Official News - page 11

REAL LIFE NEWS: WHERE'S THAT BEER GOT TO?

by Hazed

Dutch beer maker Heineken are going to use satellite technology to track their beer.

The company has put together a team that includes IBM and the University of Amsterdam to track beer containers shipped from the Netherlands to Heineken's UK distribution center. Each container will be outfitted with GSM (that's the most popular standard for mobile phones), GPRS (a mobile data service for phone users) and global positioning systems. The data will be transmitted to a computer center where operators can keep track of just where the beer is.

Heineken currently accumulates up to five billion documents every year that are generated when its products pass through international shipping - the company hopes to convince manufacturers, shippers, retailers and customs to move to a paperless trade environment. This pilot project, called the Beer Living Lab, will track 20 of the containers. If it's successful it should speed up deliveries and cut costs.

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