The EU’s Bridge Project has begun a series of pilots to mark the second year of its three-year initiative to develop RFID applications based on EPCglobal standards.
The project, whose members include Carrefour, Nestle, Sony, and El Corte Ingles focuses on business-based research leading to pilots, deployment and the development of training materials in the use of RFID across a range of business sectors, including the pharmaceutical, textile, food manufacturing and retail areas.
For example, in anti-counterfeiting, new services are being developed to reduce the level of piracy of goods. This is particularly important in the healthcare sector and is linked to the pharmaceutical industry, where RFID can improve patient safety by improving traceability and certifying the pedigree of pharmaceutical products as they move from manufacturer to user.
In the textile industry, improved flow and accuracy of information throughout the global supply chain to better fulfil customer needs, and in food manufacturing, the reduction of waste and stockholding and improving visibility and traceability of both products and equipment, improving food safety. In retail, RFID is optimising processes in retail stores to increase service to the customer by using RFID on consumer sale units.
Bridge has also been busy on the technical side, lodging a patent on the development of a ‘self resonant electrically small antenna’ and developing a low cost reader. It has also put together a requirements analysis and technical design document for Discovery Services which will be available by the end of this month. A number of public deliverables are posted on the Bridge website.
Security and privacy issues are never very far away from RFID, and we have already had a few scare stories over the security of RFID data, which to date have lacked much credibility. To that end, the Bridge Security working group has put together a Security Analysis documenting the requirements for enabling both ‘open’ and ‘collaborative’ business applications.
That Bridge is driving pilots plus ‘horizontal’ activities such as training, dissemination activities and policy reports is encouraging. The EU certainly wants RFID to be a technical success, and is putting together a number of support activities for it. Bridge is just one example.
What the RFID industry really needs in Europe is for someone to be a standard-bearer for implementation, as Wal-Mart has done in the US. Tesco and DHL have made strong moves into RFID, but technical issues, especially accuracy allied to the business case, have meant fast-track progress – and visibility - has stalled.
That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of organisations dirtying their hands with RFID, but users who are on the cusp of making a business case to their executives, still need an example they can cite of an organisation that has isolated a compelling business-driven argument for RFID adoption – and by going for full-scale implementation, can capture the imagination and offset many of the ‘RFID…yes, but’ stories that have emerged recently. Of course, it depends on whether that compelling business case actually exists. Perhaps the mindset is sharpened when it’s a competitor that has taken the plunge and gained a competitive advantage through RFID.
Mark Roberti in RFID Journal has argued that there are examples out there providing real business benefits. We just need to see more of them.