Firms claim item-level success

Packaging company Owens-Illinois (OII) and RFID provider Impinj say they have achieved 100% reliability of RFID for pharmaceuticals in item-level live demonstrations, reports In-Pharma Technologist.

The demonstrations used a near-field ultrahigh frequency (UHF) Gen 2 RFID solution that included Impinj's readers and chips and OII's item-level embedded RFID tags. Results showed 100% read rates of approximately 600 tags per minute.

UHF is believed to work across all levels of packaging, and therefore could potentially allow drug makers to standardise the process across one frequency, allowing the same tag to be used throughout the supply chain to track pharmaceuticals.

Nissan, BMW, Ford, General Motors and Toyota have begun using active RFID tags in some manufacturing plants, but at $30 a tag, InformationWeek says active RFID is still not ubiquitous in the auto industry.

Although many large car manufactures are using RFID tags to store information about testing, repairs, inspections and destination, none has set an RFID mandate to suppliers like Wal-Mart has done to promote collaborative supply chain functions in the retail industry.

According to the report, the auto industry is still holding back because of concerns about cost, return on investment, and lack of standards. A study by AMR Research reveals 41% of car makers surveyed still have no plans to deploy RFID. The research report predicts 2010 will be the year when RFID starts to take off in the auto supply chain.

IBM's RFID business has spread throughout its target industries in the past six months and more customers are using the technology beyond the supply chain, reports CBR Online.

IBM says initial traction of RFID was in the supply chain from customers in the manufacturing, consumer products and retail industries, but that's changing mainly because of an improvement in the technology.

IBM says customers are now using RFID to track assets, have greater visibility into what's being sold and where, and how product promotions are being handled. RFID data is also being integrated with more business applications and systems.

Adoption of RFID by the aviation industry has been slow despite predictions that the sector could lead the way. Computing says a recent industry survey shows that only 14% of airports are using RFID for employee identification, 9% use if for baggage tracking and just 1% for asset tracking.

According to the report, one of the major stumbling blocks to the widespread use of RFID could be the debate around whether airports or airlines should pay for the required infrastructure.

Peter Harrop, chairman of analyst ID TechEx, says RFID take-up has been slow, but he expects it to increase significantly within the sector over the next 10 years. He says if airports invest in RFID infrastructure, it could encourage airlines to invest.