Case Study: Mobis North America boosts returnable container visibility with Lowry Solutions

Returnable Container Tracking Boosts Efficiency For Automotive Chassis Plant

Mobis North America, LLC, a Tier 1 automotive suspension module manufacturer serving the Jeep Wrangler chassis supply chain, needed better visibility into its reusable returnable transport items (RTIs). The company had no reliable way to track how many custom metal containers were shipped to suppliers or how many should be on hand, creating risk of shortages, production delays, and unnecessary container purchases. Mobis worked with Lowry Solutions and evaluated an RFID-based container tracking approach using UHF RFID tags and reader portals.

Lowry Solutions implemented a container management system using software from 7iD Technologies, UHF RFID tags, and dock-door reader portals integrated with Mobis’ SAP Container Management Module. Lowry also added custom forklift feedback software and tagged the metal containers for end-to-end tracking. The system now provides real-time visibility into shipped versus received containers, improving productivity, shipping velocity, and drive-on/drive-off times, while helping Mobis optimize container usage, reduce costs, and avoid buying new containers unless necessary.