Solos Identificazione e Protezione is a leading Italian system integrator with solutions for applications including retail, logistics, anti-counterfeit and track and trace. When fashion brand Patrizia Pepe adopted Solos’ Powered by Impinj solution, warehouse processing efficiency doubled. Solos CEO Alessandro Vivarelli joined Impinj for a Q&A.
What are the emerging applications and markets for RFID technology in Italy?
From our standpoint there are three main markets which represent a concrete opportunity for RFID technologies in Italy: logistics, the fashion industry and asset tracking.
Logistics is nothing new. However, RFID has been growing steadily during the last few years and we forecast this trend to continue for the near future.
The fashion industry represents a key asset for the Italian economy and it has been experiencing a deep change recently. The shopping experience is especially affected by this change because of an increasing user-generated demand for in-store technologies. RFID is already involved in it, and can soon have a leading role in this transformation process.
Asset tracking is not easy in Italy for many reasons, including some morphologic aspect of our country and the lack of technological infrastructure in transportation (e.g., railways). This is widely seen as a big issue for the Italian economy. Tracking technologies, RFID included, have already been identified as viable solutions.
What solutions does Solos Identificazione have for these applications?
Our company is considered one of the leading solution providers in all three of those application areas. We have developed over time a solid network of partners through which we are now able to deliver a 360 degree range of solutions not only for the markets mentioned above, but for tracing, counterfeiting and grey market control too, just to name a few. In particular, we have been developing since a long time a unique experience for customers who need to add interactivity and software integration into their retail stores and showrooms.
Can you tell us about a recent deployment?
Our flagship cutting edge RFID solution is with no doubts our order entry showroom’s (in-store) environment. We provide an out-of-the-box solution, which includes RFID enabled labels combined with a wide range of reading devices, such as multitouch tables and tablet computers including the Apple iPad. This allows an unparalleled straightforward shopping experience for a store’s showroom customers. In the same market, we also offer a high-end solution, which allows fashion brands to introduce extended reality interaction during their sales campaign.
What do you want potential customers to know about RFID?
RFID is a mature technology which allows a wide range of businesses to track and control their end-to-end supply chain. It also gives them the chance to feed their CRM and ERP with a massive amount of data with the warranty of a short investment break-even.
Alessandro Vivarelli is the CEO of Solos Identificazione e Protezione. He has worked in the security industry since 1994. Mr. Vivarelli earned a degree from I.T.I.S. Tullio Buzzi in 1986.
Impinj will showcase GrandPrix™, the industry’s only complete RFID platform, at the 11th Annual RFID Journal Live Conference and Exhibition from April 30-May 2, 2013 in Orlando, FL. The GrandPrix platform is comprised of market-leading Impinj products, including Monza® tag chips, Speedway® readers and Indy® reader chips. Used together, these products provide a solution that performs better, is more reliable and less costly than any other, and truly maximizes the potential of the Gen 2 standard. We invite you to join us in Booth #204 to See How We Innovate!
Best in Show Finalists: Indy RS500 Reader SiP and Speedway xArray reader system
Stop by our booth to check out two new products which were named finalists for RFID Journal’s “Best in Show” Award:
The Indy RS500 SiP is a completely integrated reader solution in a small surface mount package that enables fast time-to-market with low development risk. Building on the market-leading Indy reader chip technology, the Indy RS500 SiP only needs three connections (DC power, UART communication and an antenna) to start reading tags. Unlike embedded reader chip solutions that require greater investment due to complexity in RF design, manufacturing and certification, the Indy RS500 has no external components, is fully tested and meets regulatory requirements. The Indy RS500 is designed to work as a SMT (surface mount technology) component in a standard PCB manufacturing process, which eliminates costly mechanical hardware and RF cables that are typically required with reader modules on the market today. Learn more.
The Speedway xArray is a game-changing RFID reader system—the first product designed to meet the requirements for wide-area monitoring applications while maintaining backwards compatibility with portal applications. The Speedway xArray system provides wide-area monitoring through its beam-forming antenna array, which delivers full power throughout a 40 foot diameter when ceiling-mounted at 15 feet high. The xArray system can distinguish 52 different antenna beams providing for location assignment within the read zone, and the antennas radiate a linear pattern in both the horizontal and vertical paths in order to read tags in any orientation. The reader itself is optimized to read many thousands of tags very quickly, and to distinguish tags of interest from the rest of the field .. Moreover, Impinj has added robust tag direction capability that has been proven accurate even in difficult, real world environments. Learn more.
