UPM Raflatac RFID Tags in Access Control at Female Downhill Ski World Cup
UPM Raflatac is supplied RFID inlays to support personal and vehicle access to the Piemonte Mondiale event, which started on February 6 in Sestriere, Italy, followed by the FIS female downhill ski World Cup on February 9 to 10.
UPM Raflatac HF inlays, converted into PVC cards and tags, were issued and checked by a system implemented by Italian access control specialist Alfi in cooperation with Brightpoint.
At Piemonte Mondiale, all persons authorized by the event organizer were provided with an RFID-enabled plastic ID card that carries their personal data and access rights.
These cards were used by all persons permitted to enter — from the press, athletes, and invited VIPs to authorities and operators. The same goes for vehicle IDs: authorized vehicles were issued an RFID-enabled pass.
People and vehicles were manually scanned with handheld RFID readers supplied by Brightpoint. Cards and vehicle passes were created and personalized using printers and encoders provided by Alfi, which is also taking care of general system integration.
For more information about the event, see Vialattea.
PREMO RFID and INGENIA Partner to Develop a Human Location System Based on RFID
PREMO RFID and INGENIA offer a solution that locates people based on video surveillance and active RFID technologies.
It will fundamentally improve intelligent surveillance video systems. The pilot project will operate in the second semester of 2008.
This agreement means to INGENIA one more advance within its product strategy in the RFID technology market. This pilot project will be a new solution inside the company’s RFID present catalogue, which already offers solutions such as “Gestar” (tasks management, identification, and location of elderly people in geriatric residences), RFID immobilizer management, presence control, and more.
The new PREMO RFID systems provide solutions for presence control, access control, entry identification and control, library and documentation managements (fairs, sports, exhibitions, etc), logistic management, warehouse inventory and stock, production control, loyalty cards and solutions for different sectors such as banks, hospitals, textile, automotive, pharmaceutical, farming, meat industries, and so on.
VDC Says China is a Catalyst for the RFID Industry
RFID solutions are being deployed in China at an unprecedented rate — approximately 475 million transponders in 2007 — and the early success of these installations are providing the market with significant momentum.
The China market for RFID is fueled by well-funded government programs, backed by extensive manufacturing experience and capabilities, and pulled by a global community ravenous for more proven productivity tools (and their results). RFID in China is a rare case of a real market and a virtual movement. Current thinking is that this market may be expected to maintain its 31% per year revenue growth for the next four or five years.
China has laid the foundation to expand its RFID efforts with two critical initiatives among dozens of smaller actions:
1. Authorizing RFID usage on UHF band
2. Adopting ISO 18000-6c standard
The China RFID plan is driven by a national strategy to augment and extend its core, low-cost manufacturing competencies, and jump-start emerging supply chain management opportunities with varied applications of RFID (i.e., source tagging).
Although most activity in 2007 focused on “traditional” and well-understood applications such as security/access control that are predominantly based on LF and HF technologies, the Chinese government recognizes the importance of UHF and its role in the supply chain and is becoming more proactive in the evolution of the frequency within the country.
VDC predicts that this foundation will become even more robust once China approves the upcoming EPC HF standard for item-level tracking and supply chain applications (expected to be published in 2008 and eventually integrated into ISO).
The total RFID market in China was estimated at $356 million in 2007 and is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 31% over the next three years, approaching $800 million by 2010. China RFID revenues accounted for approximately 17% of the total global market in 2007.
“China is a long-awaited catalyst for the RFID industry,” exclaimed Louis Bianchin, Senior RFID Analyst at Venture Development Corporation. “The country’s impact on the industry is expected to begin with driving economies of scale — increased capacity and lower manufacturing costs.
However, the larger, more powerful impact will be the enhanced power of the technology’s value propositions (via tagging further down the value chain).
As RFID benefits are documented and distributed, end-user and consumer awareness of and comfort with the technology will grow incrementally.”
Visit VDC at www.vdc-corp.com.
iGPS Releases New Pallet Rental Checklist
Intelligent Global Pooling Systems (iGPS Company LLC), operator of the world’s first RFID-tagged, all-plastic pallet pool, has developed a new dynamic checklist that compares various attributes of typical multi-use pallets available today, including iGPS’s all-plastic pallet and the conventional multi-use wood pallet.
The checklist is available on iGPS’ website, www.igps.net.
“The more informed companies are about various types of multi-use pallets available today, the more confident they will be in making the right choice,” says Bob Moore, CEO of iGPS.
