GS1 Germany hosted the first European congress “RFID/EPCglobal in Europe 2006”, which took place in Dusseldorf from September 6 to 8, 2006. The congress was organized in close cooperation with EPCglobal Inc. The event attracted over 600 interested parties and was aimed at all European companies that recognize new opportunities and market chances in this forward-looking technology, planning to gather information on implementation possibilities, trends, experiences, and solutions. Representatives of companies such as METRO Group, TESCO, KRAFT, GlaxoSmithKline, Delhaize Group, Johnson&Johnson, DHL, Boeing, AIRBUS, SIEMENS, and Cisco Systems shared their experiences related to the implementation of EPC/RFID technology.
Among the most interesting statements from a cognitive point of view, one should undoubtedly include the speeches of representatives from:
– Delhaize Group – a Belgian retailer present in markets including the USA, Belgium, the Czech Republic, and Greece, which is implementing a project involving the deployment of an RFID system (based on EPCglobal standards) for the identification of meat product flows on the line: producer – distribution center – retail sale. The project has 3 stages, covering crate identification, full “traceability” functionality, up to the registration of availability on the shelf.
– Lemi Fashion – a company involved in the production and sale of clothing, which implemented an RFID system for selected product groups in order to increase the speed of product information flow and improve the precision of this information. The company used 13.56 MHz tags, however, in subsequent stages of implementation, they intend to switch to the Gen2 standard (which is an EPCglobal standard).
– the Boekhandels Groep Nederland group
– Lemi Fashion – a company involved in the production and sale of clothing, which implemented an RFID system for selected product groups in order to increase the speed of product information flow and improve the precision of this information. The company used 13.56 MHz tags, however, in subsequent stages of implementation, they intend to switch to the Gen2 standard (which is an EPCglobal standard).
– the Boekhandels Groep Nederland group
– a Dutch concern involved in the distribution of books to European markets and beyond, owning its Selexyz retail chain. The implementation involved tagging books at the distribution center and selling them at retail points using EPC/RFID technology. In addition to the obvious benefits related to increasing efficiency in managing the flow of books in the supply chain, inventory, and book availability on the store shelf, this technology was also used to improve customer service through the use of so-called information kiosks inside stores, allowing customers to quickly and accurately locate the book they are looking for.
The congress was one of the most important events in 2006 for the RFID industry and companies implementing this technology, as well as its future beneficiaries. Therefore, it should be expected that in the coming years, similar events will take place in Europe with an even larger participation of those interested in the new technology.
Apart from the interesting speeches during the Congress, each participant had the opportunity to check the functioning of this technology in the “RFID village”, where about 40 exhibitors demonstrated their ideas and applications of EPC/RFID in industry, trade, pharmacy, and logistics. The main attraction of the “RFID village” was the “innovation park”, where RFID applications operating in supply chains that were actually implemented in pilot deployments were presented. Among the companies that presented their solutions were: Axway, IBM, Sirit, Intermec, Zebra, Sato, SAP, Oracle.
On the last day of the Congress, two alternative technical tours were organized to the Metro Innovation Centre and Future Store near Dusseldorf, and to research laboratories near Dortmund. Representatives of ILiM participated in the second of the mentioned visits. The EPC/RFID research laboratories are located in an impressive science and technology park near Dortmund. LogIDLab, belonging to Dortmund University, conducts research related to RFID technology, which focuses primarily on testing device performance depending on environmental conditions, as well as testing applications that support this technology and function only within the enterprise. The laboratory also serves a demonstration function.
In turn, the openID-Center, belonging to the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics, is a demonstration laboratory where the integration of state-of-the-art equipment related to warehouse logistics and internal transport is shown in combination with RFID technology. The laboratory is designed as a fully automated warehouse using RFID technology for object identification.
The article comes from the magazine “e-Fakty” 6/2006.