RTLS: Ubisense opens door to Chinese manufacturing with product certification

Ubisense, a leading provider of location solutions, today announced that its Series 7000 real-time location system (RTLS) industrial tags and sensors have been certified for use in China by the country’s stringent regulatory authorities – a development that opens up enormous commercial opportunities to the business, which listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in June.

Ubisense’s ultrawideband (UWB)-based RTLS is the first to gain official authorization for deployment and use within China. The endorsement is the latest in a long list of product certifications secured by Ubisense in the USA, Europe, Canada, Korea and Singapore, which give the company unparalleled reach in terms of UWB RTLS technology approval.

Many world famous brands rely on Ubisense systems to gain real-time visibility of assets passing through production. Popular across different business sectors, the company’s solutions have gained immense traction in the automotive industry, where well-known car manufacturers use them to achieve significant efficiency, throughput and quality improvements in assembly line operations.

With its new certification in place, Ubisense now plans to break into the lucrative Chinese automotive market. In July, the Chinese Association of Automotive Manufacturers (CAAM) announced that the country’s automobile industry produced more than nine million passenger cars and commercial vehicles in the first six months of 2011. By the end of the year, Scotia Economics estimates that Chinese assemblies will have risen to 21 million units – representing 28 percent of overall global vehicle output, and meaning China will surpass Europe as the world’s largest vehicle producer.

Andy Ward, chief technology officer at Ubisense, said, “Coming so quickly after our public offering, this development provides further evidence of our position at the forefront of global RTLS developments. With approval of our technology in place, we are now ideally positioned to tap into China’s extensive manufacturing sector. Production of the magnitude that occurs in China is increasingly dependent on systems that can eliminate time-consuming, manual identification tasks. Our technology does this, but also adds another layer of intelligence to fast-paced manufacturing environments, where it can generate alerts when there is a deviation from plan, and log activity so manufacturers can scrutinize performance and achieve new efficiencies. This is proving to be an incredibly exciting year for Ubisense and we look forward to the adoption of our technology across China.”

Ubisense’s first automotive project in China is due to commence in Q3 2011, with delivery expected to be complete by the end of the year.