Microsoft goes postal over RFID

Microsoft is targeting the postal services with radio frequency identification (RFID) software designed to track packages, reports Line 56.

In addition to the middleware, Microsoft is contributing a link to the MSN Messenger instant messaging (IM) service to let individuals and businesses know the status of packages in transit.

In the past, package tracking has been limited to knowing when a package has arrived at or left particular scan points.

The Line 56 report comments that Microsoft`s increased use of RFID technology is inevitable because Microsoft is an enterprise applications player whose customers demand RFID support in the supply chain as well as in targeted applications like the postal service.

Savi Technology has released a compact, highly mobile RFID solution that directly supports the soldiers in operational areas.

Technology News Daily says Savi`s Portable Deployment Kit (PDK) enables for the first time military logisticians to use RFID to track critical military supplies in near real-time into war zone operational areas where there is no RFID fixed reader infrastructure.

The US Marine Corps Systems Command is the first customer and has placed an initial order for 100 units to be deployed in Southwest Asia.

The PDK is the result of collaborative efforts between Savi Technology and the US Department of Defense (DOD) to address the challenge of getting supply chain visibility in conflict areas.

The DOD says the PDK brings a needed additional resource to everyone involved in rapidly adjusting to and meeting the military`s often-changing logistics requirements.

Australian troops in Iraq will use radio frequency identification tags to monitor the movement of their equipment, reports ZDNet

According to the report, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) wants to improve the monitoring and control of its critical distribution network, which provides items like rations and weapons to armed forces. The ADF says pallets and containers in Iraq will be RFID-tagged.

The Iraq project accompanies the wider In-Transit Visibility project, which will integrate RFID with ADA`s transport, distribution and inventory management systems. This will replace the barcode-based cargo visibility system, which requires manual data input.

By August of next year, the ADA expects to have its Iraq RFID supply chain system replicated in other Middle Eastern countries, as well as its 34 sites in Australia. The In-Transit Visibility project is due to be completed by May 2007.

A panel of US experts says the real business case for radio frequency identification technology is in closed loop applications, or for tracking assets, reports Australian IT.

The report notes that examples of RFID being used in Australia to track pallets and cases are few, but quotes International RFID Business Association president Harry Pappas as saying each organisation needs to find the business value of RFID and in many cases it will be for tracking assets.

The report says Wal-Mart RFID strategy manager Simon Langford summed up a view expressed by all panel members, saying that a business may have a clear vision for the technology and the touch points, but installing it was a long road and along the way there would be some unexpected changes of direction.

A research study on the application of RFID in the maritime market by ChainLink Research has found that RFID is increasingly being used for a myriad of innovative uses in the maritime industry beyond port and container security.

A media statement says the study found that RFID is being used to track containers as they move across oceans, provide real-time location of containers in maritime yards, help product flow through customs, reduce demurrage, and increase the throughput of our constrained ports.

The study report says executives surveyed rated supply chain objectives like trace and track and supply chain effectiveness as more important motivators for use of RFID than container security.

The report says RFID has been shown to be a critical enabler of better management for port operators, ocean carriers and the firms who move their goods through these facilities.