創新發現誌

To manage the largest live fish facility in Southeast Asia:

Tekho uses RFID technology to maintain a complete “CV” for all of its fish

By Hu Hsiu-Chu 

Tekho Inc. has invested over NT$10 million to establish a 900-ping (2,970 square meters) live fish facility in the Anping District of Tainan City. The grouper fish in the 42 neatly arranged live fish tanks range from young fish up to huge 40-kg specimens. This is the largest live fish center in Southeast Asia, with annual production volume of 1.2 million tons. What makes the facility so special is the fact that each individual fish has its own “ID card,” enabling Tekho to maintain a detailed, transparent record of every single fish at every stage of the production process, ensuring that consumers can enjoy safe, healthy fish. The facility is the first of its kind anywhere in the world.  

In its management of Southeast Asia’s largest live fish facility, Tekho Inc. has used RFID (Radio Frequency ID) technology to give each fish its own “CV”, to be used in the production and sales process. This technology has helped to create an innovative, safe food supply chain. Tekho has succeeded in integrating every link in the supply chain (up-, mid- and downstream), from the fish farm through the live fish facility to the restaurants where the fish are consumed. The company maintains a comprehensive production and sales data record for every single live fish that it ships. The information is stored on an RFID tag attached to the fish’s gills. When the restaurant is getting ready to cook the fish, they can provide the consumer with comprehensive information about the fish that they are going to eat.  

According to Tekho’s Wu Chih-Mou, Tekho possess the key technology that it needs for every stage in the production and sales cycle. By making effective use of its product traceability management platform to achieve a high level of integration, Tekho is now able to exercise control over 80% of the supply chain. With regard to the first stage – breeder fish cultivation – Tekho has been working closely with National Cheng Kung University to identify disease-resistant breeder fish, and is planning to establish an 8-hectare fish farm in Chigu, Tainan County in July 2009, to cultivate breeder fish and produce fish eggs. The establishment of this new fish farm will give Tekho a complete, vertically-integrated supply chain.  

Wu Chih-Mou notes that RFID is just a tool; the most important thing is the establishment of the information platform system. Powerful information system support is needed at every stage, from fish farming through inspection and live fish center operation through to the supply of fish to restaurants; the systems involved include traceability systems, purchasing, sales and inventory systems, etc. In its collaboration with the Institute for Information Industry (III), Tekho spent several months just to identify what its system requirements were, but the results that the company has achieved show that it was worth all the effort. Tekho is now making extensive use of the new systems, which have helped to streamline operational processes and improve efficiency.  
 

I study at Second Life

With virtual reality, the campus becomes a Play Center

By Ch’ien Yen-Ni 

Wu Ya-Hsien, Associate Professor at Chihlee Institute of Technology, is very highly regarded by the Institute’s students, because of the effective use that she makes of innovative teaching methods. This semester, she purchased an island in the online virtual world Second Life to establish a Play Center in which classes are held. Students go online to attend classes in the Play Center’s virtual classrooms, where they can undertake various types of learning, improve their language capabilities, and hold virtual parties.

Second Life includes a continental land mass and also individual islands; the islands are divided into for-profit and not-for-profit islands. The facilities on the island include a department office, other offices, and a showcase where 157 graduation projects are on display (where both students and ordinary members of the public can access them). There is also an introduction to the department, a performance area, a bar, etc. E-Commerce activities can be undertaken using 3D technology.

Multimedia Design Department student Wei Feng-Ming, who is responsible for designing and maintaining the department office in Wu Ya-Hsien’s Play Center, has a beast-man with ram’s horns for his avatar in Play Center. His avatar lives with a group of other “beast-men” in Beast-Man Village; he has made friends with a number of foreigners as a result. “My English used to be terrible, but so as to be able to communicate with a 30-year-old Australian computer programmer, I have been spending a lot of time working on improving my English every day.” Thanks to this constant online learning, Wei Feng-Ming’s English language abilities have improved dramatically in just three months; he now has no problems with either reading or writing English.  

The latest trend – using an electronic travel ticket to go wherever you want

By Ch’en Wei-An 

Every year, the Taipei International Travel Fair attracts large numbers of visitors who come to select the most attractive package tours. What with breakfast coupons, hotel coupons, entrance ticket coupons and hot springs coupons, you can soon find yourself holding several dozen different tickets and coupons. Inevitably, you start to worry about losing them; this is an especially serious problem today, when firms usually refuse to issue replacement for lost coupons and tickets. So what about storing all of these tickets and coupons in a single card?  

Working together, the Institute for Information Industry (III) and a group of travel agencies have developed a solution to this problem. If you buy a package holiday at any of the stands at the Travel Fair, all of the various tickets and coupons are converted into electronic “travel points.” The consumer can use his or her existing bank card; all they need to do is fill out the membership application form, and they can then use their bank IC card to store their membership scheme travel points. It doesn’t matter whether they represent hotel coupons, bed-and-breakfast coupons, or farm-stay coupons, you can store all of them on the same card.  

The travel points stored on the card are like money deposited in the bank. Even if you lose the card, you just need to get a replacement card; your original travel points are still there. Consumers can use the Internet to check how their travel point usage status and see how many points they have left.  

The package holidays that travel agents offer are usually very similar, but travel agents can use services to differentiate themselves from their rivals and make customers feel that they are getting real value for money. IC cards can be a bridge for interaction between travel agencies and consumers who join the membership program, facilitating the provision of a range of convenient services. For example, consumers may, understandably, be worried that the travel points they buy will expire before they get round to using them. Now, travel agencies can send text messages or e-mails to remind consumers that their travel points will be expiring soon. Services like this make consumers feel that the travel agency really cares.  

A central washing facility that provides a whole new dry-cleaning experience

By Hu Fang-Ju 

Lin Ts’un-T’ien, the Chairman of Taiwan Taxi, who has always attached great importance to innovation, has come up with another new idea! His cross-investment subsidiary Taiwan Taxi Washing has become Taiwan’s largest dry-cleaning “contract manufacturer”. Taiwan Taxi Washing is a government-approved dry-cleaning provider that offers consumers a whole new dry-cleaning experience.

Taiwan Taxi Washing Chairman Lin Ts’un-T’ien explains that Taiwan Taxi Washing has integrated the operations of traditional dry-cleaners to create a better, more comprehensive, and more standardized dry-cleaning platform in which the production and sales aspects are kept separate. The company provides individual dry-cleaners that are faced with today’s challenging economic climate with guidance and the chance to integrate their operations. Through the provision of ultra-professional assistance, Taiwan Taxi Washing is making a contribution to the dry-cleaning industry, an industry characterized by high ideals and passion, and in so doing is helping traditional dry cleaners to survive.

Most dry-cleaning chains rely on high volume to enable them to offer low prices. The emphasis is on fast service; while they may conform to the letter of the law with respect to environmental standards, environmental protection is not usually a high priority. Taiwan Taxi Washing’s concern for both the environment and consumers’ health is reflected in the company’s choice of washing detergent; Taiwan Taxi Washing is the only company in Taiwan that conforms to the Environmental Protection Administration’s dry-cleaning operating procedure standards.

The dry-cleaning processes at Taiwan Taxi Washing’s facility are governed by rigorous, standardized procedures, with a high level of transparency. The spotlessly clean facility – which covers an area of over 300 ping (990 square meters) – and its advanced machinery provide customers with comprehensive dry-cleaning service. The facility operates on a two-shift system, and processes 300,000 items of clothing every month, making it the largest dry-cleaning facility in Taiwan; monthly sales revenue totals nearly NT$10 million.