plays pivotal role in the supply chain as well as in developing countrypsilas competitive edge. According to Thailand Department of Land Transportation report in 2006, there were 848,843 registered trucks which are key driver of cargo transportation. It is apparent that business sector becomes very competitive, and thus, fleet operators have to minimize their operating cost in order to edge at its competitor. Other thing being equal, two variables affect operating cost. First is fuel expenses, which is world commodity and market fluctuation is inevitable. Truck tires are another contribution to the operating cost. Unlike the fuel, the truck tires can be retreaded and, hence, the operating cost can be reduced. Effective tire management can prolong its life span significantly before renewal. Software, addressing tire pressure, temperature and tire types, would provide tire management solution. In this paper, we present the effectiveness of deploying the RFID system in acquiring information for tire management via testing RFID systems in one tire re-treading company. We analyze the trade off between operating time and system implementation cost. The performance of RFID on the different tire types is also studied. Last but not least, we propose a RFID system configuration to minimize data acquisition time.