Food safety encompasses the origin, processing and packaging of food so that consumers don’t get sick from the food they buy. Increased food production, growing market demand and faster delivery are just three of the many challenges companies face in trying to keep food safe all along the food supply chain.

RFID increasingly provides the most effective means to solve these challenges and to ensure compliance with recently enacted legislation designed to protect consumers.

The MIT Enterprise Forum is bringing together key experts for a panel discussion of the major issues, technologies, and business cases surrounding the RFID-enabled food chain. Come and hear for yourself how RFID is making food safer and food-borne illness easier to trace.

Moderator: John Greaves, President and CEO, SSI

John Greaves has been actively involved in AIDC (Automatic Identification and Data Capture) including RFID for many years. His pioneering work in the area of global logistics, inventory management and the returnable transport Items sector with both active and passive RFID has led to the significant adoptions occurring in supply chains, health care and security.??He was the founding chair of the US RFID standards group, led the European Spectrum Initiative, was the leader of the GTAG program for EAN.UCC, and developed — among many significant RFID implementations worldwide — the one-tag-per-pallet UHF solution with CHEP.

Click here to register for this event!

“METRO GROUP is very optimistic about RFID-based EAS,” said Dr. Gerd Wolfram, managing director at METRO SYSTEMS. “We’re confident that RFID builds on the usability of traditional RF EAS both for loss prevention as well as inventory visibility, enabling us to better serve our customers.”

RFID Overhead EAS is a key component of an integrated solution delivering real-time inventory and related benefits, while serving as an enhanced EAS system, improving operations at the point-of-exit. It leverages open-standards RFID technology and delivers several new, important benefits for apparel retailers:

• Leverages a single RFID tag for inventory visibility and loss prevention. The Overhead Solution uses one tag for multiple purposes, increasing efficiency at point-of-sale and cost-effectiveness over the long-term.

• Provides an open entrance. Installed either suspended from the ceiling or fully concealed within it, the Overhead Solution enhances the store entrance’s appearance.

• Enables retailers to know what was stolen. The Overhead Solution enables retailers to actually know what was stolen, the quantity and the dollar value, helping them to maintain shelf availability and respond smarter to a theft event.

• Enables retailers to fight all sources of theft. Apparel retailers now have the potential to distinguish among the actions more typical of a casual shoplifter from a professional thief or organized retail theft group, enabling them to take action based on the size and scope of the event.

• Enhances theft deterrence. Combined with Checkpoint’s Merchandise Visibility Solution™, apparel retailers can enhance deterrence by displaying an image or description of the items that were stolen, warning shoplifters of the presence of a more sophisticated system, and causing them to recalculate the risk.

• Increases alarm integrity. By leveraging encoded tags, retailers benefit from the Overhead Solution’s ability to “ignore” tags from other retailers, helping associates respond confidently to alarms, and increasing customer satisfaction.

The RFID Overhead EAS Solution builds on the success of Checkpoint’s high-performance series of RF and dual RF/RFID systems, and encompasses hardware, software and tags. A key advantage is a unique combination of patented hardware and software technology called Wirama Radar™, which ensures data integrity by eliminating stray reads. This technology uniquely enables Checkpoint to deliver unprecedented accuracy and context in reporting the location and directionality of movement of tagged merchandise, providing insight much like commercial radar informs air traffic controllers, meteorologists and the military, while adhering to EPCglobal standards.

The RFID Overhead EAS Solution joins the previously announced Handheld Visibility and Open EPC Number Management Solutions as part of Checkpoint’s solutions portfolio to deliver increased Merchandise Visibility to apparel retailers. Beyond this point-of-exit solution, Checkpoint plans to add several additional solutions in the coming months to provide value for the growing number of apparel retailers that seek to leverage RFID to reduce out-of-stocks, reduce working capital, increase sales, as well as enhance loss prevention and the customer experience.

Checkpoint developed its RFID Overhead EAS Solution to address apparel retailers’ needs to leverage RFID both to maintain inventory at the speed of fashion, as well as to reduce shrink, notable for the apparel industry due to its #2 rank among all retail verticals for shrink as a percent of sales, according to the Global Retail Theft Barometer.

“The ability for a single RFID tag to deliver benefits both for inventory management as well as loss prevention is an important advantage for apparel retailers seeking to maximize the value of their RFID investment,” commented Dr. Bill Hardgrave, dean of Auburn University’s College of Business. “Determining the static location and dynamic directionality (movement) of merchandise are essential to truly addressing data integrity and loss prevention.”

