Fraunhofer IPSI for benchmarking mobile systems responsible
The youngest rotten meat scandal has made clear that the authorities
quickly identify the location have to be black sheep of the industry
and put a stop to them. At the same time working honest company should
not be burdened with additional paperwork, because neither can they
cope with the still more the authorities.
A solution to the dilemma might exist in automated systems that
suggest when deviations from standard specifications in transport and
provide automatic alarm, computer supported evaluable protocols. In
one of the important food quality parameter is the temperature during
the entire transport chain. Exactly so busy on the first Launched in
May 2005 "Cold-Trace Market Validation Project" of the European Union.
Cold-Trace (Cold Chain Monitoring and Traceability Services) aims at
a temperature-controlled logistics; the six project partners from
several European countries to work together while on a modular and
flexible system for continuous monitoring and control of its
transportations Refrigeration of food. The consortium also includes
the German Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Publication and
Information Systems (IPSI) in Darmstadt, which is responsible for
benchmarking the envisaged mobile systems.
If the consumer does not have meat at the butcher or slaughter with
its own organic farmers in the next village had bought, his purchases
are often already over a very long journey. Like most of the cargoes
of meat is produced and processed there, where is the cheapest
possible, and then made it there, where the highest price is achieved.
In between oceans and continents can be and days or weeks.
EU Directive on the traceability of food
In order to achieve more transparency, the EU has made since 2002 to
the carrier and dealer support to document the origin and transport
routes of food. In early 2005, this provision was renewed once again.
"Cold-Trace can help companies and their customers the cooling
transport industry enormously to comply with the directive on
traceability of foods," Dr. Andreas Meissner from the Mobile
Distributed Information Systems at the Fraunhofer IPSI is convinced.
Transporters and distributors in the near future, expect that the
controls are handled strictly by the authorities. Those who behave
regularity can do so by Cold-Trace evidence properly; black sheep are
quickly withdrawn from circulation.
Management of the entire flow of goods
The Cold-Trace system provides the cooling transport firm addition to
the actual prosecution of the goods flow many additional applications:
organization of work and Hauling; use as a tracking system, which
means that the shipping company or its customers to check at any time
where there is a truck straight; use as a navigation system,
determination of transportation costs, cost-effective and fast
communication between all partners involved in the clearing process
and not just the last application for monitoring and cooling equipment
temperature. Also for the driver, Cold-Trace tangible relief: Because
the cooling unit in the future be controlled remotely from the central
office, he has to be present for pre-cooling is no longer one hour
prior to loading on trucks. Cold-Trace shall afford almost
incidentally, still contribute to the achievement of the social rules
for truck drivers and so improve road safety.
The sensor technology is installed in the transport vehicle. Finally,
there is where all the information. In the company's headquarters is
located in a server with the Cold-Trace software that allows the
driver about all administrative messages that may transfer tasks to be
performed by him. An easy-to-use PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) is
an interface to the system for him. The information he provides in the
vehicle, using a mobile online system in turn transmitted to the
central office. Through this smooth processes the food can not only
safer but also more quickly reach the market, so their shelf life span
increases, and finally into a larger quantity can be sold, so less
spoiled food have to be disposed of. This means for the shippers and
traders to grow revenues and reducing costs, for example by avoiding
fines or legally possible lower insurance premiums.
Fraunhofer IPSI examined online mobile systems
Within the project, the Fraunhofer IPSI responsible for the
benchmarking of mobile online GPRS and UMTS systems in the Europe of
25 Member States. "In other words, we investigate to what extent are
technical and cost perspective across Europe, the EU requirements are
met, during the trip to be online," explains Dr. Andreas Meissner.
Overall, the consortium consists of a team of experts in the fields of
e-business solutions, market research, forecasting function, Fleet
Management Systems, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), electronic
data exchange, mobile solutions, transportation and logistics
services. The project partners are Inmark Estudios y Estrategias
(Spain), EasyTech (Spain), University College Cork, National
University of Ireland, Disfrimur (Spain), O'Donovan Transport
(Ireland), Scandlog transport (Sweden) and Fraunhofer IPSI.
