Compliance is main RFID driver

Compliance with customer mandates remains a key driver of RFID implementation and not business value, according to a new report from AMR Research.

Frontlinetoday.com reports AMR research found that customer compliance was the leading driver of RFID adoption for 53% of process manufacturers and 31% of discrete manufacturers. More than a quarter of respondents cited ROI issues as their biggest obstacle to adoption.

The survey also found that only 8% of respondents are in full deployment mode, 23% are piloting RFID, 26% plan to evaluate the technology in 2005 and 12% won`t evaluate RFID until 2006. Another 12% plan to implement the technology for the first time in 2005. A full 18% of those surveyed had no plans for RFID.

AMR says RFID is still in its formative years and it expects the market will be hotly contested across all technology segments from tags and readers through middleware and enterprise applications.

Kicking off high-level discussions on the future of RFID, Alien Technology has announced its new RFID-tag reader, designed to handle what is expected to be the first global RFID technology standard, EPC Generation 2, says Computerwire.

Alien`s new ALR-9800 reader is the industry`s first to be embedded with IBM`s RFID middleware, WebSphere RFID Device Infrastructure.

Key to Alien`s new reader is its ability to simultaneously read older and new types of RFID tags, including Gen 2.

A number of RFID outfits have debuted Gen 2 technology recently and the industry expects Gen 2 will spur the adoption of RFID by enterprises to manage their global supply chains.

Researchers at Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands are using RFID data to determine how to keep perishables in stock and fresh.

According to the RFID Journal, the researchers say RFID will play an important role in providing fast and accurate data needed to improve the supply chain for perishables.

The research team has been developing a quality-oriented tracking and tracing concept that combines the ability to track goods through the supply chain with the recording of temperature, humidity and other data about the environmental condition of the products

Intermec Technologies has won a contract with the US Department of Defense (DOD) and the coast guard to provide the agencies with RFID technical engineering services.

ZD Net says the DOD is investigating the use of RFID technology to improve battlefield logistics.

The new the deal follows an earlier contract won by Intermec to supply the government with RFID tags and readers.

RFID Global Solution has officially opened an RFID innovation centre in Rogers, Arkansas to demonstrate how RFID technology is used in manufacturing, distribution, and retail settings.

The company says in a statement that the centre is designed to provide businesses the opportunity to have a hands-on working lab environment where they can work side by side with trained RFID engineers to test, evaluate and implement multiple types of RFID hardware and software solutions.

The statement says the centre will allow customers to see RFID solutions operating simultaneously without any upfront capital investment in equipment.

The centre features RFID equipment from manufacturers such as Alien Technology, PSC, SAMSys, Sirit, Symbol, ThingMagic, WJ Communications and Zebra Technologies, as well as active technology from Savi and WaveTrend.