This kind of disorganization often stems from the haphazard and often spur-of-the-moment nature of military logistics, according to Malcolm McKeith, director of the visibility program within DMO.

"Often we've stuffed everything into one container, moved it as quickly as we could, and hoped that when we got there, we could find what we needed," he says. "One of the problems we have is that people don't have confidence in the supply chain, so they multi-order. We're very keen to apply the right technology to the task."

The DMO's pilot program will involve the testing of active RFID tags that will be attached to each transportation pallet. The tags will be programmed with the inventory numbers of each individual item loaded on the pallet, allowing a complete and accurate inventory to be acquired as laden trucks drive through a specially constructed scanning gantry.

Pallet data will be stored in DMO's core Mincom MIMS system, with constantly updated information letting logistics supervisors know exactly what goods are headed where, and when they'll arrive. When staff need a specific item, they'll enter that item's product code into handheld RFID scanners, then walk between stockpiles of containers. The scanner will query every RFID tag it can find until it locates the needed products.

The project was approved in June last year and went live this week.