SDCExec.com |

Montreal, Quebec — October 28, 2008 — Normerica Inc., one of the largest private-label cat litter and pet products companies in North America, said this week it has implemented a Ship2Save radio frequency identification (RFID) mobile cart system at its manufacturing plants in Brantford, Ontario and Lethbridge, Alberta.

The system provides electronic product code (EPC) conformity for merchandise intended for Wal-Mart Canada, whose RFID program began in the summer 2008. The solution consists of one or several carts equipped with Impinj Speedway RFID readers, where each cart serves as an encoding station to meet Normerica Inc.'s RFID compliancy requirements.

"We understood the urgency of the situation and took into account Normerica Inc.'s motto of effectiveness and efficiency. Our team quickly responded by devising movable RFID commissioning stations using carts that can be wheeled to the designated conveyors," explained Amninder Singh, vice president, Products & Services at Ship2Save. "In addition to saving money on superfluous readers, Normerica Inc. is benefiting from foregoing the RFID tagging process and leveraging Krupack's HIDE-Pack technology enabled corrugate boxes," added Singh.

Contrary to most RFID compliancy solutions, Singh said the Normerica Inc. setup does not require an RFID printer and the subsequent "slapping on" of RFID tags. The corrugated boxes supplied by Krupack contain a passive EPC Gen 2 RFID tag inserted within the box folds during the manufacturing process. Each tag is then encoded as the box that contains it passes through the commissioning process.

Rob Latter, group vice president of Krupack, a division of Kruger, is committed to the success of the new RFID technology: "The HIDE-Pack technology is exactly what the marketplace is looking for. It is simple, cost effective and reliable and we are very proud to be able to offer it to our customers today."

Each mobile cart consists of a PC, an Impinj Speedway RFID reader, an adjustable antenna, a handheld barcode scanner and a LCD screen. These components are designed to ensure proper encoding and verification. Validation of the encoding process occurs through visual and audible alerts while a power supply allows moving the station between conveyor lines with minimum downtime.

"Our immediate concern was to properly configure the RFID tags on the merchandise we send to Wal-Mart without disrupting normal operations. We were pleased at the innovative solution that Ship2Save and Krupack delivered in such a timely fashion," commented Simon Than, IT director at Normerica Inc.