The April 2009 edition of the RFID Monthly newsletter is now available. In this edition of the newsletter, we cover several new industry developments, including the following.
Survey Shows Mixed Environment. Overall business conditions deteriorated further, primarily as a result of project push-backs. However, we see some signs of optimism, particularly with improving project pipelines and software-based [...]
We have written in the past about key European apparel RFID pilots moving forward to better manage supply chain inventory and decrease stock outs. We have also highlighted American Apparel as having a strong eight store pilot that has demonstrated improved sales lift from reduced out-of-stocks as well as decreased labor requirements. Several studies have [...]
The State of Florida’s “95 Express” project will use RFID to establish toll collection in a variable pricing model intended to control traffic congestion. The I-95 corridor between Fort Lauderdale and Miami has become increasing congested with over 290,000 vehicles per day. According to the Florida department of transportation, it is cost prohibitive to expand [...]
Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, located in California, and part of Pacific Gas and Electric, recently installed a Gen 2 based RFID system to improve efficiency with its spare parts inventory. The RFID tagged inventory provides improved inventory record keeping, faster location of parts for plant operations and a faster method of conducting physical inventory [...]
The RFID Consortium announced SISVEL will serve as the licensing program administrator. Recall, the Consortium was created last year, with initial membership including France Telecom, Hewlett-Packard, LG Electronics, Motorola, ThingMagic, Zebra Technologies and 3M. The goal of the consortium was to create access to patent rights deemed essential to the production of products needed to [...]
A standard for tag data security has been published, which we view as coming at the right time given continued debate over privacy and the use of RFID. We continue to believe RFID has significant consumer benefits, and that a combination of market-driven technology solutions and legislation that curbs unwanted behavior, will help alleviate privacy [...]
European Privacy
European Union Commissioner Vivian Reding addressed privacy concerns in an April Internet address as they relate to social networking, behavior-based advertisements and RFID. Reding’s main comment was that each of these technologies can create a good amount of value, but their use must be transparent to consumers. In the case of RFID, Reding stated, [...]
Impinj announced packaged Monza 3 chips, which are intended to withstand temperature swings and physical punishment. These characteristics suggest targeting into many industrial applications. Further, the packaged chip also has a low profile, measuring 2.1 x 2.1 x 0.55 mm, and is designed to be attached to integrate onto a printed circuit board using standard [...]
The Kennedy Group released its eP360 materials-control software package. The eP360 product, which can be standalone or integrated into an ERP system, is used to increase asset tracking visibility, including tooling, consignment inventory and returnable assets. The package is designed to leverage RFID at the pallet, case or item level. Information from antennas located at [...]
A group of industry participants has founded the DASH7 Alliance to promote the ISO 18000-7 standard, improved vendor-to-vendor interoperability around the standard and associated applications into the commercial marketplace. Today, many of these applications, including vehicle tracking, shipping container tracking, hazardous material tracking, etc. are extensively conducted within the Department of Defense, or within other [...]