1) BT Supply Chain Partners manages engineering spares and cable stocks for BT across the UK, with over 400 cable drums stored in some yards. Cable theft was a high risk. 2) They turned to RadiantWave to develop an active RFID and asset management solution to track cable drum movements, enforce issue/return transactions, and provide stock visibility to reduce theft and improve operations. 3) The solution was tested in 2006 and deployed across compounds in 2008, enabling increased cable reuse, improved engineer services, and reduced non-returned drums through full cable traceability across BT's network.

1. Case Study
Using Active RFID to enable the 21st Century Cable Yard
for stock control and security
Profile
BT Supply Chain Partners provides logistics and supply chain services to more
than 30,000 BT engineers across the UK, including the management of engineer-
ing spares and cable stocks held at more than 150 BT sites and cable compounds
across the United Kingdom.
Challenge
Cable stock within BT consists of both special cable ordered for specific jobs and
commonly used cable (Kanban) stored in outside compounds. Around 80% of
cable is copper core, with a single large drum being worth many thousands. In
storage, cable is at a high risk of theft, particularly from compounds which are un-
manned.
Whilst many of the engineering components and consumables at technical equip-
ment centres have been managed with up to 400 cable drums in a single yard at
any one time, the challenge set was to provide an effective system to manage and
optimise the issue and return process, providing accurate stock visibility in the
local yard and across all yards to manage stock, enable greater reuse and to link
this into security. This had to be achieved without imposing additional
administration onto customer focussed engineers.
Solution
The BT supply chain team turned to RadiantWave to come up with a workable
solution. RadiantWave designed a solution using Active RFID tags to automati-
cally identify each cable drum and using a central asset and stock management
system to record cable stocks and related transactions.
Active RFID tags were used to provide Proof of Delivery of cable drums, identify
there movements in and out of compounds and to enforce engineer issue and re-
turn transactions all with detailed timestamps and audit trail.
Radio Data Terminals (RDTs) are used by compound managers to record re-
ceipts, issues and returns—capturing information such as cable length—and used
for ‘walk-by’ auditing and drum location.
The solution was first delivered in trial form at the Croydon TEC and in 2006 an
improved version was deployed at the 21CN demo site at Cardiff, with the solution
rolling out across compounds in 2008.
The solution enables the compound managers to increase re-use of
cable, improve service to engineers and reduce non-returned drums. Linked with
the Supply Chain item tracking system in use at BT, the solution provides full
traceability of Cable in delivery to compounds through the BT network and into
use.
Results
Page 1 / 2

2. The RadiantWave delivered solution
Application
The BT Cable Drum Management System is delivered on RedPrairie’s Mobile Resource application, a powerful enterprise
Service Orientated Architecture application with easy to use browser interface and handheld client for activity in the yard
using a LXE industrial terminal. The system delivers BT a complete and detailed stock level and usage visibility, along with
a host of reports on stock, asset, engineer and security monitoring. The Event Management System constantly monitors
and alerts for activities in the yard, even when unmanned, to identify engineer issues/returns and potential thefts.
Technology
RadiantWave selected Active RFID tags and readers from
Wavetrend, a leading provider of long range Active RFID
equipment following extensive trials and the development
of a new tag for the application. LXE and Psion RDTs are used to provide the handheld terminals
with Active Tag reading capability for compound managers.
Page 2 / 2
www.radiantwave.com
© RadiantWave 2007. All trademarks acknowledged.
RadiantWave Limited
Richmond-Upon-Thames, UK
Martin Kruse, Managing Director, m. +44-7976-259287
martinkruse@radiantwave.com
RadiantWave delivers Award Winning RFID and Auto-ID solutions in the US, Europe and Russia. The company prides itself on
being vendor agnostic, working in partnership with many of the industry’s leading equipment manufacturers.
Texas, United States
Normandy, France
Moscow, Russia
and through all local RedPrairie offices.