NATO

The United States Army is the largest national military force in the world. NATO is a intergovernmental military alliance between 28 member nations across North American and Europe.  NATO and Australia have developed meaningful, practical cooperation in a great number of areas, most notably in the fight against terrorism, research and technology, and non-proliferation initiatives.

What was needed

It is no surprise that the most challenging, most fluid, most dynamic supply chains support military forces wherever they are deployed. And as the nature of warfighting and peacekeeping evolves away from single-nation efforts and towards multi-national collaborations, the need to have precise, real-time logistical information in the hands of military planners and logisticians has become more critical. At any moment, there are literally tens of thousands of physical assets in motion across an operational theatre. Not surprisingly, the US Army, NATO and its Allies have aggressively evaluated and deployed technology to create real-time reports on asset location and status to give decision-makers the information they need to successfully complete their assigned missions.

Actions taken

The US Department of Defense turned to Savi, a pioneer in active RFID technology, for a solution that would provide real-time information on asset location and status. Savi delivered a complete software and hardware solution that automated the entire process of asset tracking and reporting. The Savi platform includes active RFID technology to broadcast asset location and status to sensors deployed in depots, warehouses, and forward areas. The Savi-designed software collects the real-time data from the sensors and converts it into actionable reports, including real-time maps, tabular reports and automated email alerts, to quickly put the most accurate data into the hands of the decision-makers who need it. Finally, the Savi platform is completely integrated into the Army’s back-office management and accounting software enable precise fiscal controls and auditing.

Outcome

Savi SmartChain more than meets the demanding requirements of the US Army. The system successfully provides logisticians with “total asset visibility” — real-time knowledge of the location and physical status of assets in operating theatres. The hardened active tags that Savi developed now define the standard asset tag used by the U.S. Department of Defense for all material. The network of Savi sensors has been expanded to create what is today the world’s largest integrated RFID-based tracking network.

The mission-certified success of  Savi SmartChain directly led to NATO’s and the Australian Defense Force’s decisions to deploy the Savi Technology platform to track their national military assets and to facilitate seamless logistics management of assets between national forces in coordinated operations. With “total asset visibility” these allied forces are able to confidently plan and execute complex missions in harsh environments.