Listen to Presentations – Powered by Impinj
Interested in hearing great case studies of solutions powered by Impinj or learning more about embedded RFID? Be sure to attend one of the presentations below:
April 30, 10:00am: Embedded RFID Preconference Workshop featuring Shahrokh Shahidzadeh, Sr. Principal Technologist, Intel and Chris Diorio, Impinj co-founder and CTO.
April 30, 5:45pm: How EADS Group Manages RFID Change featuring speakers from Airbus, Eurocopter, Astrium and Cassidian.
May 1, 8:30am: How Carrier Made Excellent Manufacturing Even Better With RFID. Manufacturing plant deploys RFID system to create an automated shipping and component verification solution in a high-volume and high-velocity environment.
May 1, 10:45am: Embedded RFID Adds Value to Consumer Electronics. Shahrokh Shahidzadeh of Intel describes how embedded RFID technology enables a variety of game-changing applications.
May 1, 1:30pm: Update on the Veterans Health Administration Enterprise-wide RTLS Deployment. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) rolls out an enterprise-wide RTLS for its Veterans Health Administration (VHA) division.
May 1, 1:30pm: A Business-Driven Enterprise Architecture Approach to Transformation. Bell Helicopter maximizes business results and the benefits offered by RFID technology.
May 1, 1:30pm: How American Apparel Leverages RFID at Stores and in Its Supply Chain. American Apparel’s RFID solution enables the company to benefit from 99.8 percent inventory accuracy, reduced shrinkage, high employee morale and more.
May 1, 3:10pm: ATK Uses RFID to Create. ATK, an aerospace, defense, and commercial products manufacturing company, uses RFID to improve process efficiency.
May 1, 4:00pm: RFID Improves Management of Emergency Medicine Kits. The pharmacy department of the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) employs an RFID solution to help stock emergency medication kits used throughout the hospital.
May 1, 4:00pm: Mexican Department Store Chain Uses RFID to Improve Order Management and Inventory Accuracy. Liverpool Department store and 2,300 of its suppliers improve shipping, management, and inventory with RFID.
May 2, 9:00am: Richardson, Texas Police Department Uses RFID to Track Critical Assets. Police department tracks assets with RFID solution to improve police equipment security.
May 2, 10:30am: 2013 RFID Journal Award Finalists Presentations
May 2, 1:00pm: 2013 RFID Journal Awards
Join the Fun!
Party at The Pub – Stop by the Impinj booth to pick up your VIP pass to the Impinj and SMARTRAC party on May 1 from 5:30-7:30pm! The event will be held at The Pub at Pointe Orlando. Dinner, drinks, and beer from the RFID-powered pour-your-own-beer wall will be available! RSVP.
Powered by Impinj Booths – look for the Powered by Impinj shield throughout the show floor and stop in to learn more about innovative solutions built around our leading technology.
UHF Badge Contest – visit the Impinj, SimplyRFID and Zebra booths to see videos captured of you and enter this RFID-enabled contest with a grand prize worth $500.
Live Walk-Through of Show Floor – Not attending the show? Join us on May 2 at 11am EDT for a live video walk-through of the Impinj demonstrations and the show floor. Visit our Google Plus page to view the footage or sign up to have the direct link delivered to your inbox.
SimplyRFiD’s NOX solution, powered by Impinj RFID, is an asset tracking system that can monitor the location of computers, equipment, people and other property. NOX has the capability to integrate RFID and video footage—revolutionizing video surveillance and delivering real-time benefits to organizations across all industries. Carl Brown, SimplyRFiD’s Founder and President, shares insights into the benefits of an RFID-enabled asset surveillance solution and some key considerations when deploying a system.
What applications and markets do you serve? Our customers usually want to track and identify errors in their supply chain, to monitor items so that they are not lost or misplaced, and to get complete accuracy in their shipping and logistics processes.
