Axcess International Introduces Industry's
First Smart Wireless Sticker

jpg Axcess International Inc., a provider of wireless business activity monitoring solutions, announces the industry's first Smart Wireless Sticker™. It provides automatic item identification, locating, tracking, protecting, data logging, and condition sensing for items from up to a 1000 feet away at a cost of less than $10 each. The "wireless computer on a sticker" combines traditional barcodes, Electronic Product Code (EPC) RFID, long range RFID tracking, and wireless sensing in a small electronic label easily adhered to most any object. It is designed to enhance: data management in product manufacturing; product automatic identification in shipping; automatic inventory; and protection of enterprise assets and visibility into the condition of perishables and pharmaceuticals throughout the shipping process.

Imagine a peel and stick wireless computer applied to your car's windshield, warehouse boxes, pallets, laptops, perishable shipments, and more. Not only has Axcess introduced a wireless computer in the form of the industry's first Smart Wireless Sticker, but also it has developed the smallest wireless computer to combine the following technological capabilities:

Printing on the sticker for visual identification;
Barcode application for short range manual identification;
Electronic Product Code (EPC) standard passive wireless RFID communications supporting applications in the retail supply chain including the Wal-Mart® mandate;
Long range active wireless communications for automobile identification, tracking, sensing and protection;
Short range active wireless read/write manifesting that tracks the history of equipment repair;
Temperature sensing, data logging, and wireless transfer of the condition of produce, IT equipment, and other temperature-sensitive items.

This significant, low-cost introduction to the wireless market offers numerous advantages, including:

Easy to program electronically;
Easily and reliably adhered to items, boxes, assets, and vehicles;
Communicates simultaneously to multiple standards-based infrastructures;
Tamper resistant and re-usable, if needed;
Stores data and transmits in real time over a low cost wireless network;
Stores and forwards user defined programmable information;
Tag wakes up and sends alerts at designated temperature ranges;
Pinpoints where perishables went bad to assign accountability;
Rich feature/function set for a revolutionary price point under $10.

Sensors Added to Axcess' Dot Platform
Dot™ is a powerful, low-cost battery-powered wireless computer based on a revolutionary system-on-a-chip (SOC) technology design. By adding a condition monitoring sensor to its Dot platform and developing the Smart Wireless Sticker, Axcess has solved the industry's problem of the size and placement of sensors, getting data off sensors and the cost of sensors. This technology could be very useful in tracking perishable foods (and their freshness). It could also be a good fit in data centers where unwarranted temperature changes with the equipment can make a server fail and overheat. The "wireless computer on the sticker" wakes up and sends an alert to designated persons. The server's functions are off-loaded, thereby avoiding any service impact to customers and further maintenance issues for the company.

"Industry has a common set of requirements for wirelessly enabling things in the enterprise to improve efficiency, productivity, security, and safety," stated Allan Griebenow, Axcess International's CEO and President. "Barcode product data needs to be identifiable via wireless over longer ranges. Assets need to be located, tracked, inventoried, and protected automatically. Sensing needs to be portable and available on discrete products. Until now, industry had conceived of something called a Smart Active Label or SAL. The Smart Wireless Sticker leapfrogs that by delivering short and long range wireless communications plus sensor logging, all combined in a very small, very low cost, easy to attach, standards-based wireless sticker."

GlobeRanger’s iMotion Platform Deployed
in Successful EPCIS Pilot Program

gif GlobeRanger Corporation announces its participation in the successful EPCIS pilot program involving the event tracking of mounted tires from Shanghai, China, to a major manufacturing facility in Janesville, Wisconsin.

The EPCIS pilot program, initiated by GS1 EPCglobal, included two shipments of three containers. Each container consisted of 20 pallets. The EPC Information Services (EPCIS) standard enables trading partners to communicate in a common computer language on objects as they move through the supply chain.

"We were pleased to have been selected and participated in this international GS1 EPCglobal Pilot program," says Susan King, Area Vice-President Business Development at GlobeRanger. “This pilot was groundbreaking as it proved the capability for unprecedented visibility into the movement, location, and disposition of assets, goods, and services throughout the world, and will have a significant impact to supply chains worldwide.”

“The use of EPCIS, coupled with the adoption and utilization of GS1 EPCglobal standards enables visibility across multiple business layers and stakeholders with and outside global supply chains,” says Chris Adcock, President of EPCglobal Inc. “Companies can improve supply chain execution. Some retailers can increase revenue by reducing out-of-stock whereas other companies can cut costs through real-time asset management.”

GlobeRanger’s iMotion platform provides the flexibility to connect a multitude of devices, while rapidly developing and executing business process across multi-national lines. EPCIS will form the backbone of a number of critical applications around the flow of goods through multiple entities. Examples are anti-counterfeiting, food traceability, pharma ePedigree, product recalls, and end-to-end supply chain visibility. GlobeRanger’s standards-based EPCIS framework provides the foundation for these applications.

Airbus Selects IBM and OATSystems for World’s
Largest RFID-enabled Manufacturing Initiative

gif IBM and OATSystems announce that Airbus has selected them to provide a software solution for a multi-million dollar, multi-year RFID project that will help streamline Airbus’s supply chain and manufacturing operations and significantly reduce its aircraft production and maintenance costs. The project represents the manufacturing industry’s single largest RFID software transaction to date.

Using a solution comprised of software from IBM and OAT, Airbus’ objective is to error-proof and automate its supply chain and manufacturing operations, while also reducing costs. The company selected IBM and OAT for the project following exhaustive research and pilot testing over the past year.

The IBM/OAT solution runs on IBM’s RFID infrastructure, which is powered by service oriented architecture technology that includes the IBM WebSphere Premises Server and the IBM Business Process Management portfolio, including WebSphere Process Server and WebSphere Business Monitor. The IBM Tivoli Monitoring and IBM Tivoli Composite Application software products will be used for infrastructure monitoring. The solution will use OATSystems’ business applications including the OAT Foundation Suite, Asset Tracking, and Work-in-Process solutions.

Using IBM’s scaleable software and OATSystems’ production-ready solutions, Airbus will be able to integrate RFID into existing applications easily and quickly, transform, and streamline current business processes and gain real-time visibility into daily operations. Most important, IBM and OAT’s flexible architecture enables it to distribute computing to devices such as RFID readers, handheld devices, servers or any combination of those. Using this solution, Airbus will be able to deploy applications centrally at its distributed facilities, or even at remote third-party sites to address specific business scenarios.

“The Airbus decision to use RFID across its operations sends a clear signal to manufacturers — that RFID isn’t a technology for ‘someday,’ it can bring manufacturers a competitive edge right now,” says Martin Wildberger, Vice President, RFID solutions, IBM. “By giving Airbus greater visibility into its business processes, RFID can help serve as an engine for business transformation inside Airbus and across its partner network.”

“This move serves as testimony to Airbus’ continued leadership, and will demonstrate how an industry giant can put RFID to work throughout its operations to gain substantial efficiencies and competitive advantages; we’re very pleased to be part of this strategic and thought-leading initiative,” says Michael George, CEO, OATSystems. “This is yet another example of how RFID’s core value is its ability to transform and improve business processes dramatically. ”

IBM and OAT will be making their solution available to Airbus’ suppliers and customers, so that they can benefit from the same RFID advantages.