Existing radio frequency source tagging design center expanded to help customers meet emerging compliance initiatives
New York — January 14, 2004 — Checkpoint Systems, an integrator of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology into consumer product packaging, has expanded its RF Source Tagging Design Center network, which will now offer electronic product code (EPC)/RFID compliance and business design services to consumer products manufacturers, logistics providers and their retail partners.
Driven by organizations such as Wal-Mart, the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Healthcare Distribution Management Association (HDMA), EPC users are looking for "standardized" development processes to help them mitigate the financial, technical and business risk associated with adopting this exciting new technology, Checkpoint said.
As industry-driven deadlines for implementing EPC and RFID draw closer, consumer products goods (CPGs) manufacturers, third-party logistics providers (3PLs) and retailers need clear, concise, actionable data and support to ensure compliance and to fully leverage the benefits the technology provides. Checkpoint asserted that this can only be achieved through a thorough understanding of the design, implementation and integration issues associated with RFID and how they impact a company's internal business processes.
Checkpoint said its EPC Solution Center network offers a controlled environment where CPGs, 3PLs and retailers can begin the process of evaluation and design of their EPC implementation program. "Designed to emulate real-world situations, Checkpoint engineers work with clients to outline a comprehensive plan that addresses practical RF technology and EPC network design issues as well as implementation and system integration requirements" said John Thorn, general manager of Checkpoint's Supply Chain and Brand Solutions Group.
Thorn said that the center emphasizes practical solutions and providing a scaleable software-centric infrastructure platform. "It is this platform that allows the client to see the benefits of EPC technologies with minimal and metered impact on the IT infrastructure," he said.
Checkpoint, which has been providing RFID infrastructure for more than 20 years, is now focusing its expertise on developing and delivering "open" EPC/RFID compliance and business design services to help manufacturers and logistics providers meet the Wal-Mart EPC compliance mandate and other emerging vertical industry initiatives.
For more information on trends relating to RFID, see the following articles:
- Auto-ID Could Save Billions (February 6, 2003)
- Benetton: No RFID Tags in Garments...Yet (April 9, 2003)
- Broader RFID Adoption Seen by 2005 (June 16, 2003)
- RFID Picks Up Momentum (July 9, 2003)
- Who's Buying RFID? (August 22, 2003)
- RFID: Beyond Barcodes (September 3, 2003)
- Global RFID Market to be $3 Billion by 2007 (October 1, 2003)
- Retailers to See More RFID Benefits Than Manufacturers Study (November 12, 2003)
- Retail Spending on RFID Seen Rising in "Fits and Spurts" (January 8, 2004)
For more information on RFID projects underway today, see the SDCExec.com articles on initiatives at Benetton (April 9, 2003) and Gillette (January 8, 2003).
For more information on the use of RFID solutions in the supply chain, see "Needle in a Supply Chain Haystack," the Net Best Thing column in the January 2002 issue of iSource Business (now Supply & Demand Chain Executive) magazine.