We have a diverse product line addressing supply chain, surveillance, and general asset tracking. Probably the most-unique line is our surveillance side of the business where we integrate RFID and video to make it easy for companies to find things quickly. We leverage all of our products together to create a complete solution.
We have customers that use the surveillance part of Nox to locate parts of movie cameras they have mis-placed and they use the asset tracking side for general inventory. We also have customers using supply chain to manage millions of items a year and use the surveillance to check linked video events for quality improvement when defects are discovered. RFID delivers accuracy that was never possible because it was time consuming and error prone to implement a manual process..
What benefits are customers getting from the NOX solution?
There are some straight forward benefits — like one customer prevented the loss of a $10,000 camera lens when Nox alerted them to an extra lens going out a door.
But, RFID (and Nox) also have miraculous powers of observation.
For instance, ask a company how accurate they are, they will say 100%. But, measuring the results is astounding. We helped one company go from 5% shipment error rates to 0.2% error rates. In the end, RFID is not about cost savings but customer service and awesomeness factor. So, Nox helps good companies become awesome companies.
What are the most important things to consider when implementing an asset surveillance system?
Tagging! Without a doubt, this is the hardest part of every system we deploy. There are so many great tag choices out there so, it’s not really about finding the right tag, but putting an actual tag on an item.
My favorite story is how we had a customer order 3,000,000 asset tags. I told them to just start with 50,000 a month rather than get deluged. After two years, they finally ordered their second batch of tags. So, putting the tagging project plan together is critical if you want to see measurable results.
Another critical but overlooked item is tag filtering. We find a lot of first timers order tags and ask that that tag ID numbers “start with 1 through 100,000.” This gets their tags conflicted with other companies’ tag ID’s that followed the same generic numbering system. We recommend, at a minimum, to put a header value on all of tags so you can differentiate your tags from everyone else’s. The DoD (Department of Defense) has a great standard for unique numbering and it’s open for anyone to use.
Gosh, I could go on for a lot of things. But, I’ll give a few more bullet points to think about that are critical in planning and not obvious until you’ve done a few RFID projects:
Bounce and Over-Read: How do you define zones (Front Door, Back Door, Elevator) that work well with both long-range, label-type RFID tags and short-range, metal-mount RFID tags. A long-range tag can read 40 feet or more and you need enough sensitivity to know when it is ‘at the door’ or near it. Meanwhile, the common metal-mount, laptop-durable RFID tag will only read 5-10 feet. We developed three techniques we call Flicker, Sticky and Suppression to deal with these inherent problems in RFID. We create Suppression zones that suppress long-range tags from getting read by portals and use a Flicker threshold to prevent stray reads. Meanwhile, we enable Sticky at portals to have different zones fight to ‘stick the tag in their zone’. It’s the hardest part of working with RFID — some tags will read a hundred feet and you need a way to squelch them. A single reader isn’t smart enough — you need a network of antennas to know where a tag is.
Dealing with a Very-High Read Rate: A typical reader will generate hundreds of tag reads per second. A few solutions exist ” in-reader “ to deal with this, but that’s not usually effective in surveillance operations because you need to measure when a tag arrives and when it leaves. You also may have antennas pointing in different zones. So, we developed Linger (absent threshold) to measure how long a tag stays. This allows us to just store a single event (Present and Absent) for each tag rather than hundreds of reads. This can be important when you are looking at when something disappeared, want to check for things like booster bags or tag removal events. On that same subject, you really need a trigger system to deal with the exceptions. And, that’s what surveillance is all about: Millions of monotonous moments and one exciting event! Nox handles that – alerting you when a tag goes where it is not permitted — Nox takes away the monotony and leaves just the fun!
UHF Gen2 RFID is an amazing technology and in 2008, it became more so. So many people compare it to EAS (Electronic Article Surveillance) or access control. But, it’s not! The primary difference is we deal with (on average) 100,000 tag read operations per second comparing tags moving and deciding on what the tags are doing. EAS systems are either on/off. Lastly, access control is short range and 1-2 operations per second. Each has its point, but UHF can do all of these things, it is just getting started.
Carl Brown is the Founder and President of SimplyRFiD. Carl started writing software at 12 years old on Apple II’s and founded his first company when he was 22.
