China Mobile Group Guangdong Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China Mobile Limited (China Mobile), in collaboration with other tech giants, has launched the country’s first supply chain empowered by 5G-advanced (5G-A) cellular, passive Internet of Things (IoT). The innovative project enables automated operation across the entire chain, from production and logistics to end-user storage.
The manufacturing sector is now at the key stage of digital transformation. A high-speed and refined supply chain thus becomes crucial for corporate competitiveness. The issue is that the modern supply chain demands responses within split seconds, a span too short for the current data transmission.
To address this challenge, the project teams deployed a cellular passive IoT solution at partner's factory and regional central warehouse in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, as well as its end-user warehouses in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, covering more than 9,000 square meters of storage space. Passive IoT labels were stamped on cargo to achieve real-time location sensing and precise information retrieval, supporting fully automated end-to-end management throughout the supply chain.
The passive IoT’s pilot operation reported substantial revenue. The traditional quarterly or monthly inventory tally is shifted to real-time dynamic management, achieving 100 percent accuracy in both inventory tracking and shipment handling. Taking a regional central warehouse for example, the tracking workload that used to take days can be completed in a few hours, improving the throughput efficiency up by 90 percent. The unified data management, thanks to the labels, makes the entire supply chain more transparent and reduces labor costs.
The 5G-A cellular passive IoT has various advantages, such as being battery-free, easy to deploy, low-cost with extensive, accurate, and smart connection. Leveraging high-power 5G-A cellular base stations operating on authorized spectrum, it achieves continuous networking coverage of over 10,000 square meters and a range of over 100 meters. Complicated industrial environments are no longer challenges.
With more mature technology, China Mobile will cooperate with more business partners like chip makers to build a number of smart factories and supply chains, so as to reduce logistics costs in a modern trading system.
(Executive editor: Yuan Ting)
