Hot Countries for RFID

By Teresa Henry, IDTechEx

It is well known that the adoption of RFID is happening around the globe, but where are the success stories and in which market sectors? Teresa Henry highlights the leading adopter nations, the big spenders, and surprise niches for RFID implementation.

IDTechEx keeps a close eye on which countries are eagerly adopting RFID and which are not. IDTechEx's sources include intensive traveling, conferences, literature searches, and the IDTechEx RFID Knowledgebase of over 2,300 case studies covering over 2,500 organizations and 85 countries. The results are rather surprising.

Firstly, the U.S. is the greatest adopter, with by far the largest number of cases of RFID in action and orders that are often the world's largest by value. It has even pulled ahead in the last year, with over 840 recorded projects. More surprising is the U.K. holding second place by number of cases, though not the money spent, where China has more claim to fame and Korea and Japan are strong rivals.

The top 10 countries by number of case studies are shown below but it did not look like this only one year ago. China and Korea have jumped up a notch and, remarkably, Australia has jumped from number 10 to number seven. When we saw the unusual activity in Australia, we focused research onto the region for a new report RFID in Australasia 2007-2017 and we reveal some of the results here. New Zealand is a follower, with the exception of the work of Fonterra, the world's largest milk cooperative.

What is going on in Australia? The rapid advance of Australia in RFID is on a broad front, from books in libraries to tagging of humans in hospitals, but one could say that about many countries. What sets Australia apart from most of its peers are aspects such as the legal requirement to tag cattle and racehorses, and the trials and rollouts of tagging fish, tomatoes, and other foods by its vibrant food industry. Australia will not stop there. It is likely to introduce legislation to tag all four legged livestock ahead of most other countries. With the major trading blocs finding reasons to protect their food industries, external suppliers such as Australia, with the world's largest population of sheep, must be beyond suspicion. RFID is a part of that.

In the Books, Libraries, and Archiving sector, Australia is doing more than its size would indicate. The same is true of the Financial, Security, and Safety sector, which exhibits considerable innovation. For example, we have RFID being used to track police vehicles, criminals in correctional facilities, pedophiles, and even forensic samples. That breadth of approach is not seen elsewhere. RFID is used in passports and payment cards and many mass transport card schemes in Australia. One interesting result is that although Australia mimics the world as a whole in having HF read-write passive RFID dominate its markets, low frequency use comes next (as opposed to UHF, which usually comes in next elsewhere in the world). LF tags are used on marathon runners' shoes and bicycles etc in other races, on a wide variety of animals, and on conveyances in Australia.

Number of case studies in the IDTechEx RFID Knowledgebase for the top 10 of 85 countries

Source: IDTechEx

Applications of RFID in Australia

Source: IDTechEx

A contrast to Australia is given by another country of similar population and economic size - the Netherlands, which is also unusually active in applying RFID. Primarily, this is based on use of RFID cards and other RFID in the leisure sector, such as in football matches. The Financial, Security, and Safety sector, and the Logistics and Postal sectors are also big users of RFID in the Netherlands, with item-level tagging by RFID labels an important way of applying RFID there. One thing is common to Australia and the Netherlands: both use High Frequency (HF) far more than any other frequency for their RFID. That is also true of the world as a whole.

Applications of RFID in the Netherlands

Source: IDTechEx

For the truly global, major conference on RFID tags and systems attend RFID Smart Labels, Boston, U.S., February 21-22, 2007, www.smartlabelsusa.com.

Cost-Effective, Real-Time System to Tackle $35 Billion Annual Waste in U.S. Perishable Goods

Suppliers of perishable goods - from bananas to oncology drugs - now have a cost-effective, real-time method to potentially reduce $35 billion (industry estimates) of annual U.S. waste in the supply chain. Deloitte Consulting LLP and the RFID Research Center at the University of Arkansas have developed a method to monitor and control conditions in the cold chain (the distribution chain of perishable goods). Their in-transit study, made possible by Chiquita Brands International (www.chiquita.com), found broad inconsistencies in temperature within environmentally controlled trailers.

"Loss and damage of perishable goods during storage and transportation is a substantial global issue, with some industry sources estimating that losses of up to 33% on perishable freight are common," says Doug Standley, Deloitte Consulting. "In addition to negatively impacting manufacturers' and distributors' financial results, these losses contribute to waste, pollution, inefficient utilization of resources, and illnesses caused by poor handling. When these adverse events - such as unacceptable temperature changes - occur, being able to quickly alert all parties and take remedial action can provide real value and go a long way toward resolving the issue," Standley adds. "The good news is that emerging technologies are now ready to address this issue. We believe that, through our advanced cold chain research and experience, we have developed an economically feasible solution for manufacturers and distributors."

The research confirmed that the temperature within a shipping container can vary up to 35% from pallet to pallet, creating a potentially unacceptable environment for perishable goods.

"Our research, which utilized emerging wireless, sensor, and Internet applications, was able to monitor and control temperatures and provide sufficient tracking to ensure item-level quality," says Bruce Westbrook, Leader of the Consumer Business Consulting Practice for Deloitte & Touche USA. "The research leveraged these technologies without specific vendor bias to develop a neutral Intelligent Cold Chain perspective that can serve the global supply chain marketplace."

Deloitte Consulting and University of Arkansas collaborated with Chiquita Brands International for a real-world application of the research; Chiquita provided refrigerated trucks and perishable products from its live supply chain.

