We have relaunched: What's new at ZDNet Asia?

ZDNet / News / Communications / Story

S'pore Nissan facility goes RFID

By Vivian Yeo, ZDNet Asia on July 6, 2009

Summary

update Nissan's exclusive Singapore distributor cuts car storage and retrieval time from 24 to two hours using radio frequency identification in new integrated hub.

Topics

car, chairman, inventory management, nissan motor co. ltd., radio, rfid, rfid chip, singapore, storage, wireless

Events

Microsoft MSDN/Developer Event
25 Mar 2010

One Marina Boulevard, Microsoft Singapore

IT Architect Regional Conference Singapore 2010
20 - 21 Apr 2010

Singapore Management University, Singapore

The Internet Show 2010
21-22 Apr 2010

Suntec Singapore

update SINGAPORE--A new Nissan hub is tapping radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to help cut time for identification and retrieval of new cars, from an average of 24 hours to two hours.

Located in the Western part of Singapore, the new TC Nissan Hub operated by Tan Chong International is believed to be the first RFID-enabled automotive facility in the country. Tan Chong International is the exclusive local distributor of Nissan vehicles.

Tan Chong's project was awarded a grant of S$120,000 (US$82,632) from Singapore's National RFID Centre (NRC) earlier this year, under the NRC's S$4.5 million (US$3.1 million) RFID Innovation Platform initiative. To date, the Centre has funded 11 projects to the tune of S$1.25 million (US$860,750), an NRC spokesperson told ZDNet Asia.

Boon Swan Foo, chairman of NRC steering committee and executive chairman of Exploit Technologies, said the RFID application projects do not necessarily have to be on a gigantic scale such as Wal-Mart's.

"The possibilities for new applications are left up to the creativity of the beholder [and] TC Nissan Hub is an excellent example of how such creativity can be exercised by innovative RFID players to benefit both the consumers and the company," Boon said Monday at the hub's official opening here.

Singapore's Acting Minister for Information, Communication and the Arts Lui Tuck Yew, lauded the project as "a good demonstration of local RFID technology capability". The systems integrator, applications developer and device manufacturer were Singapore companies, he noted.

"Newer", faster cars in one-stop facility
Samuel Lee, director of Tan Chong Realty, the company's real-estate arm, said the company had invested S$40 million (US$27.5 million) into the new site, which integrates storage, pre-delivery inspection, parts warehouse and delivery facilities.

RFID tagging system in TC Nissan Hub
Source: Tan Chong International

Prior to the setting up of the hub, new vehicles would have to be manually located in storage locations, sent for installations at a separate venue--after which they would be returned to the storage site--and subsequently delivered to the showroom for customer pick-ups. The point-to-point transportation, identification and retrieval of these vehicles can "easily clock" some 24 hours to complete, Lee explained, in an interview with ZDNet Asia.

With the proximity of various Nissan facilities, as well as the RFID-enabled car inventory management system, vehicle identification and retrieval can be shortened to two hours, he said. Mileage is also reduced by 90 percent, from an average of 50 kilometer (km) to less than 5km.

The use of a Japanese modular parking system also allows cars to not only be retrieved quickly, but also helps minimize--if not eliminate--scratches and dents.

At the hub, each new car is tagged with an RFID chip, which captures information such as the year the car was manufactured, its engine serial number, color and type, and the name of the customer who made the booking. There are also corresponding active readers on each parking lot known as "lot tags". The hub has 10 wireless readers used to track vehicles, including cars that need to undergo installations for additional features such as sports rims and alarm systems.

RFID technology is not a new proponent in Nissan's operations. According to the RFID Journal, Nissan North America announced in 2006 it would employ RFID in its Canton, Miss. factory to track auto parts and facilitate new vehicles rolling off the assembly line. The automaker also participated in a trial to improve the safety of Japanese schoolchildren in Yokohama, Japan.

Talkback

Add your opinion

In order to post a comment, you need to be registered. (Sign In or register below)

Post your comment
Transform your business interactions with real-time voice, video and telepresence solutions.
Tech Vendor: Cisco

ZDNet Asia Live

#Cisco #Cloud Cloud on ZDNet Asia: Aussie university joins Cisco cloud ยท Early-adopter criminals embrace cloud... http://bit.ly/d93C8S #TCN

1 hour 2 minutes ago by thetechgang on topsy

www.3w.com.au has seen it's outsourced IT Contracting Business in Manila grow at 4 times the rate of its traditional Australian Based...

7 hours 40 minutes ago by brucemills on Companies' outsourcing spend to increase

RT @3wconsulting: Whitepaper from http://3W.com.au "Outsourcing Your IT Requirements to Philippines" now on @zdnetaustralia & @zdnetasia http://ow.ly/1oY9f

Whitepaper from http://3W.com.au "Outsourcing Your IT Requirements to Philippines" now on @zdnetaustralia & @zdnetasia http://ow.ly/1oYbA

Whitepaper from http://3W.com.au "Outsourcing Your IT Requirements to Philippines" now on @zdnetaustralia & @zdnetasia http://ow.ly/1oYbz

Zdnetasia.com Estimated Worth $178,365 USD. Daily Ad Revenue:$244 USD, Daily Views:81,445 Pages... - http://www.haplog.com/www.zdneta...

recently estimated website net worth of zdnetasia.com - http://www.haplog.com/www.zdneta...

