RFID INDUSTRY NEWS

General information to keep you abreast of what is happening in RFID and related technology fields internationally

Some news items featured here are sourced from the SMART-X (www.smartx.co.za) daily updates sent to members.

23-May-2008: McDonald's, the fast-food giant, have launched a pilot RFID system in 175 of their Japanese stores with planned roll-out to all of their Japanese outlets by the end of 2009. Using RFID technology, which comes pre-installed in most modern Japanese mobile phones, customers will be able to choose meals and pay by simply placing their phones close to the stores till (cash register). 

11-April-2008: Aircraft manufacturer Airbus has signed a multi-million dollar contract  for the provision of a radio-frequency identification (RFID) system aimed at streamlining supply chain and manufacturing operations with IBM and OATSystems. Airbus has been using RFID to manage supply of spare parts since 2003 but has now extended use of the technology to its full manufacturing process.

08-April-2008 - Franco-American technology firm eProvenance has developed a tracking system for the wine industry, designed to preserve the quality of fine wines and trace their origin. A semi-active RFID tag placed inside each case enables wine producers and distributors to monitor and log ambient temperatures in each case three times a day. The tracking system also includes a passive RFID tag with a unique code. The tag is attached to the base of each bottle, which can be individually tracked. To prevent counterfeiting, a proprietary, tamper-proof neck seal with a invisible covert code at the base of the capsule, can be read  by the eProvenance reader.

03-April-2008 - Heathrow Terminal 5 delays caused by lack of appropriate RFiD technology! Simple (well maybe not) baggage handling system failures have caused havoc at the new Heathrow Terminal 5. This has reportedly resulted in the cancellation of more than 400 flights resulting in the biggest airline public-relations disaster in living memory. The obvious question is, "Why does it happen?" We would respectfully ask, "Why doesn't it happen a whole lot more?", considering the ANCIENT TECHNOLOGY still in use at airports all over the world.  The growth in the number of passengers over the last 25 years has been almost unbelievable with airports like London's Heathrow handling more than 65 million passengers in 2007. Factor in the incredibly stringent security restrictions in place now and the picture starts to look very difficult!. Then one has to look at the actual logistics without even worrying about security, costs and the total number of passengers. Ask any frequent flier (who is not too shy to talk to his fellow passenger) and the picture emerges of "I'm off to Rome 27 minutes after we arrive at Charles de Gaul", "Oh, I'm going to London 20 minutes after landing" etc. The point being that within an hour of landing and while the aircraft is being serviced, refuelled and re-supplied, the baggage must be removed and loaded onto all of the departing flights on which the incoming passengers will be departing. Imagine a business environment without the Internet - we have as much difficulty imagining airline baggage handling without RFID! The problem with the airline industry is that it requires global standards and only IATA can make this happen - RF Tags SA is waiting in rapt anticipation (without loosing focus on our core customers and core business). The most important driver of international (IATA driven) standards for airport baggage handling is that both the airports of departure and arrival (intended and actual) of the baggage must use compatable systems. An interesting sidebar on the subject of airline baggage handling concerns the choice of read only or read/write tags. With read only tags, the tag number has only one function which is to act as a key into the baggage database. Writeable tags (Read/Write) could allow all data associated with the movements of that item to be written to the tag. The difference between the "read-only" tags and the "read/write" tags could be that with the read-only tags the customer could be given tracking information about his baggage immediately (provided that the customers knows the tag number), whereas the customer with a "read/write" tag could be told after (if?) his baggage has been found where it has been! Writeable tags are not always the panacea they may seem!

18-March-2008 - Walmart study shows that RFID can improve the accuracy of inventory records at store level.  A study commissioned by Wal-Mart(the world's largest retailer), and conducted by researchers from the University of Arkansas, has revealed that RFID can improve inventory accuracy at store-level. Sixteen Wal-Mart stores were involved in the 23 week long study, including a mixture of Wal-Mart's Supercentres and Neighborhood Market stores, eight of which were RFID equipped test stores and eight  control stores without RFID systems. Comment: RFID systems do not have to, and cannot, give 100% reliable reads (although this is constantly improving), but as the study shows, current RFID technology can and does work and provide improved levels of inventory control leading to cost savings (reduced inventory), improved customer satisfaction (less stock outages) and increased sales (also due to less stock outages).