Impinj is extremely honored to have two products selected as finalists for the coveted Best in Show Award at RFID Journal Live 2013 which will be held in Orlando, FL on April 30-May 2. Stay tuned for more information about our new Speedway xArray reader system and Indy RS500 reader system in a package (SiP).
If you would like to request a meeting with the Impinj team at RFID Journal Live, please click the button below. We look forward to seeing you soon!
Omni-ID supplies passive, low profile UHF RFID tags for the IT asset, tool tracking, energy, manufacturing and logistics industries. In September, Omni-ID released two new ultrathin RFID labels designed specifically for tagging metal and liquid-based objects. The new IQ 400 and IQ 600 RFID labels are powered by the Impinj Monza® 4QT® tag chip. George Daddis Jr., Omni-ID’s CEO and President joined Impinj for a Q&A on the benefits of these new tags.
What applications are the Omni-ID IQ 400 & 600 labels addressing?
The IQ 400 and 600 tags are part of our UltraThin range of flexible on-metal RFID tags and inlays.
The key characteristics of these tags are that they provide all of the on-metal and on-liquid functionality of a traditional hard tag, within a low profile, easy to deploy label.
Because they are supplied in roll form as either finished labels or as an inlay for conversion, they are optimized for thermal barcode printers, enabling low cost and hassle-free RFID deployment on-site for our customers.
There are an almost endless variety of applications for these labels since they’ve been designed to provide the utmost flexibility – ideally they are suited for RFID applications involving metals and liquids such as:
Logistics involving metal, produce or packaging (racks, carts, RTIs)
WIP, automotive manufacturing and supply chain (RTIs, bins, carts, racks)
Gas cylinders and other curved, metal containers (beer kegs, milk canisters, etc.)
Light duty labeling of pipes, sleeves, and other similar assets found in the energy industry
What makes the Omni-ID IQ 400 & 600 unique from your other tags and competitor offerings?
There is really no other label out there like it. It is really a first of its kind. There aren’t any labels available today that can work on-metal and on-liquids that are available in high volume, mass production quantities – right now.
Additionally, we’ve gone out to the thermal barcode printer community and are formally validating the compatibility of the labels broadly on their hardware. We’ve tested them internally during development on all of the leading equipment for internal validation (see them running on a Zebra printer) but we think it’s critically important to have that 3rd party validation as well.
What makes this and all of Omni-ID’s products so unique is that we typically go to market after we have customers using the products to ensure their effectiveness in real world applications. At launch we had several beta customers up and running and today we have customers all over the globe using them.
We’ve created an easy to use, cost effective product consistent with the high quality that our customers expect from Omni-ID – print, peel, stick – it’s that simple.
What are the end-user benefits of deploying an on-metal label like the IQ 400 & 600?
The biggest challenge when deploying RFID on-metal is that you historically have had only one choice – a traditional hard tag.
With a peel and stick solution like the IQ 400 & 600 you simply order rolls of the labels and deploy/encode on-site, on-demand – the customer can decide how and when to encode the tags based on the need at the time.
The biggest benefit however has to be the total cost of deploying passive RFID on-metal. Not only are the labels much more cost effective from an actual purchase price perspective but, to encode and label hard tags and then rivet to equipment equals additional labor.
For example, on a tag that cost you $2 to buy, you have also to consider the additional cost of labor to encode and mechanically fix to the equipment – potentially another $3 – 5 on top of the tag cost. If there is no encoding and just attachment then the cost is probably and additional $2 – 4 on top of the tag purchase price. These figures could be higher.
With our IQ labels, you simply encode and barcode with your printer on-site then peel and stick – probably around 20 to 40 cents for labor. The Omni-ID on-metal, label approach reduces the cost of deployment by around 50 to 80%!
We’ve created a solution that not only simplifies and streamlines the ordering and commissioning process for on-metal RFID tagging, but we’ve also dramatically reduced the cost structure to deploy.
Why was the Monza 4QT chip a good fit for your tags?
The innovative Impinj Monza 4 chip combined with Omni-ID’s engineering expertise has led to the development of a high performance RFID product in an efficient label form factor.
