RFID Systems and Solutions – May 2009
Partnership Has Developed a Package Validation Solution. Impinj, UPM and Zebra have collaborated to create a package validation solution for consumer products. The solution leverages RFID by tagging individual items going into a larger package or box and allowing producers to confirm package contents before shipment, to ensure the correct shipment, or to enable faster returns. The solution is focused on electronics, manufacturing, retail manufacturing, healthcare and pharmaceuticals. We see a strong customer assurance component to this solution in addition to operational efficiency. Consider the cost to brand and goodwill that a company endures when customers, particularly at the consumer level, receive shipment of that has missing or incorrect parts, or when they receive the wrong shipment. We understand some testing of these solutions has been undertaken and in high volume operations with efficiency gains of 20%-50%.
Fork Truck Enhancement. Rush Tracking Systems has added optical positioning to its VisiblEdge forklift truck solution, which enables location accuracy to one-foot. VisiblEdge leverages RFID, load-detection sensors and positioning data to provide real-time information on the movement of goods to WMS or ERP systems. VisiblEdge is intended to support automated shipping and receiving, returnable container tracking, WIP tracking and general asset tracking applications.
Integrated Container Tracking Solution. ODIN introduced its SMART Container, a product that deploys rapidly and provides detailed visibility of items inside an intermodal container using Gen 2. The readers scan at pre-determined intervals and can transmit item level data through satellite, cellular, and active RFID. This solution improves item level inventory visibility for international shipments and can offer a strong security solution. The U.S. Navy is currently using the solution. We expect the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will evaluate this solution for fast track shipments into the U.S.
Retail Infrastructure Solution. Reva introduced a Reva-4-Retail product offering, which is composed of a Reva TAP, plus an application software layer based on retail requirements. Certified partners can add custom features to the software. The appliance includes support for a set of pre-qualified handheld readers.
