SUCCESS STORY / WAREHOUSE BILLING AND INVENTORY
Every pallet charged to the right unit, counted in minutes
At BASF’s Shanghai Caojing site, a shared automated warehouse serves more than ten production units. RFID-tagged pallets give each unit an exact record of its usage, and a reader on the shuttle counts a zone in minutes.
The warehouse is operated by a logistics provider, while the management software belongs to BASF.
- Customer
- BASF Shanghai Caojing
- Industry
- Chemicals
- Location
- Shanghai, China
- Solution
- RFID WMS
- Year
- In use since 2020
RESULTS AT A GLANCE
Every unit billed for what it used, every zone counted in minutes
Central warehouse at BASF’s Shanghai Caojing site, online since 2020 and still being extended with new features and reports.
THE CHALLENGE
One compact warehouse, many owners
A central warehouse of about 10,000 m², in operation since 2017, stores materials for more than ten production units on the site. It is a shared service that bills each unit for its usage, and its operation is outsourced to a logistics provider.
Billing by estimate
Each unit pays for the storage it used, in space and in time. Without exact records, a monthly charge is hard to prove.
Many owners, one floor
Ten-plus units keep different materials in the same racks, so ownership has to follow every pallet.
Counting a tight rack
In an automated shuttle rack, pallets sit in deep lanes. A traditional count meant taking goods out.
Little visibility
Records sat in the provider’s system, and wrong deliveries had occurred.
The automated storage and retrieval system, and its shuttles, are fixed infrastructure that has to keep running. So the solution adds to them instead of changing them: a tag on every pallet, and a reader on the shuttle.
THE SOLUTION
Tag the pallet, read it with the shuttle
Four pieces work together. Ownership is attached once, at receiving, and the shuttle keeps the record true from then on.
RFID tag on every pallet
Applied at receiving and bound to the material and to the business unit that owns it.
HardwareReader on the shuttle
An RFID reader rides on the shuttle and reads the pallets along each lane as it moves.
HardwareUsage ledger and billing
Records which unit’s pallet occupied which slot, and for how long, then totals it each month.
SoftwareKanban dashboard
Live occupancy by unit, level and slot, plus daily and monthly in-and-out volumes.
SoftwareIn the warehouse
- RFID tag on each pallet
- Reader on each shuttle
- Forklift and handheld readers
Connectivity
- Reader data goes straight to the WMS
- Wi-Fi or wired
WMS platform
- Occupancy and usage ledger
- Zone inventory
- Billing report and Kanban
HOW IT WORKS
From receiving to month-end bill, and a count in minutes
Follow one pallet through the system, then watch a zone inventory. Select a step, or let it play.
What the system recordsIllustrative example
- 1Pallet P-0731 tagged · Unit A
- 2Stored · level 2, bay 7
- 3Day 14 · Unit A · 38 pallet-days so far
- 4Month-end · Unit A · 1,140 pallet-days
- 5Zone 1 scan started · 96 tags expected
- 6Zone 1 done in 4 min · 1 mismatch flagged
IN THE CUSTOMER’S WORDS
From the warehouse team
Filmed on a phone at the site, with English and Chinese subtitles.
- First-in, first-out by shelf life
- Reader on the shuttle for fast counts
- Scan-gun check before dispatch
FROM RECORDS TO DECISIONS
What the records make possible
Once ownership and location are recorded for every pallet, the same data does more than billing.
Fair, provable billing
Pallet-days by unit · IllustrativeEach unit sees the pallets and days behind its charge.
Better use of space
Occupancy by level · IllustrativeSlot occupancy shows where the racks are under-used.
Catch mismatches fast
Zone count over time · IllustrativeA pallet missing or in the wrong slot is flagged during the zone count.
THE BENEFITS
What changes for each team
Business units
Pay for what they use
Charges follow pallets and days, with a record behind every line.
Warehouse operations
Count without unloading
Zone counts in minutes, with the racks left untouched.
Managers
A live view
The Kanban shows occupancy and in-and-out volumes by unit, level and slot.
The site
Control of the system
The WMS belongs to the site rather than to the outsourced operator, so records stay under its control.
MORE SUCCESS STORIES
Other stories
BASF-YPC
Receiving, putaway, picking and delivery-gate checks in an operating chemical warehouse.
SUEZ
Smart locks, RFID-tagged bottles and weighing for three Shanghai labs, in use since 2022: every gram of hazardous reagent accounted for.
Air Products
Tagged electronic-gas cylinders verified by the customer’s gas cabinet: the right gas, every time.
Baosteel Gas
Patented UHF tags on steel cylinders, read 100% at the gate: every cylinder on record from filling to delivery.
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