Affixing tags to pallets or containers of product before it is stored provides a means to read those containers as they arrive in the manufacturing area. As containers are emptied the tags may be read to signify that the product has been used. The containers can then be refilled and tags reassigned to other product.

Capturing the emptying transaction can be used as a trigger point to bring more products forward. Instead of generating requests based upon forecasting or back-flushing algorithms, these requests can be made based upon actual usage. This can reduce the amount of product movements and the amount of product that winds up in the manufacturing area unnecessarily.

The use of hand held readers can augment this by allowing the users to record tags that are in the storage areas for spot checking and QC purposes.

Because of the increased visibility provided by the use of this technology the need to run frequent physical inventories in these areas is reduce dramatically or eliminated.