Omni-ID’s products are known for their innovation, high quality and performance – we needed a chip that would be able to overcome the on-metal challenge, possess the form factor required for our label products, and will run through a thermal barcode printer and survive the challenge – no small order.
The Monza 4 chip does all of that. Add in the ability to provide consistent read performance from any angle, and it was clear that Monza 4 was the perfect fit for our design.
What is the size of these markets?
Because these are really the first of their kind, an on-metal, on-liquid, on-site deployable label – the on-metal tag market alone is estimated to be in the $80M range in 2012 – growing at about 48% (CAGR, VDC Research).
Add to that the advantages of a label product vs. a traditional on-metal tag for many of the applications referenced prior as well as any customizations that may be required for specialty verticals from an inlay perspective and the market grows exponentially.
What are the most important things to consider when choosing a tag?
So many important considerations when selecting an overall RFID solution — and tags are just one component. Here is a quick list to help guide a selection process:
Know your application
For some applications, hard tags can be too large, too expensive or can’t be commissioned on site.
Do your research
Make sure you’re looking at the right kind of RFID labels for your application — for example dipole labels don’t work on metal, near metal or liquids.
Keep it simple
Select a label that is commissionable on site with standard thermal barcode printers (your printer companies typically can help with which products will work).
Affordability
The IQ 400 & 600 create a whole new category of on-metal tag functionality at a much lower cost point – but also make sure to balance that with the durability needs for your particular application.
To learn more about these news tags, view the webinar, New RFID Labels Advance On-Metal and On-Liquid Asset Tracking Capabilities, hosted by Impinj and Omni-ID.
George E. Daddis, Jr. PhD is President & CEO at Omni-ID. George is an experienced CEO & entrepreneur, having founded two successful technology companies. He has extensive experience in building companies, raising capital, and establishing markets for digital and IT technologies. George received his B.S., M.S., and PhD. Degrees from Cornell University in Computer Engineering and Applied Mathematics. Prior to joining Omni-ID in 2011, George served as CEO at WorldGate Communications, a publicly-held video telephony firm in Philadelphia.
More options means more possibilities, and that’s why we’re excited to introduce you to 5 new RFID inlays designed to meet the growing needs of today’s diverse tracking applications. Join Impinj and Avery Dennison RFID for a quick 30-minute webinar to learn more about Avery Dennison’s latest RFID inlay innovations powered by Impinj Monza® 5 tag ICs.
What You’ll Learn
Benefits of a complete RFID ecosystem
Introduction to Avery Dennison’s latest inlay innovations
Use case examples
Featured Speakers
Tracy Hillstrom – Sr. Product Line Manager, Impinj
George Dyche – Director of RFID Product Line Management, Avery Dennison RFID
Tired of having to sacrifice tag size for read range? What happens when you design UHF RFID tags capable of adapting to the item which they are attached? You get ultra-small form factors capable of achieving the performance levels of tags twice, even three times its size! In fact the new MuTRAK tag is only 49mm2 and can achieve read distances of up to 14 meters – And that’s why we’d like to introduce you to the latest tags and inlays from our our partner TAGSYS RFID.
Imagine being able to increase your read accuracy and distance while reducing your tag footprint by simply harnessing the energy of the items you’re tracking. Based on the Impinj Monza 5 tag chip, these new and innovative products offer a new approach to item-level tagging, opening up a whole new world of potential applications.
Please watch the recording to learn how Impinj and TAGSYS RFID are working together to deliver the world’s most innovative and advanced RFID tag solutions.
What you’ll learn
Why Monza 5 is the ideal choice for item-level tracking
Introduction to the TAGSYS MuTRAK and AK products
Application and Use Cases
Featured Speakers
Nikhil Deulkar, Monza Sr. Product Line Manager – Impinj, Inc.
Christophe Loussert, Vice President of RFID Integration – TAGSYS RFID
Bruno Davoine, Vice President of Sales – TAGSYS RFID
S3Edge is a software product company focused on delivering mission-critical process automation solutions with Auto-ID technology. The company provides packaged software licenses, professional services, annual support, and Auto-ID hardware including Impinj RFID products. S3Edge delivers industry solutions for Healthcare (transfusion medicine supply chain monitoring), Energy (power plant asset tracking and foreign material exclusion tracking) and Manufacturing (error-proofing plant floor operations, automated shipping and receiving, and warehouse operations). Anush Kumar, S3Edge’s CTO & Vice President of Business Development shares insights from new enterprise-ready RFID solutions developed this year based on S3Edge’s Spotlight suite of software applications (mobile and web-based) and Impinj hardware.