“As apparel retailers increasingly adopt RFID to increase sales, reduce out-of-stocks and reduce working capital, they are also considering the impact that this technology can have on their loss prevention practices,” noted Per Levin, Checkpoint Systems’ worldwide president, Merchandise Visibility Solutions. “We’re providing apparel retailers with solutions that offer a pathway to achieve promising benefits, independent of their individual starting point.”

The RFID Overhead EAS Solution is now being field-tested by major retailers, and will be available in early Q3.

About Checkpoint Systems, Inc.

Checkpoint Systems is a global leader in shrink management, merchandise visibility and apparel labeling solutions. Checkpoint enables retailers and their suppliers to reduce shrink, improve shelf availability and leverage real-time data to achieve operational excellence. Checkpoint solutions are built upon 40 years of RF technology expertise, diverse shrink management offerings, a broad portfolio of apparel labeling solutions, market-leading RFID applications, innovative high-theft solutions and its Web-based Check-Net data management platform. As a result, Checkpoint customers enjoy increased sales and profits by improving supply-chain efficiencies, by facilitating on-demand label printing and by providing a secure open-merchandising environment enhancing the consumer’s shopping experience. Listed on the NYSE (NYSE: CKP), Checkpoint operates in every major geographic market and employs 5,600 people worldwide. For more information, visit www.checkpointsystems.com.

CONTACT:
George Cohen (for Checkpoint)
GCC, Inc.
617-325-0011
george@gccpr.com

Unfortunately since that time adoption, implementation and widespread use of these technologies and standards have not followed as quickly as many would have liked and in many industries there is a significant level of frustration with this inertia and lack of solid implementation progress.

The obvious question then becomes why is this happening, or not happening depending on your point of view? The answer to this is not simple, but in my mind it is a combination of complexity, high cost, capabilities and control that has been hampering this growth and widespread standards implementation.

The secret for setting these SCM standards free is to develop a model which addresses all four of the above negative forces resulting in a business environment which will support the rapid and widespread growth of these new SCM standards and technologies. Let’s review these negative forces and discuss some potential solutions and approaches to counteracting them to foster adoption and growth.

Cutting Through Complexity

Although the myriad details behind the unified application of these technologies and standards is somewhat complex, there is the potential of developing and delivering simplified education programs to educate non-technical business managers and leaders on the integrated vision and joint use of these technologies and standards.

By educating and mobilizing these mid and senior level individuals to drive the investment and commitment of the firm and leaving the complex technical details to those best equipped to deal with them, progress can then be made. Getting bogged down in an industry based on lack of vision, understanding can be easy to do in such cases but by simplifying and focussing on results this complexity can be tamed.

High Costs

Many of those personally committed and passionate about implementing these SCM technologies and standards don’t understand why the associated program memberships, registration numbers and onboarding/consulting fees need to be so high. Even more disconcerting for these individuals and their firms is paying these high fees for in some cases up to seven years and still not having proportionate success to show for it.

For the new SCM standards and related technologies such as RFID and Electronic Catalogues (GDSN) to takeoff requires critical mass widespread adoption, acceptance and proper use within an industry vertical. And although the pioneering companies and individuals in these industries are willing to pay high costs to get these initiatives started, the majority of companies will not or in some cases cannot allocate exhorbitant amounts to such endeavours.

In many ways, these SCM standards and technologies are like the first VCRS, they started out very complicated and expensive, but market adoption and sales exploded once the units were simplified and the cost came down.

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IBM is replacing Danone’s existing network to increase the flexibility and responsiveness of its business-to-business (B2B) commercial interactions to improve its overall customer experience.

Part of IBM’s unfolding Smarter Commerce portfolio, IBM’s Sterling Collaboration Network, is being rolled out across Danone’s global business units, each including multiple sales and distribution points and factories. The large-scale deployment involves the onboarding of up to 600 trading partners to the IBM network and management of nine million messages a year.

The project supports the full spectrum of Danone’s order-to-cash processes, including ordering, invoicing, delivery and logistics. The solution provides traditional electronic data interchange (EDI) across a diverse range of formats required by Danone’s partners, allowing third party data to be integrated with Danone’s warehouse data.

IBM’s solution was selected by Danone to improve flexibility in its ability to respond to the individual needs of its customers, which include large retailers. By delivering real-time visibility and control over the business processes shared with its community of customers and partners, IBM’s Sterling Collaboration Network brings Danone accuracy and speed in responding to customer demands, largely enhancing the customer experience.

“IBM’s Sterling team was quick to react to our requests for increased flexibility in meeting trading partners’ needs,” said Hans Vollebregt EDI solutions at Danone Information Systems. “The company also has a proven track record in Europe in providing B2B integration as-a-Service. And the team’s willingness and ability to meet our needs is what made all the difference in our choice of a B2B partner.”

