Given the traditional unpopularity of GM crops here, an application of RFID at a biotechnology foods specialist might appear - to some - to be something of a marriage made in Hell.
But what US food biotechnology company Monsanto's plan to try out RFID to tag and track individual seed packets does prove is the range of users considering utilising RFID in their business processes.
Monsanto wants to track the packets to see if using RFID tags instead of bar codes will cut the amount of time staff spend in shipping cases of seeds from its research and development facility in Wisconsin to its network of farms where the crops are tested.
What I think is interesting about the story in RFID Journal is the extent of the involvement of Monsanto's IT team in providing innovation to business processes, and also how large multinationals in the US are working with the universities on RFID to isolate how they can benefit from using the technology. In this case, it is the University of Arkansas that's involved.
I expect to see more of these partnerships between businesses and 'RFID research-focused' universities to grow here as understanding of and interest in RFID develops. This work is likely to be complementary to the work already being undertaken by the Auto-ID Centre at Cambridge University and various centres devoted to RFID testing, the most recent of which is the EPCglobal centre located in Winsford, Cheshire.
Technorati tags: Auto-ID Centre Monsanto GM crops University of Arkansas RFID Research Centre RFID Journal
Comments (2)
This Richgels guy sounds really smart.
Posted by Duwayne Altoff | December 28, 2007 9:34 PM
Posted on December 28, 2007 21:34
Duwayne, thanks for your comment. It sounds as if he understands his business processes and how he can use RFID to go about improving them. I think this is what utilising RFID is all about: seeing it as an enabling technology to enable solutions to business problems - in Monsanto's case, getting its seeds to farm more quickly - rather than RFID as a solution in itself.
Posted by David Bicknell | December 29, 2007 9:41 AM
Posted on December 29, 2007 09:41