What do you mean by mission-critical tracking solutions in the context of RFID?
When we talk about mission-critical, the classic definition (from my Microsoft server software background) goes something like this “Mission-critical applications are business applications, excluding email, that would bring your company to a stop if they were not running. Mission-critical applications are typically supported and managed by a central IT staff. Examples of such applications are airline reservation systems and order processing for a retail store chain.”
Now, when you combine the above software application taxonomy with RFID technology, you combine this nature of software with hardware and tags in a seamless manner to achieve a unique class of enterprise-ready solutions that are ‘Always On By Design’ – or in other words: the failure of a solution of this nature, will result in the failure of a business’s mission-critical operations which is never a good thing
It is very important to note that this mission-critical class of solutions is very different from the majority of solutions we see today with RFID technology (i.e. applications that find a niche and fill it are not required to be mission-critical, and usually adapt the business to the process) because they represent the ‘primary’ process and are designed from the ground up to be 24×7, high-availability solutions in production. We believe the continued adoption of mission-critical solutions will be the catalyst for the broader adoption of RFID technology for enterprise-wide process automation and tracking. I’ve written more about this topic here.
We’ve been seeing more movement towards UHF in healthcare. What are your expectations for the future of UHF in this industry?
There is no question in my mind that the future is extremely bright for UHF technology in the healthcare field both from a value and a needs perspective. Whether it is high-value asset tracking, tracking blood and other biologic products, or in enabling a better healthcare experience for patients with more efficient processes, UHF technology is slowly gaining momentum.
To expand on this a bit, based on our experiences using HF technology in tracking and error-proofing operations across the transfusion medicine industry, we absolutely see how UHF can not only ‘speed-up’ some of the bulk-check-in, movement tracking, and reconciliation operations, it is also very clear that longer term this would be a preferable approach for blood centers and hospitals to cost-justify a solution of this nature.
Healthcare is a highly regulated industry (rightfully so as human lives are at stake), and it will take ‘approved’ mission-critical solutions before UHF takes off as a standard across the board. In other word it’s not necessarily a technology barrier that we need to break through, but rather a confidence barrier to bust this vertical open. We believe S3Edge is in a unique position, along with Impinj, to enable this class of applications for the transfusion medicine industry that include the right set of regulatory approvals to achieve scale.
How is RFID technology being used for compliance? What does it mean and why is it important?
Compliance, in the applications we’ve deployed, is mainly driven by strict regulation requirements. For example, Auto-ID technology can very clearly help blood centers and hospitals prevent errors by tracking the movement of physical assets across their transfusion operations in addition to helping improve efficiency of operations (helping them do more with less). This in turn directly impacts compliance readiness as compared to relying completely on paper-based processes. The electronic audit trails combined with the real-time error-proofing of operations that Auto-ID technology enables provides a high confidence tool that natively safeguards against potential audit violations by a regulatory authority.
Another great example is the FME (Foreign Materials Exclusion) services our software enables in nuclear power plants. As you can imagine these are extremely highly-regulated environments where every single asset (from tools to personnel) need to be accounted for every day at the beginning and end of a maintenance job cycle. Compliance errors usually have an extremely high price tag—not only from money and time to bring operations back into compliance but also with fines and reputation loss for audit failures.
In summary, a well-designed, mission-critical Auto-ID solution can not only help automate and improve the efficiency of ‘as-is’ paper-based processes, but the electronic tracking of asset movements that a solution of this nature enables out of the box goes a long way in ensuring that highly regulated environments stay in compliance with standard operation procedures (SoPs).
To read more about how Turkey Point, a nuclear reactor facility in Florida is using Auto-ID technology to achieve this, and why it’s important to them, visit my blog.
Why is RFID a good fit for distributor manufacturing and warehouse applications?
