FedEx announced yesterday it will introduce a new GPS sensor-based shipment monitoring service nextyear under the ‘SenseAware’ brand to offer life science and other customers as well as business
partners improved information on air and ground shipment status.‘SenseAware powered by FedEx’ is a next generation, first-of-its-kind information servicethat combines a GPS sensor device and a web-based collaboration platform, the company said.Developed by the FedEx innovation team, the system will provide increased access to informationbetween business partners and customers to aid in the management of supply chain interactions andwill target the life sciences industry at launch.
Available in the spring of 2010, SenseAware is an open, highly adaptive and easy-to-usesensor information sharing platform. It is a multi-modal solution that will provide customers withreal-time visibility and insight into their shipments, and give decision-makers the ability toquickly and easily collaborate on many types of information data across their global supply chain.
The device provides precise temperature readings, the exact location of the shipment,information on when a shipment is opened or if the contents have been exposed to light, and enablesreal-time alerts and analytics between trusted parties. It is permitted by the Federal AviationAdministration for use on FedEx aircraft as well as for ground transportation.
SenseAware can be easily adopted as it does not require a costly software installation,infrastructure or large managed-service commitments. The added flexibility of the SenseAware deviceenables it to be used for single shipments or in large palletised shipments, FedEx pointed out.
“One of the basic needs we saw was a sensor-based logistics industry that wasn’t solidifyingas quickly as we thought it should around useful sharing of sensor information,” said Robert B.Carter, executive vice president and chief information officer, FedEx Corp. “We developed apoint-of-view that sharing sensor information dynamically and in useful ways with supply chainpartners proved too difficult, so we attacked this on a number of fronts and the result isSenseAware.”
SenseAware will initially target the health care and life sciences industry and wasintensively researched and beta-tested with customers within those industries, FedEx said. Pilotcustomers immediately recognised the benefits of the technology during an internal testing phaseand realised the potential to shorten inventory turnaround time on closed loop shipments by havingcomplete inbound visibility to all shipments. A limited number of SenseAware sensor devices areexpected to be available during the initial launch for US customers within the healthcare and lifesciences industry.
Shipments within the life sciences industry are often very high value and/or extremely timesensitive. In this industry, knowing the location of such packages during the shippingprocess is highly desirable. By providing extensive aggregated data shipmentinformation, the technology will help life science customers comply with audits and quality checks,which occur regularly on such highly regulated products, For example, within the industry,many shipments must remain within a specified ambient or cold-chain temperature range to beeffective for use in patient care. By having the correct and necessary data, users can make theproper business decisions to replenish or make other arrangements to meet the business requirement.
Customers and businesses can learn more about SenseAware on senseaware.com.
