As pharmaceutical companies have expanded target markets and outsourced production over the last decade, the supply chain has become increasingly global, virtual and vulnerable. As a result, counterfeit activity is thriving - and patients have suffered and died from counterfeit and contaminated drugs.
Macy's has taken live a new program that employs radio frequency identification to allow omnichannel fulfillment of consumer purchases, right down to its last available unit of in-store merchandise. The program, which Macy's has named Pick to the Last Unit (P2LU), enables the retailer to list goods for sale online even when there is only one such item available at the store.
Approximately one million steel plates are rented out for construction projects each year in the Netherlands, and keeping tabs on them is made easier by an alternative to RFID technology.
Next time you're at the mall, take a closer look at the paper price tag dangling from the clothes you take into the dressing room. If you hold the tag up to a light, you might see a dark, salt-grain-sized speck in it. Or, if you run your thumb over the tag, you might feel an almost imperceptible bump.
When George Zimmer, the founder and former CEO of Men's Wearhouse, looked to launch a new men's formal wear rental company this year, he wanted to create something that would set his company apart from its competitors. The result is Generation Tux, which can provide tuxedo rentals to consumers without requiring them to ever leave their homes.
Korean tire manufacturer Kumho Tire is employing passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID tags to track its consumption of the rubber materials that it uses to assemble tires at two of its factories.
French heating systems component manufacturer Temiq added near field communication RFID technology to its de-sludging equipment for use in boilers, in order to enable its customers to better track the conditions of the equipment they use.
Five public schools in Casamassima, a city in Italy's Apulia region, are using a radio frequency identification solution to identify children as they arrive, and to automate the ordering and payment of each child's lunch. Since the system was taken live in fall 2013, the technology has reduced the amount of labor for school personnel, ensured that food isn't wasted due to over-ordering and enabled parents to make lunch payments online.
Globe Tracker International ApS, a vendor of asset tracking and monitoring systems, is collaborating with GIT Satellite Communications on technology to improve the satellite tracking of intermodal containers.
German casual apparel company Marc O'Polo has adopted a radio frequency identification solution to track its products across the entire supply chain, from its distribution center to 86 of its stores throughout Europe. The company finished installing the system at all 87 sites by September 2014, and is now expanding the deployment to include the tagging of products by manufacturers, thereby enabling the retailer to track its merchandise from the point at which they are made.