U.S. Government Taps Intermec to Provide RFID Tags

Provider to supply technology to Defense Department, Coast Guard under initiative to improve inventory asset management

Provider to supply technology to Defense Department, Coast Guard under initiative to improve inventory asset management

Everett, WA — March 11, 2005 — The U.S. government has awarded Intermec Technologies Corp. a blanket purchasing agreement contract to provide passive UHF radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to support the Department of Defense and the U.S. Coast Guard as part of the government's initiative to improve efficiency and inventory asset management.

The award is part of the government's Automatic Information Technology RFID initiative, a basic building block in the Defense Department's efforts to provide timely asset visibility in its global logistics pipeline, whether in process, in storage or in transit.

The award is the latest in a 20-year partnership between the U.S. government and Intermec, which designs and manufactures RFID and mobile computing systems. In 2004 Intermec was named prime contractor on a five-year contract to provide an entire range of automatic identification technologies.

Under that contract, referred to as AIT-III, administered by the U.S. Army, Intermec is supplying a line of mobile computing, wireless communications, data collection systems and services to all federal agencies and branches of the U.S. Dept. of Defense worldwide.

Under terms of the latest contract award, Intermec will provide commercial UHF passive EPC Class 1 RFID tags. This award is the first of five AIT RFID award groups resulting from a government request for proposal issued in December 2004. Subsequent award groups, to be announced throughout the year, will select vendors to provide fixed mounted, transportable and handheld RFID readers, RFID-enabled bar code printers, software and a wide variety of implementation and integration services.

"Intermec's decades of experience of working successfully with the federal government means it can rely on Intermec to provide technology and services that meet its exacting performance standards," said Intermec President Tom Miller. "Nowhere is that expertise and proven performance more mission-critical."

RFID, a complement to current bar code-based inventory and asset tracking systems, allows companies and organizations to automatically track inventory throughout an entire supply chain. RFID automatic data collection systems typically do not require line of sight or manual scanning as do most bar code-based systems. The government has made implementation of RFID a top AIT priority, to improve inventory tracking and logistics management.


Additional Articles of Interest

For a contrary view of the future of the RFID market, see the article "The O'RFID Factor: A 'No Spin' Look at Where Radio Frequency Identification Is Headed," in the October/November 2004 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive.

For more information on trends relating to radio frequency identification, follow this link for an extensive listing of SDCExec.com articles, featuring the latest research findings on the RFID, including adoption, return on investment and barriers to implementation.

For more information on U.S. government efforts to transform its civilian and military supply chains, see the article "e-Pluribus Unum: Uncle Sam Wants 'e'...Or Does He?," in the June/July 2002 issue of iSource Business (now Supply & Demand Chain Executive) magazine.



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