Volkswagen partnered with Brazilian IoT start-up Taggen Industries and Services to pilot technologies it believes could transform its production of commercial vehicles in the country by boosting warehouse management.

The German company’s Brazilian truck and bus unit will work with Taggen Industries and Services to trial technologies to geolocate vehicles in production as they are moved around a 1 million square-metre factory in Resende as part of a broader digitalisation strategy.

Hugo Souza, director of production and logistics at Volkswagen Caminhoes e Onibus (VWCO), said the pilot “aims to consolidate studies of initiatives that can generate even more agility” in its production processes.

“We have already made a lot of progress and we have several work fronts to further strengthen this”, Souza explained.

Volkswagen intends to implement a real-time exclusive ID, monitoring and tracing set-up with four-times the reach of its previous technology.

It explained Taggen Industries and Services will provide beacons which are constantly “monitored by antennas” connecting to an independent network.

The IoT company will assess data using its own cloud platform, which will be available to Volkswagen staff to locate vehicles on their mobile phones.

Taggen Industries and Services CEO Werter Padilha said some of the resources being used in the pilot come from the Brazilian Research and Innovation Company, with researchers from the National Telecommunications Institute playing a part in setting up the partnership.

He noted Taggen Industries and Services’ set-up involves “cloud systems, smartphones and IoT devices”, and predicted VWCO would benefit from greater agility, efficiency and shorter production times.