The BizSpeed website now has a dedicated section on integrating barcode and RFID data collection into wholesale nursery management systems. We outline how RFID is integrated into Knox Nursery’s Grower’s Own system (GO) and how we can implement RFID modules in existing ERP/nursery management systems.

RFID is integral to nursery management at Grower’s Own because tracking production and inventory with barcodes is difficult – barcodes get covered with dirt, water and leaves, barcodes can be too far away to provide a clean line of site and alignment of barcodes is required on conveyors for shipping.

We are particularly excited to announce that we will be releasing a portable RFID inventory locator. This is a rolling cart with a battery to power a fixed Motorola XR400 RFID reader, a boom mounted Motorola antenna and a touch screen computer to see/record inventory location. The system will allow growers to roll the cart down an isle and have the reader capture all RFID tags (on trays) and their location. The output can be sent back to any inventory system so customers will know exactly where inventory is located.

Inventory location tracking is particularly difficult in a greenhouse because growing trays get moved during production and young plants look alike – so pickers have a very difficult and manual effort to find and confirm pick ticket items.

The complete GO system includes:

Core modules:

• Sales Order Entry
• Production, Seed, & Materials Planning
• Production Management
• Purchasing
• Inventory
• Shipping

Task sub-modules:

• GO Weigh Seed Management (Scale Based Inventory)
• GO SeedSow Production Line Interface (Controls production line)
• GO Label Print & Apply Labeling & RFID Encoding (Production Labels & RFID Encoding)
• GO Ship Packing Station, Featuring real-time FedEx Label Printing  (Validates shipment using RFID and prints FedEx label)
• GO Mass Data Collect Portal (Allows scanning of full beds in seconds)

The GO Mobile Computer modules are (Using Symbol/Motorola devices such as MC-9090 RFID) :

• Mobile Disposals (Dump, Used Rework, Used for Transplant, and Resow)
• Mobile Growing Starts
• Mobile Container Revivals
• Mobile Verification

Coming soon:

• Trading Partner Business to Business data exchange via XML documents.  PO’s, Advanced Shipment Notification (ASN), Inventory Availability.
• Inventory Location Tracking via RFID — Know where your inventory is located for picking purposes.  To be developed as a stand-alone application with an interface module to most other existing inventory systems.