 | Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Issue 677 | | Will Smith, Editor |  |
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Editor's Note: Today's top story is the medical distributor MBA Grupo's initiative to convert from bar codes to Gen2 RFID in order to track the millions of individual orthopedic supplies it ships annually.
Battery-assisted passive RFID label manufacturer PowerID has secured $12 million in financing from lead investor Partech International, as well as returning investors Amadeus Capital Partners, Apax Partners, Clal Industries and Investments, and Infinity Venture Capital. The Israeli company offers solutions for typically RF-unfriendly applications that involve freight, chemicals, metals, and paper.
Lastly, RFID solutions provider Cathexis has announced IDBlue, a mobile RFID reader that is shaped like a pen, incorporates Bluetooth, and integrates with Microsoft BizTalk RFID. The company sees target applications for the new reader in healthcare, pharmaceutical, MRO (maintenance, repair, and overhaul), and event management. |
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| Upcoming Events | - RFID Solutions: Securing the Commerce of Tomorrow -- Oct. 10 (site)  | | - RFID World Boston - September 18 - 20, 2007 (site) | | - Midwest RFID Symposium, Oct 23-24, University of Kansas (site) | | - IDGA's Military Logistics Summit, Sept 10-13, Adelphi, MD (site) | | - LogiPharma 07, Sept. 17-19, Loews Philadelphia Hotel, PA (site) | | - IDTechEx's RFID Europe; 18-19 September, Cambridge, UK (site) | | | RTLS & Active RFID | | 
Sponsored by Ekahau | |
| | - Locate it now. How? Ekahau. That's how! (site) | | | Products & Services | | - Free RFID Software with Alien 9800 at RFIDSupplyChain.com (site) | | - Until you manage assets with ESP, you might want to try RFID. (site) | | - Real-Time WIP Visibility Appliance from Omnitrol Networks (site) | | - Peel - Stick - Ship(TM): SimplyRFID Pre-Programmed Tags (site) | | | Research & Whitepapers | | - How RFID Can Decrease Manufacturing Errors (site) | | - RFID Marketing Strategies Report from RFID Update (site) | | | Employment | | - RFID Recruiters - 100% Focused on RFID Recruiting (site) | |
Med Distributor Converts to Gen2 RFID for Item Tracking
A Spanish medical products distributor is equipping its warehouses to track all the products it handles by RFID. MBA Grupo, which distributes orthopedic supplies primarily to hospitals in Spain, Italy, and Portugal, is expected to tag between one and two million individual items annually, Marcus Vaenerberg of tag supplier UPM Raflatac told RFID Update.
MBA Grupo has installed reader gates at its main warehouse in Asturias, Spain. The company has firm plans to add RFID infrastructure at warehouses for all 23 of its subsidiaries and eventually to the hospitals it supplies. MBA Grupo provides products related to orthopedic and cardiovascular surgery, neurosurgery, and anesthesia.
"MBA will continue to use bar codes at the start, but total replacement [with RFID] is the final target," according to Vaenerberg.
The warehouse portal readers are used for automated shipping, receiving, and inventory management operations. They capture encoded serial numbers and expiration dates on each individual product that is dispatched to customers. MBA Grupo creates its own RFID labels, which for now also include bar code and text, using a Toshiba TEC smart label printer/encoder and EPCglobal Gen2-standard label stock, which UPM Raflatac provides.
Next up for MBA Grupo is installing RFID readers at its other warehouses, followed by equipping hospitals with handheld RFID readers from Intermec for stock management applications. The company hopes to have these next two phases completed by the end of this year, according to UPM Raflatac's announcement.
MBA Grupo, which has annual turnover of 102 million euros, moved forward with plans to replace its bar code infrastructure with RFID after completing a proof-of-concept pilot that showed RFID could successfully identify its complete product line and different packaging materials. The testing covered 48 product groups and more than 300,000 items, according to UPM Raflatac.
The pharmaceutical, healthcare, food, and other industries are increasingly looking to RFID to provide pedigrees, improve traceability, and comply with emerging and existing tracking regulations. However, Vaenerberg said MBA Grupo developed its system solely for internal benefits, not to meet any regulatory requirements.
"The target is increased efficiency," he said. Monitoring hospital inventories of sterile products with expiration dates is a key application.
The announcement of MBA Grupo's plans adds to the recent momentum behind UHF Gen2 technology for item-level tagging applications. Last month Levi Strauss, Lemmi, and Throttleman announced separate Gen2-based item tagging applications in the apparel industry (see TAGSYS Announces Two Apparel RFID Deployments and Kids Clothes Firm Outgrows HF, Puts on Gen2).
