Peak-season operations depend on having the right assets in the right place at the right time. Yet pallets, roll cages, totes, crates, and reusable containers frequently move between facilities, suppliers, and customers without consistent visibility. When demand increases, these information gaps can quickly create shortages, delays, and unnecessary costs.
When Limited Visibility Becomes an Operational Risk
Returnable Transport Items (RTIs) support the movement of products across modern supply chains, but they are often managed with less control than the goods they carry. Research shows that 10-15% of RTIs may be lost annually, creating significant replacement costs and operational disruption.
However, loss is only part of the challenge. Excess assets often accumulate in low-throughput locations while high-demand sites struggle with shortages. Teams are forced to compensate through manual searches, emergency transfers, additional purchasing, or excess buffer stock.
As Carl Kallen, General Manager North America at Lyngsoe, explains:
"Peak season is when supply chains are truly put to the test. Volumes increase, margins tighten, and even small inefficiencies become very visible."
Many organizations recognize these symptoms: uncertainty around asset location, increasing dwell times, imbalanced RTI pools, and time-consuming manual administration. In reality, these challenges often share the same root cause: a lack of reliable visibility.
Without accurate data, organizations struggle to answer critical operational questions:
- Where are our RTIs?
- Which locations are at risk of shortages?
- How long have assets remained idle?
- Where was a missing asset last seen?
- What patterns are contributing to loss and inefficiency?
When those questions cannot be answered confidently, RTI management becomes reactive rather than strategic.
Creating Digital Intelligence from Physical Assets
Leading organizations are moving beyond manual RTI management by giving each asset a unique digital identity and collecting real-time movement data across the network.
Miika Pylvanainen, Global Product Director at Beontag, describes this transformation clearly:
"We are turning physical operations into digital intelligence. We are capturing what happens in the real world and converting that into data you can base decisions on."
Every RTI can be assigned a unique identifier, similar to a license plate, linked to ownership, history, usage, and maintenance information. Combined with location tracking, this creates a complete picture of how assets move through the supply chain.
Rather than relying on assumptions or periodic inventories, organizations gain continuous insight into asset availability, utilization, and flow.
This shift enables more informed decision-making and helps businesses move from reacting to problems after they occur to anticipating them before they impact operations.
RFID and BLE: Better Together
A common misconception is that Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) compete with one another. In reality, they address different visibility challenges and often deliver the greatest value when used together.
RFID excels in high-volume environments where large numbers of assets need to be identified quickly at dock doors, gates, conveyor systems, or production checkpoints. BLE provides extended coverage across larger facilities and outdoor environments where fixed infrastructure may not be practical.
As Miika Pylvanainen explains:
"RFID for fast mass identification, and BLE for extended coverage and more real-time location information."
A hybrid approach gives organizations flexibility. High-volume locations can benefit from automated RFID data capture, while BLE delivers broader visibility across distribution centers, yards, and geographically dispersed operations. Lower-volume sites may continue to use barcodes alongside RFID or BLE, creating a practical and scalable solution across the entire network.
The objective is not simply to collect more data. It is to generate reliable information that supports planning, execution, and optimization.
Turning Visibility into Business Value
Visibility alone is not enough. The greatest value emerges when RTI data becomes part of daily operational decisions.
By integrating RTI visibility into ERP, warehouse management, and transport management systems, organizations can move from isolated asset tracking to connected workflows that support smarter decision-making.
This enables businesses to:
- Reduce shrinkage and replacement costs
- Improve asset-turn rates
- Lower dwell time
- Balance RTI pools across locations
- Improve peak-season planning
- Reduce manual effort and emergency interventions
- Identify recurring loss patterns
- Improve overall asset utilization
As Carl Kallen points out:
"Visibility alone is not the objective. What really matters to key decision-makers is performance, capital efficiency, and resilience."
The most successful RTI programs measure performance through a set of clear operational key performance indicators (KPIs), including shrink rate, asset-turn rate, dwell time, pool balance, and intervention frequency.
These metrics provide the foundation for continuous improvement while helping organizations quantify the business value of increased visibility.
From Reactive Operations to Resilient Supply Chains
RTIs may be simple physical assets, but their availability directly influences throughput, customer service, operational efficiency, and profitability.
The organizations achieving the greatest success are those that no longer view RTIs as reusable packaging alone. Instead, they treat them as strategic operational assets supported by real-time visibility, automation, and actionable data.
As Carl Kallen states:
"Mature RTI environments are data-driven, not crisis-driven."
By creating visibility across the RTI lifecycle and connecting asset data with core business systems, organizations can move from manual processes to automation, from uncertainty to transparency, and from operational challenges to greater control.
Peak-season performance depends on more than inventory and labor. It also depends on the availability and movement of the assets that keep products flowing through the supply chain. Real-time RTI visibility helps organizations reduce losses, improve utilization, strengthen resilience, and prepare for demand peaks with greater confidence.
Want to learn more about how RFID, BLE, and connected RTI visibility can improve asset availability and reduce operational risk?
Watch the on-demand webinar, Mastering Returnable Transport Items (RTIs) in Peak Seasons, and discover practical strategies to improve visibility, reduce shrinkage, and build a more resilient supply chain.
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FAQs
What are Returnable Transport Items (RTIs)?
Returnable Transport Items (RTIs) are reusable assets used to transport, store, and handle goods throughout the supply chain. Common examples include pallets, roll cages, totes, crates, and reusable containers. Unlike single-use packaging, RTIs are designed to move repeatedly between suppliers, manufacturers, warehouses, and customers, making visibility and asset management essential to maintaining efficient operations.
Why do RTI challenges become more noticeable during peak season?
Peak season places additional pressure on supply chain operations through increased volumes, tighter timelines, and higher asset demand. Limited visibility can lead to RTI shortages, longer dwell times, asset imbalances, and increased manual effort. As demand grows, these small inefficiencies can quickly escalate into operational bottlenecks, delays, and higher replacement costs.
What is the business value of RTI tracking?
RTI tracking helps organizations gain visibility into asset location, movement, and utilization. By integrating RTI data with enterprise systems, businesses can reduce shrinkage, improve asset-turn rates, balance RTI pools, decrease manual effort, and strengthen peak-season planning. This improves operational efficiency, capital utilization, and supply chain resilience.