Danone also looked to gain greater reliability and availability from its B2B network provider to lower costs. The increased B2B network reliability ensures that Danone does not suffer any downtime in its B2B operations, while enhanced visibility improves performance and control over operations. Coupled with the ability to onboard new Danone business units and trading partners quickly, these improvements drive down costs for Danone.

“Success in the fast-moving consumer goods sector depends entirely on the ability to communicate immediately and effectively with different partners across the supply chain to gain control over processes and inventory,” said Ronald Teijken, IBM EMEA manufacturing industry executive. “With its large trading partner network, Danone will reap the benefits of providing an optimized trading network with streamlined business processes.”

For more information, visit: http://www.ibm.com/press/smartercommerce.
Contact(s) information

Mike Azzi
IBM Media Relations
914-766-1561
azzi@us.ibm.com

Willemijn Steegenga
IBM Media Relations
+31 20 560 5794
Willemijn_Steegenga@nl.ibm.com

Logistics management is no longer regionally based, but handled on a national and even global scale. Due to the complexities innate to such large supply chains, there is a significant increase both in complexity and in potential liability to the brand owner.

For example, it is not uncommon for active ingredients to be manufactured in one region of the world, packaged in “bright stock” form in another and then finally packaged for distribution in a third. If at any point in time it becomes necessary to recall that product, it can negatively impact multiple regions both nationally and globally. In response, pharmaceutical manufacturers must jump into action and react as quickly as possible to solve these issues before they spiral out of control.

Enter ePedigree and serialization mandates. By 2015 pharmaceutical manufacturers will be accountable for being able to track and trace where any given drug is in real-time, while simultaneously being able to trace its entire history throughout the manufacturing process.

Each mandate is aimed at improving patient safety, product integrity and supply chain security. Additionally, these mandates will further aid pharmaceutical manufacturers to gain full control, visibility and access to every single item in their supply chain – both inside and outside their walls. RFID technology will further enable pharmaceutical companies to track products throughout the production line and then compile robust data in an organized and reliable manner.

The goal of the mandates is simple. By 2015, when an event occurs inside the pharmaceutical supply chain, companies will be able to (and must) address the issue quickly, offer a transparent account for where every affected product is and begin to remedy the situation in a matter of hours. In preparation for the 2015 initiative, many companies are beginning to collaborate in development and implementation of flexible solutions that minimize the burden of compliance by increasing supply chain visibility and assisting in global serialization.

If they don’t, they not only risk inquiries and fines from the government, they also risk damage to their brand – damage that in today’s social media world may be irreversible.

John DiPalo

Since the announcement that Wal-Mart was introducing item-level tagging into their operations to manage their apparel inventory, item-level tagging has been an increased conversation for retailers of all types. For many retailers, the ease of re-stocking and immediate availability of the product a customer is looking for is crucial to their business and building a loyal customer base. According to AMR Research, products are out of stock between seven and 20 percent of the time. Item-level tagging can help to decrease or almost eliminate this problem with accurate inventory counts. In a post-recession economy, building a loyal customer base is top of mind for many retailers. By reducing the amount of time salespeople spend taking inventory or in the stock room, item-level tagging also allows staff to spend time working with customers to understand and pinpoint the exact location of a product the customer needs in order to generate more sales.

As a market leader in RFID and printing and labeling technologies, Zebra Technologies’ vast experience with item-level tagging technologies and customers introducing the solution has allowed them to see and be a part of the increased adoption and implementation of this inventory management solution. As the RFID market continues to undergo a shift from compliance-based tracking to more item-level tracking, retailers will have a unique opportunity to take advantage of a technology that can save them time, money and provide enhanced visibility into their inventory.

Carolyn Ricci
Product Manager,
Zebra Technologies

The forum will present the most current research on radio frequency identification (RFID) item-level tagging, a technology that allows merchandise to be identified and tracked through the use of radio waves.

“Major retailers are beginning to take notice of the significant value that RFID item-level tagging creates,” said Heather Morys, CSCMP’s education programs services associate. “And, as more retailers adopt this supply chain tool, supply chain managers need to understand how their companies can leverage this technology as well as how it will impact their suppliers and their customers. RFID Forum 2010 will provide them with the knowledge and information they need.”

Attendees will tour UARK’s RFID Lab and participate in hands-on demonstrations involving case and pallet portals, sweet-spot testing, and point-of-sale (POS) systems and display signs. A question and answer session will follow. An optional RFID primer course is available prior to the tour for attendees to learn RFID basics or refresh their skills.

