The Company

Container Centralen (CC) is Denmark and Netherland based pooling operator providing returnable transport item services for horticulture, retail, and logistics. CC Container, CC’s container type for flower transportation, is the single standard method for transporting flowers and plants throughout Europe. 3.5 million CC Containers are used by more than 23 000 customers in their logistics processes.

The Challenge

Container Centralen identified a need to manage the CC Containers more efficiently, specifically to prohibit poor quality counterfeit containers ending up into the CC pool circulation. At the same time, Container Centralen saw the need for more precise asset identification both for internal and their customers’ use.

The solution

UHF RFID was the selected technology for CC’s “Operation Chip It!” project, European wide RFID project that was launched together with IBM, Nordic ID and Confidex. In 2011, CC and its customers tagged the complete fleet of CC Containers.

Today, RFID helps CC to easily authenticate their assets and manage their pool. Additionally, CC’s customers in the horticultural supply chain are utilizing the technology for optimized logistics. RFID is used in combining the container ID and its content and by that way the receiving processes can be more automated, as an example. This asset management case study showcases the potential of RFID for inventory management and asset tracking.

The benefits

• Poor quality counterfeit containers ending up into the CC pool circulation can be prevented
• The reputation of Container Centralen (CC) as a provider of high-quality CC pool can be guaranteed
• Significant cost savings for Container Centralen and its customers