"We have a long tradition, dating back to 1903 when we first introduced the use of refrigerated cargo ships to transport bananas, as leaders in innovative cold-chain management," says Waheed Zaman, Chiquita's Senior Vice President of Supply Chain and Procurement. "Our decision to actively participate in this study was driven by our continued desire to optimize the quality and freshness of our healthy foods for consumers and customers. The insights gained, along with our application of emerging technologies, will offer us opportunities to continue to excel in cold-chain management and drive consumer-impacting advancements."

"This project showed that wireless and sensory technologies are a reliable, cost-effective way to investigate temperature and other conditions within a supposedly environmentally controlled trailer," says Bill Hardgrave, Director of the UA RFID Research Center (http://itri.uark.edu/rfid). "The preliminary data from the experiment are already beginning to provide insight into a 'real world' environment that until now had been prohibitively expensive to track. Overall, this project - even at this early stage - is rapidly bringing into focus the vision of a truly intelligent cold chain."

Deloitte Consulting LLP and the University of Arkansas are publishing opinion and analysis papers on cold chain applications for wireless sensor systems. Deloitte Consulting is a strategic sponsor of the University of Arkansas RFID Research Center.

Introducing STP Smart Label Processor with Second Generation RFID Technology

Schober USA (www.schoberusa.com) releases its STP (Smart Tag and Ticket Processor), incorporating its second generation RFID technology with the ability to read HF, UHF, and EPC Gen 2 tags. The STP product line is ideally suited for contactless readable tickets for public transportation, entrance/access authorization, security identification, as well as airport baggage tracking tags, pallet and case tracking, asset and supply chain management, and more.

New features on this version include a redesigned tag dispenser with web tensioning, strategically placed start/stop buttons, and greater information gathering capabilities. (An optional static discharge protection package is an additional feature.) Wet or dry Inlays are placed under a pre-printed web (or multiple webs) for a cost-effective RFID solution. Interchangeable laminating, die cutting (including cut and place), and punching stations provide flexibility in the processing steps, allowing jobs to be completed in reel, zig-zag, folded, or as single product. On board RFID readers ensure the readability of each RFID tag. Ink jet printing and encoding are optionally available as well.

Atlantic Beef, Merit-Trax and Psion Teklogix Win 2006 CIPA Gold Award of Excellence

Psion Teklogix (www.psionteklogix.com), a global provider of solutions for mobile computing, wireless data collection, imaging, and RFID, announces that Atlantic Beef Products Inc. (www.abpi.ca), a producer-owned federally inspected beef processing facility, has won the prestigious Gold Award of Excellence in the Innovation Category at CIPA 2006 for a mobile computing solution developed by Psion Teklogix and Merit-Trax Technologies (a software developer and systems integrator for the food industry, www.merit-trax.com). The innovative solution is designed to improve food safety measures at Atlantic Beef's newly installed abattoir in Albany, Prince Edward Island, by increasing product traceability and meeting rigorous beef export requirements.

Atlantic Beef processes approximately 500 cattle and produces over 300,000 pounds of beef per week for Atlantic Canada's top distribution channels, including Atlantic Superstore and Co-op Atlantic. With its new mobile computing solution, Atlantic Beef has established traceability of its cattle at each stage of processing from packaging to delivery.

"CIPA is delighted to recognize both Psion Teklogix and Merit-Trax for helping Atlantic Beef automate the tracking of its products to improve overall safety measures," says Norm Kirkpatrick, President and CEO, CIPA. "Atlantic Beef's ability to provide 100% traceability shows how innovation can deliver increased operational improvements for Canadian business, and ultimately boost overall efficiency."

Atlantic Beef is using Psion's 7035 freezer hand-held mobile computing devices with Merit-Trax Technologies' Trax-IT® software suite on the abattoir floor, in freezer units and loading docks. The software enables the 7035 hand-held device to capture data in real time and streamline information for invoicing, food labeling, and shipping.

"This success was the result of three teams working together, and we are thrilled to be recognized by CIPA with this honor," said Paul Arsenault, Controller, Atlantic Beef Products Inc. "With the help of Psion Teklogix and Merit-Trax, we were able to achieve the highest level of traceability and data capture possible, and we're now primed to enter the global export market."

The flexible ergonomics of Psion Teklogix 7035 hand-held computers resulted in seamless employee training and implementation. Atlantic Beef workers are providing superior results by harnessing the 7035 hand-held's rugged design and Trax-IT® software's versatile features. The new mobile computing solution has enabled the company to achieve greater efficiency with its workers while increasing overall productivity and revenues.

"Psion Teklogix is truly a market leader in mobile computing devices and we are proud to have received this award with them," says Bob Aubertin, Director of Sales and Marketing for Merit-Trax Technologies. "We look forward to continuing our partnership with Psion Teklogix to ensure Atlantic Beef maximizes the benefits of the Albany deployment."

"We are honored to be recognized by CIPA for the work we did with Atlantic Beef," says Ron Caines, Americas President, Psion Teklogix Corp. "Together with Merit-Trax, we were able to provide a Canadian market leader with a tailor-made mobile computing solution that provides the traceability functionality required for international exporting."

The Canadian Information Productivity Awards (CIPA) is a celebration of IT and innovation implementation excellence in all types of organizations across the country. A CIPA award constitutes the highest form of recognition for the capabilities of an organization and its executives. CIPA applications are accepted from across the country through its alliance with OCTAS Awards managed by the Federation de l'informatique de Quebec and its collaboration with ITAC (Information Technology Association of Canada, CIPS (Canadian Information Processing Society, CATA (Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance, CME (Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters), and CHITTA (Canadian Healthcare Information Technology Trade Association).