Discrete manufacturing and warehousing operations by definition contain a lot of material movement that is performed during (and which is critical to) their day-day business operations – this in turn represents a unique opportunity for Auto-ID based solutions to mistake-proof and automate paper-based operations. This slide encapsulates some of the areas where RFID can add a tremendous amount of value.
To share an example, Carrier Corp, a Fortune-50 company, a UTC company and the largest HVAC manufacturer in the world is using our software and Impinj readers + tags for a high-availability solution which achieves the following:
Improved efficiency of the trailer load process
Streamlined pack-out
Reduced errors
And I am proud to say that roughly half a million units later, Carrier, S3Edge & Impinj have achieved something that’s arguably not been witnessed in our industry yet – a mission-critical solution of scale that is the primary automation system of record, running in a high-available, highly dynamic, fast paced environment which also happens to be Industry Week’s #1 Manufacturing plant in America.
Some of the benefits Carrier is reaping include:
A tremendous amount of financial savings from improved efficiency and productivity at shipping, mistake proofing (reduced warranty, repair, and logistics costs), and reduced expenses
33% improvement in shipping productivity
80% reduction in shipping errors
Increased safety of personnel in shipping zones
Innovation and productivity increase of manufacturing here in the US
I hope to be able to share more about how we went about achieving this at Carrier in a case study and a webinar in the coming months. Carrier Corp will also give a keynote at RFID Journal Live! in May.
If you are a discrete manufacturer who has been waiting for this proof-point before moving ahead with a similar objective, please drop us a line. We’d love to share more about this (and similar mission-critical deployments at large enterprises) with you as you begin your initiatives.
Anush Kumar is CTO & VP Business Development at S3Edge where he oversees S3Edge’s product and solutions strategy, partner management, marketing, and business development. Anush comes to S3Edge following a distinguished career at Microsoft, where he worked on multiple incubations from concept to shipping, most recently as the company’s RFID business leader responsible for the creation, strategy and execution of the Microsoft RFID vision world-wide. Anush has been BizTalk RFID’s leading light from early incubation of the project to productization efforts, with multiple patents to his name and he is a sought after speaker and thought-leader in this space.
We’d like to invite you to attend a special 30-minute webinar on Tracking Linens & Uniforms with RFID. Join Impinj and Foundation Logic Systems as we discuss the benefits of using passive RFID to track linens, uniforms, and other hotel assets. Learn how Foundation Logic Systems’ solutions, powered by Impinj RFID, are helping hospitality operators, such as Universal Studios Hollywood, Vail Ski Resorts, The Setai Fifth Avenue – an ultra luxury hotel and Meritex Laundry – a Hilton subsidiary, take hospitality asset management to the next level!
Watch the webinar recording to learn how Impinj and Foundation Logic Systems are working together to revolutionize linen and uniform tracking using passive RFID.
What you’ll learn
How Impinj Speedway® Revolution readers enable superior performance
Challenges of tracking linens & uniforms
Introduction to Linen & Uniform Manager Solutions
Use cases of real-world deployments
Featured Speakers
Peter Horton, Global Channel Marketing Manager – Impinj, Inc.
Marv Tulman, CEO & Founder – Foundation Logic Systems
Neal Jordan, Director of Operations, Foundation Logic Systems
Imagine a printer that notifies you when you’ve installed the red ink cartridge in the blue ink slot or an airplane that knows if the fuel filter just installed is the correct part. Imagine a tablet computer that can be disabled as it travels from the manufacturer to the retailer and then enabled when it’s at the retail point of sale. Imagine smart phones that have a built-in “black box” to record issues – which can be accessed without even powering on the device.
All of these use cases, and many more, are now being deployed with embedded RFID – enabling new consumer functionality, retailer benefit, and manufacturer competitive advantage.
Last week, Impinj attended the Embedded Systems Conference Boston, a leading event for the design engineering community. The show presented more potential applications for embedded RFID, especially in the healthcare industry.
Medical device OEM manufacturers are interested in using Impinj Monza X chips for asset tracking and equipment diagnostics. Monza X chips’ ability to link to a device’s processor through a standard I2C bus enables reading of a chip’s memory even when the electronic device is powered off. This allows a repair center to scan an unopened box of equipment to retrieve model information and error codes from failed devices. Benefits include time savings and better organization for the repair center.