However, the UHF versus HF debate is still far from resolved, at least in the pharmaceutical industry. Earlier this year, Pfizer made positive but inconclusive comments about Gen2's suitability for drug tracking (see Pfizer Manager Discusses the Viagra RFID Pilot). And last month, U.S. orthopedic supply distributor Zimmer announced an RFID tracking system similar to MBA Grupo's, but using HF technology (see RFID Ensures Surgeons Have No Bones to Pick with Supplier). More pharmaceutical industry news will likely come out of the LogiPharma conference and exhibition that will be held September 17 through 19 in Philadelphia.
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| Upcoming Events | RFID Solutions: Securing the Commerce of Tomorrow -- Oct. 10
Join the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and SAP in Washington, DC to discuss the balance between regulation and innovation and responsible approaches to issues in areas such as national defense, port security, food and drug safety, and pandemic preparedness. For more information call 202.463.5500. Register Today. | RFID World Boston - September 18 - 20, 2007
A premiere event at the new CMP TechMash Boston, RFID World Boston brings together the foremost luminaries on RFID technology and implementation to discuss the concepts and topics critical to making RFID a reality for today's businesses. Enter code RU01 to save $300! | Midwest RFID Symposium, Oct 23-24, University of Kansas
The 3rd annual symposium and exhibition focuses on closed-loop applications of RFID. Speakers and exhibitors from Motorola, Ekahau, Intelleflex, Fluensee, Intermec, Rush Tracking, SAVR Communications and more will demonstrate RFID's potential to error proof manufacturing, organize the office, and simplify asset tracking in industry and healthcare. www.continuinged.ku.edu | IDGA's Military Logistics Summit, Sept 10-13, Adelphi, MD
Join the "who's who" of logistics at the leading event for senior-level defense logistics professionals. Join thought leaders and decision-makers to discuss the latest implementation strategies and program initiatives to ensure the flexibility and preparedness of our military's future. Special keynote by: GEN John Abizaid, USA (Ret), Commander, USCENTCOM (2003-2007). www.militarylogisticssummit.com. | LogiPharma 07, Sept. 17-19, Loews Philadelphia Hotel, PA
LogiPharma presents 3 days of knowledge-sharing and idea exchange on the challenges and issues surrounding pharmaceutical supply chain management. For more information please visit www.logipharma.com. | IDTechEx's RFID Europe; 18-19 September, Cambridge, UK
IDTechEx's RFID Europe, in its eighth year, is the premium event covering RFID, technology analysis and market insight. Hear from AIR FRANCE KLM, Ahold, BP, TNT, MasterCard, Tube Lines, Sony, City Link and others. Explore technologies from printed RFID to smart tickets and cards to RTLS and sensor networks. Register with code: UPDATE97. | | | RTLS & Active RFID | Locate it now. How? Ekahau. That's how!
Ekahau RTLS (Real-Time Location System) automatically tracks assets and people via your existing Wi-Fi network. Control costs and improve asset management with Ekahau. For more information, visit us at www.ekahau.com. | | | Products & Services | Free RFID Software with Alien 9800 at RFIDSupplyChain.com
Purchase an Alien 9800 RFID Reader and receive BlueBean RFID Simpleware free- perform rapid prototyping and development of RFID solutions without having to write any code...collect tag information from multiple readers...test reader connections...view all tag data in one batch. Looking for an RFID reader? Receive the free RFID Reader Report at RFIDSupplyChain.com. | Until you manage assets with ESP, you might want to try RFID.
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Specialized RFID tags that are optimized for use on or around metal are an effective and viable alternative to bar codes for error proofing applications in manufacturing. Learn the financial impact of errors and recalls and how RFID can be used for error proofing and other manufacturing processes. Get the full report now. | RFID Marketing Strategies Report from RFID Update
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Whether your company is looking for the best RFID talent or you have the best RFID talent and are looking for the best RFID employer, RFID Recruiters offers the most focused approach to your objective. To learn how the RFID industry and the RFID job market are evolving, visit www.rfidrecruiters.com |
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RFID Update is the RFID industry daily. Launched in early 2004 to provide timely analysis of RFID industry news, RFID Update publishes editorial briefings every weekday for the growing ranks of top level executives involved in the deployment of RFID. Each issue delivers the breaking news and analysis most pertinent to successful RFID implementations, allowing readers to understand global RFID developments as they happen.
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