UALR, Free University of Amsterdam Work to Track Suds

Dr. Rolf Wigand, UALR’s Maulden-Entergy Chair and Distinguished Professor of Information Science and Management, is working with colleagues at the Free University of Amsterdam to create a paperless documentation system for the brewing company Heineken of Amsterdam. The goal: to track the whereabouts and condition of the company’s beer containers as they are transported across the Atlantic Ocean. Wigand said the team is brewing up a wireless supply chain application that tracks the beer kegs using global positioning satellites (GPS) and radio frequency identification (RFID). The project – Information Technology for Administration and Intelligent Design of E-Government, or ITAIDE – is a European Union project that was launched in partnership with Heineken, but also IBM, SAP, the international shipping company Safmarine, Dutch Customs, British Customs, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. “The technology enables tracking of temperature, tampering, physical location on the globe, as well as security concerns,” Wigand said. “Heineken expects the newly conceived system to reduce administrative burdens, provide greater transparency and accessibility of business data in the supply chain for improved security and the improved efficiency of customs and taxation practices.” Wigand and his colleagues from the Free University of Amsterdam – Professors Yao-Hua Tan, Boriana Rukanova, and Ziv Baida – report on the project in the current issue of Supply Chain Management Review titled “Heineken Shows Benefits of Customs Collaboration.”