(ISO: Geneva) -- With international trade largely dependent on freight containers, a new International Organization for Standardization standard on the technology used to track their movement has the potential to minimize handling costs, improve inventory tracking and availability of accurate real-time information, and create a safe and secure international supply chain regime.

“Tracking freight containers in their movement is essential,” says Craig K. Harmon, chair of a joint working group on supply chain applications of radio frequency identification (RFID). “The publication of ISO 17363:2007 will provide a synergistic means of tracking freight containers throughout the supply chain from creation to consumption to recyclability to reuse.”

The supply chain is the overall process that results in goods being transported from the point of origin to a final destination and includes the movement of the goods, the shipping data and the associated processes, including the dynamic links between the different participants. As goods move through the supply chain, there are significant benefits in being able to track products in their movement, including loss prevention, inventory control, and in-transit visibility.

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