Other companies are looking to embed small, low cost RFID readers (built with Indy reader chips) in devices to authenticate consumables. By RFID-tagging accessories and consumables, an RFID-enabled device can be configured to only function with an authenticated part, eliminating the possibility for counterfeit parts to be used.
By adding RFID technology to your device or product you can take advantage of new advances in machine to machine (M2M) communication, device configuration, and product life-cycle management.
Logistics is nothing new. However, RFID has been growing steadily during the last few years and we forecast this trend to continue for the near future.
Best in Show Finalists: Indy RS500 Reader SiP and Speedway xArray reader system
The Indy RS500 SiP is a completely integrated reader solution in a small surface mount package that enables fast time-to-market with low development risk. Building on the market-leading Indy reader chip technology, the Indy RS500 SiP only needs three connections (DC power, UART communication and an antenna) to start reading tags. Unlike embedded reader chip solutions that require greater investment due to complexity in RF design, manufacturing and certification, the Indy RS500 has no external components, is fully tested and meets regulatory requirements. The Indy RS500 is designed to work as a SMT (surface mount technology) component in a standard PCB manufacturing process, which eliminates costly mechanical hardware and RF cables that are typically required with reader modules on the market today. 
The Speedway xArray is a game-changing RFID reader system—the first product designed to meet the requirements for wide-area monitoring applications while maintaining backwards compatibility with portal applications. The Speedway xArray system provides wide-area monitoring through its beam-forming antenna array, which delivers full power throughout a 40 foot diameter when ceiling-mounted at 15 feet high. The xArray system can distinguish 52 different antenna beams providing for location assignment within the read zone, and the antennas radiate a linear pattern in both the horizontal and vertical paths in order to read tags in any orientation. The reader itself is optimized to read many thousands of tags very quickly, and to distinguish tags of interest from the rest of the field .. Moreover, Impinj has added robust tag direction capability that has been proven accurate even in difficult, real world environments. 
Our customers usually want to track and identify errors in their supply chain, to monitor items so that they are not lost or misplaced, and to get complete accuracy in their shipping and logistics processes.
Impinj is extremely honored to have two products 
The IQ 400 and 600 tags are part of our UltraThin range of flexible on-metal RFID tags and inlays.
More options means more possibilities, and that’s why we’re excited to introduce you to 5 new RFID inlays designed to meet the growing needs of today’s diverse tracking applications. Join Impinj and 
Tired of having to sacrifice tag size for read range? What happens when you design UHF RFID tags capable of adapting to the item which they are attached? You get ultra-small form factors capable of achieving the performance levels of tags twice, even three times its size! In fact the new MuTRAK tag is only 49mm2 and can achieve read distances of up to 14 meters – And that’s why we’d like to introduce you to the latest tags and inlays from our our partner TAGSYS RFID.
When we talk about mission-critical, the classic definition (from my Microsoft server software background) goes something like this “Mission-critical applications are business applications, excluding email, that would bring your company to a stop if they were not running. Mission-critical applications are typically supported and managed by a central IT staff. Examples of such applications are airline reservation systems and order processing for a retail store chain.” 
Anush Kumar is CTO & VP Business Development at S3Edge where he oversees S3Edge’s product and solutions strategy, partner management, marketing, and business development. Anush comes to S3Edge following a distinguished career at Microsoft, where he worked on multiple incubations from concept to shipping, most recently as the company’s RFID business leader responsible for the creation, strategy and execution of the Microsoft RFID vision world-wide. Anush has been BizTalk RFID’s leading light from early incubation of the project to productization efforts, with multiple patents to his name and he is a sought after speaker and thought-leader in this space.
We’d like to invite you to attend a special 30-minute webinar on Tracking Linens & Uniforms with RFID. Join Impinj and 
Imagine a printer that notifies you when you’ve installed the red ink cartridge in the blue ink slot or an airplane that knows if the fuel filter just installed is the correct part. Imagine a tablet computer that can be disabled as it travels from the manufacturer to the retailer and then enabled when it’s at the retail point of sale. Imagine smart phones that have a built-in “black box” to record issues – which can be accessed without even powering on the device.