“This checklist reviews all the key attributes that shippers and receivers should consider. We have found that when all the facts are considered, the case for our all-plastic pallet with embedded RFID tags is pretty compelling.”
Among the categories covered on the checklist are top deck coverage, durability, flame-retardance, worker safety, RFID tracking, and environmental responsibility. To access information about pallet attributes, users simply need to roll their computer mouse over a given box, and detailed information will pop up on their screen.
“This is the first of many initiatives we will pursue to help educate the pallet rental marketplace. Information is in everyone’s best interest,” Moore said.
Moore recently addressed supply chain executives at The Green Supply Chain Forum at Florida International University in Miami. This Forum brought together some of the world's leading green supply chain experts from academia, government, and a variety of business sectors to share best practices and discuss opportunities for future collaboration.
A series of panels and lectures presented the state of the art in Green Supply Chain practices and its application across the supply chain.
Moore’s presentation emphasized the numerous environmental benefits of iGPS’ all-plastic pallet compared to the conventional multi-use wood pallet. iGPS pallets are 30% lighter, more durable than wood, are impervious to infestation, easier to handle, and 100% recyclable.
Streamserve Extends Automated Document Output Solutions with RFID Support for Existing Supply Chain and ERP Systems.
StreamServe announces that it has expanded its document solutions functionality to support RFID.
Unlike other stand-alone RFID products and printers, StreamServe provides an integrated solution that allows organizations to incorporate RFID creation with existing supply chain documents without re-engineering existing business processes.
The latest capabilities further enhance StreamServe’s existing logistics document solutions that already support barcodes, high-volume printers, e-mail, etc.
Built on industry standards and an open-architecture, StreamServe’s proven and scalable solutions enable manufacturers, retailers, and suppliers to extend their existing ERP and other back-end systems with an integrated document composition, management, and delivery system.
StreamServe enables organizations to respond to immediate RFID compliance mandates and, more importantly, deliver true business value across the enterprise and their supply chain.
Unlike stand-alone RFID products and printers, StreamServe provides an integrated solution that allows organizations to incorporate RFID creation with existing supply chain documents without re-engineering existing business processes.
By leveraging existing back-end system processes to create RFID tags for documents, items, or parcels, StreamServe enables material movement processes to be automated, thereby reducing operational costs while improving supply chain accuracy.
StreamServe’s automated document solution can also be implemented to enhance additional document processes, including order processing, fulfillment, packing, shipping, and delivery.
“Manufacturers must recognize the longer-term requirements and find their own benefits, not simply satisfy a customer mandate,” says Kimberly Knickle, Program Director, IDC Manufacturing Insights.
“Manufacturing Insights recognizes that this is a strong opportunity for vendors to demonstrate their ability to deliver well-packaged options that manage the costs of implementation relative to short-term value and eventually build the level of expertise companies will need to reach the next step for product and process level improvements.”
With the ability to easily integrate RFID technology into existing business applications, StreamServe offers a flexible, multi-format solution that allows manufacturers, retailers, distributors, and logistics providers to integrate RFID into their technology strategy where appropriate rather than reacting to individual vendor demands.
StreamServe offers support for tag types, communication protocols, EPC data formats and printers, and makes it easier for manufacturers, distributors, as well as their suppliers to successfully integrate a well-orchestrated RFID strategy.
StreamServe’s scalable and open design supports a variety of RFID printers from vendors like Intermec, Zebra, Printronix, and Toshiba-TEC. Specific models supported include: Intermec PM4i, Zebra R4M Plus and R110Xi, Printronix SL5000r MP2 RFID Printers, and Toshiba B-SX 4T/5T Printers.
“Organizations are under tremendous pressure to comply with mandates from the likes of behemoths such as Wal-Mart,” says Chris Stone, President and CEO, StreamServe, Inc.
“Despite these mandates, smart suppliers are evaluating integrated solutions that address business challenges beyond the RFID mandate.
StreamServe enables organizations to leverage their existing infrastructure, streamline their labor intensive document processes, and derive greater business value from data that lives within the RFID label.”
A significant benefit of the StreamServe RFID solution is the ability to design a license structure that fits the needs of all suppliers, regardless of size.
While larger suppliers may prefer to have an on-site StreamServe license, StreamServe’s web integration can provide a centralized architecture through a web portal to support smaller suppliers in an ASP model.
For those smaller suppliers, this means that nothing is installed at the supplier site and all RFIDs are produced at a central site through the e-supply chain web portal.