Following the tour, there will be sessions and discussions led by executives from major retailers who have tested item-level tagging in their stores. Keynote presentations, educational sessions, and panels will focus on digital inventory accuracy, offshore source tagging and in-store testing, connecting customers to the RFID technology experience, and the future of RFID. The content that will be covered is based on studies undertaken by the UARK RFID Research Center, in partnership with CSCMP, VICS, and Dillard’s.

Senior executives from Jones Apparel Group, Macy’s, Wal-Mart, Conair, and IBM Global Business Services will discuss their insights on RFID issues, including the challenges and benefits of item-level tagging implementation.

This forum is sponsored, in part, by ADT, Avery Dennison, Impinj and Motorola. More information is available at http://cscmp.org/events/rfid/index.asp or by contacting Heather Morys at hmorys@cscmp.org or +1 630.645.3454. Registration is available at http://cscmp.org/events/rfid/registration.asp.

Founded in 1963, the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals is the leading worldwide professional association dedicated to education, research, and the advancement of the supply chain management profession. With over 9,000 members globally, representing business, government, and academia from 63 countries, CSCMP members are the leading practitioners and authorities in the fields of logistics and supply chain management.

For more information, please contact:

Madeleine Miller-Holodnicki, ABC
Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals
333 East Butterfield Road, Suite 140
Lombard, Illinois 60148-5617 USA
mholodnicki@cscmp.org

While most food safety reforms focus on the protection and prevention of contamination, traceability systems are critical to quickly identifying product origins for removal from the supply chain. According to the CDC, an estimated 76 million Americans get sick from food borne illness each year, more than 300,000 are hospitalized and about 5,000 die. With such high numbers, growers and retailers alike need to be aware of how invaluable track and trace technologies are.

As the market leader in RFID and thermal printers, Zebra Technologies’ broad experience in supply chain management and building unique RFID and barcode solutions across a variety of industries has illustrated the importance of providing traceability – especially within the food industry. The below video with David Senerchia , Director of Business Development of Zebra Technologies, highlights the importance of food traceability throughout the supply chain:

With more label and scan points throughout a dairy, produce or food growers operation and shipping, products can be more accurately traced throughout the supply chain. This provides an extra layer of protection should a food-borne illness occur – allowing growers to quickly review their records to determine if the faulty product came from any of their farms and then alert their partners.

This can save businesses time, money and reputation. As produce growers/shippers look to obtain Produce Traceability Initiative compliance, they can look to Zebra as a reliable product partner to provide practical, mobile and desktop printing solutions to ensure multiple label and scan points to track the life of the product from farm to fork.

IDGA’s Military Logistics Summit 2010 will present updated DoD mission priorities and cutting edge information to support major deployment, re-deployment, and distribution operations. The event will bring together thought-leaders and decision-makers in logistics, sustainment, and readiness operations to discuss the latest implementation strategies and program initiatives to ensure the flexibility and preparedness of our military’s future.

“Over the years, the Military Logistics Summit has become the leading event for senior-level defense logistics professionals,” said Thomas Engleman, the event’s producer. “This year, we’re introducing an ‘Ask the Expert’ feature, where a logistics expert will be on-hand specifically to answer questions. We try to do something new every year, while keeping the same quality and standards people have come to expect.”

Specific summit topics that will be covered include:

* Changing regional priorities affecting all aspects of the defense transportation network,
* Enhancing combat unit readiness through more effective supply chain management and optimization processes
* Executing performance-based lifestyle product support for more efficient and cost-effective sustainment.

The speaker roster includes:

* LTG Mitchell Stevenson, USA, Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, G4, US Army
* LTG James Pillsbury, USA, Deputy Commanding General, US Army Materiel Command.
* VADM William Burke, USN, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Fleet Readiness and Logistics, N4, US Navy
* MG Randolph Strong, USA, Commanding General, CECOM LCMC, US Army
* An entire speaker list can be found on the event’s website.

For more information on speaking, exhibiting or attending IDGA’s Military Logistics Summit, please visit http://www.MilitaryLogisticsSummit.com or contact Erin Gilbert at ErinGilbert@idga.org.

The Institute for Defense & Government Advancement (IDGA) is a non-partisan information-based organization dedicated to the promotion of innovative ideas in public service and defense. IDGA brings together communities comprised of military, government, vendors and academia for education, networking and advancing the communities in which it serves. For more information, please visit http://www.idga.org.

“For years, there’s been a global race to find a low-cost way to manufacture plastic circuits,” said Paul Smith, laboratory manager, Xerox Research Centre of Canada. “We’ve found the silver bullet that could make things like electronic clothing and inexpensive games a reality today. This breakthrough means the industry now has the capability to print electronics on a wider range of materials and at a lower cost.” Xerox Scientists Develop “Silver Bullet” Needed to Replace Silicon Circuits with Low-Cost, Durable Plastic