RFID Solutions 2006

18 May 2006


Europe’s largest dedicated RFID event, the RFID Solutions 2006 Conference and Exhibition was staged by Wilmington Conferences in London last month. Now in its second year, the event was organized with RFID Solutions, Packaging Today and Converting Today as the official media partners and supported by GS1 UK, the RFID Centre, The Packaging Federation, CILT and ETSI.

Industry experts speaking at the conference covered the latest information on RFID technology and its applications, in streamed sessions covering packaging and manufacturing, supply chain management , and retailing

Sanjay Balu, director of InfoChain Express at Avery Dennison Retail Information Services, discussed the production process challenges of converting RFID inlays into finished labels and tickets, and the role of the label and tag converter within the EPC data management process. Ian Dent, chief executive of the Packaging Federation, covered the technical challenges of incorporating RFID into different types of packaging material.

Robert Clarke, associate professor at Michigan State University’s School of Packaging, asked “How smart can RFID labels get?”. He argued: “No matter how smart they are, you have to be able to utilize them. “People want actionable information to help make their businesses more efficient and profitable.” An in-house closed loop system is a good start, he suggested.

He continued: “RFID got off on the wrong foot by starting with a consumer-retail focus when it would have been better to have begun with high end items which would justify the cost involved. Value should be top down, not bottom up. High value low quantity should come first, then high value, high quantity – and then low value, high quantity, once the technology has been proven.”

“For all applications, time and visibility have emerged as key competitive strategies. We have to be able to collect new data and transform it into actionable information that can be leveraged to make business process decisions. RFID is not a panacea – you generally need a combination of technologies, for example, as a broadcast mechanism with bar codes.” But he concluded: “The marketing use is unlimited”.



Contact

Wilmington Conferences
Tel: +44 (0)207 549 8600





External weblinks
Converting Today is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Wilmington Conferences



Privacy Policy
We have updated our privacy policy. In the latest update it explains what cookies are and how we use them on our site. To learn more about cookies and their benefits, please view our privacy policy. Please be aware that parts of this site will not function correctly if you disable cookies. By continuing to use this site, you consent to our use of cookies in accordance with our privacy policy unless you have disabled them.