17 hours 33 minutes ago by haplog on topsy

When I create an event, I click on an approximate time during the day when I want the event to occur, then I click "edit event detail...

1 day 9 minutes ago by bessellbrowne on Google Calendar gets 'smart' rescheduling

ipads break alott i had one it broke three times in the month i had it so i got rid of the damn thing id just go for the laptop Top Grade...

1 day 11 minutes ago by bessellbrowne on Report: 'Hundreds of thousands' of iPad preorders

There are a number of websites that still require Internet Explorer to view and IE for Mac Stinks (it is really ies4osx which is the Wind...

1 day 13 minutes ago by bessellbrowne on Microsoft: Only minor tweaks in Windows 7 SP1

The receivers don't transmit back to the satellite. Unless there is a phone line attached to the receiver, they don't have any wa...

1 day 15 minutes ago by bessellbrowne on Apple to join the geolocation craze?

"Lead Cognos BI Developer Insurance - Jobs - ZDNet Asia" http://bit.ly/bRcxOG

1 day 10 minutes ago by rhrcognos on topsy

whatever little understanding I have we 'll only progress toward end of the world if we use HPCs to lenthen life of human being. Huma...

1 day 22 minutes ago by abhi32002@gmail.com on High computing promises elixir of life

Thanks for the knowledgeable article on SDDs. Allas...when all this reasearch will happen in Indian Universities. Hope the new bill on Fo...

1 day 35 minutes ago by abhi32002@gmail.com on APAC HPC users eye solid-state drives

It was a good article. This brings a good opportunity for Indian IT firms to come up with new solutions in this field. HPC can become a b...

1 day 53 minutes ago by abhi32002@gmail.com on High computing most-wanted job in Asia

COL KR DHARMADHIKARY(RETD) its very late to reply the link, but if it is still alive and looking for opportunity, i would like to know th...

1 day 51 minutes ago by deb021280 on Education takes off in rural India, helped by PCs

It was just a matter of time until google was marginalised anyway. I'm afraid this will be forgotten in China very quickly. Still, it...

2 days 55 minutes ago by robinsmith on Report: Google to leave China on April 10

High performance computing (HPC) most-wanted job in Asia http://bit.ly/9vFC3i (via @zdnetasia) #singapore

He doesn't care if her shoes are of glass, All he wants to see is a huge rack and nice a*s. Sleeping beauty's not awoken by true ...

2 days 24 minutes ago by warlowdavies on One pair of 3D glasses to rule them all

RT @zdnetasia: EMC COO, Pat Gelsinger, on bridging gaps in the organization and its cloud ambitions in Asia. (cont) http://tl.gd/i5jjd

EMC COO, Pat Gelsinger, on bridging gaps in the organization and its cloud ambitions in Asia. http://bit.ly/9etOZW

Asian SMBs need to pay more attention to disaster recovery planning http://bit.ly/bDet08 via @zdnetasia

Asian SMBs need to pay more attention to disaster recovery planning http://bit.ly/bDet08

[TECH] URL Shorteners slow Web redirection. - http://bit.ly/bySnWK @zdnetasia

URL shorteners are great but they can slow web redirection & you pray it would never go down http://bit.ly/bySnWK via @zdnetasia

Temasek Holdings eyeing tech stocks, indicating optimistic outlook on IT sector. http://bit.ly/aM7VwU

URL shorteners slow Web redirection. http://bit.ly/bySnWK

Chinese agencies cry foul over Google. http://bit.ly/by6rwV

all of sg's isps have been practising compulsory invisible proxy for all home subscribers at their backend since many years back alre...

3 days 34 minutes ago by melvinchia on Web filters mean bad news for business

it is not to good for china.
Proactol

3 days 19 minutes ago by nathonastle on Chinese ad partners beg Google for information

IT security insiders rob casinos of $50K http://is.gd/aPIKR

3 days 51 minutes ago by rebelk0de on topsy

Very good explanation of JMX

4 days 24 minutes ago by Babith B on Managing applications with JMX

The reaction to a report issued Tuesday by Flurry Analytics managed to completely overlook some interesting news--the Android-based Motorola Droid outsold the original iPhone over the same period of time following their respective launches--to focus instead on the sales numbers for the Nexus One.

4 days 28 minutes ago by lonemavericks on diggs

Another ZTE story....

4 days 30 minutes ago by Moderate Your Greed on Philippines opens bid for final 3G license

Keep up with ZDNet Asia

Linkedin Join our network

RSS Feeds Subscribe now

Newsletters Subscribe today

Twitter Follow us

Inside ZDNet Asia

Special Report: Tech Focus in 2010

Latest Videos on Tech Industry

Insight: Interviews with Newsmakers

Search for over 15,000 Tech Jobs in Asia

Find your Tech answers in TechGuides

IT Library: Over 60,000 IT papers at your fingertips

Download IT Priorities 2010 Report