TNT Express will deploy Xterprise's TraXTM Visibility, a real-time supply chain execution solution. The system will support high value electronics movement from China to Europe.

The solution was deployed initially as a pilot in 2004. Because of the pilot's success for TNT and an initial customer, the system has been greatly expanded.

TNT and Xterprise are expanding the Trax solution to a second major computer manufacturer customer. The TraX solution is providing real-time item level visibility, tracking of goods moving rapidly through the China–to-Europe traffic lane for TNT, its customers and other supply chain stakeholders.

"We searched for a solution provider that would perform as a partner and work with us and develop an industry solution for this very important market and found Xterprise's expertise in both supply chain solutions and RFID technology to be a perfect match", said Adrie Kaljee, TNT RFID Programme Manager.

Phase I of the Pilot enabled reporting and tracking of laptops at the case and pallet level, throughout the extended supply chain. This supply chain visibility begins with the manufacture of laptops in China, tracks them through the outbound shipping point in China, and into receiving country depots across Europe.

Phase II involves deployment of an enhanced TraX Release 2.0 application with multi-stakeholder enterprise system integration, including SAP. In addition, the solution will enable streamlining and higher accuracy sorting at the TNT facilities in Europe and enable Item-level shipment visibility for supply network partners. TraX 2.0 is expected to improve TNT customer service through a higher fidelity Track and Trace features which allows for better inventory planning and management and more accurate shipping performance, resulting in a value-added service offerings to TNT's customer base.

"TNT wanted a solution that would add value to their clients and change some of the rules of item level China-to-Europe shipment visibility. UHF RFID technology is the right technology for this application and we are thrilled with the early results", says Dean Frew, Xterprise President & CEO. "We are currently working with TNT on expanding the geographic footprint of the deployment and adding new features to our TraX application to support higher level of business value to all shipment stakeholders."

Xterprise technology partners in the project included Alien, Zebra Technologies and Apriso. The introduction of the latest RFID tag antenna designs and new multi-static European RFID readers both from Alien increased the read reliability dramatically.

Tests have shown up to 100% read performance of a full pallet of notebooks as they are unloaded through the Xterprise XPortâ„¢ RFID reader portals in multiple locations throughout Europe. Xterprise's TraX RFID enhanced visibility application, built on Apriso's Flexnet SOA platform, enables customers, suppliers and logistics service providers to view real-time status of shipments around the globe.