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Feature
of the Month:
In this issue:
| Feature:
Tracking Plants From
the Greenhouse to Your Local Garden
Center
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Colorpoint (Kentucky) and MidAmerican Growers (Illinois)
are using RFID as part of an innovative logistics
management and asset tracking system, developed by
Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) of Ohio, to
automatically track the 300-400 lb, $400 returnable
metal carts used to distribute plants from the greenhouse
to retail chains including Lowe’s, Home Depot
and Wal-Mart.
Retailers use the metal carts to store and display
the plants, and should return the cart to the grower
once all of the plants are purchased. While hundreds
of thousands of carts are used each year, about 5
percent are not returned, representing a significant
loss for growers who are forced to replace them. Many
systems have been implemented to keep better track
of the cart assets – such as manual recording
of ID numbers, barcodes, or welded nameplates –
but have been found to be ineffective and time consuming.
Colorpoint and MidAmerican Growers turned to systems
integrator AIS to develop an automatic tracking solution
using RFID technology that could also connect to greenhouse
management software such as PlantPartner, and accounting
packages such as Microsoft Great Plains or Quickbooks.
AIS developed the KartKeeper system, incorporating
TI’s 13.56 MHz Tag-it™ smart label inlays,
custom designed antennas and a software suite that
links everything together.
To meet environmental conditions, the Tag-it smart
labels are embedded in plastic sleeves allowing plants
to be watered without affecting the tag, and are offset
from the bottom of the cart, removing the opportunity
for read interference from the metal carts. When the
metal carts are loaded into the trucks, they pass
over a custom fiberglass antenna built into the floor
at each loading dock, which is connected to a reader
at a networked workstation. As the carts are loaded
into the trucks, moving at up to 5 miles per hour,
each unique ID is read by the reader and communicated
to the KartKeeper software, with virtually a 100%
first-pass read rate. KartKeeper provides a graphical
layout of the truck, and color codes each order in
a series of grids, giving warehouse personnel a visual
representation of customer orders as they are loaded.
The software also creates a delivery manifest showing
the order information as well as the cart ID numbers
for each truckload and delivery. This level of detail
is a significant improvement from the current norm
in the industry.
The KartKeeper system enables growers to automatically
track the retail store location of each cart, and
then log them back into inventory as they are returned.
If one is not returned in a given period of time,
such as within 30 days, the appropriate client can
be contacted (via phone or email) to determine the
cart’s location and to ask for it to be returned.
For more information on the KartKeeper system, please
visit www.kartkeeper.com.
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Intellident
Joins TI’s Worldwide Team Tag-it™ Program
Intellident Ltd., the largest integrator
of RFID systems in the UK, has become a member of it Texas
Instruments’ Team Tag-it™ Program, a partnership
of industry-leading companies dedicated to the development
and adoption of RFID smart label solutions.
With more than 1,000 RFID applications implemented throughout
Europe over the past six years, Intellident is working with
TI to deploy RFID solutions that solve a range of item and
asset management challenges for European businesses. Intellident’s
solutions include supply chain and logistics applications,
such as the rollout of more than four million RFID smart
labels in Marks & Spencer’s refrigerated goods
supply chain, as well as asset tracking, item management
in public and private libraries, and industrial-packaged
tags and readers for harsh environments. The integrator
is also developing UHF-based systems for tagging goods at
the item level in retail applications.
“The Team Tag-it program will enable us to build on
our successful work to date with Texas Instruments in a
range of markets, and we are looking forward to collaborating
together on current and future projects,” said Jim
Hopwood, managing director of Intellident.
For more information on Intellident and its solutions, please
visit the company’s Web site at www.intellident.co.uk,
or call +44 (0)161 436 9950. For additional details regarding
TI’s Team Tag-it program, call 1-888-937-6536 (North
America) or +1 972-575-4364 (International), email rfidsupport@ti.com,
or visit the TI-RFid Systems’ site at www.ti-rfid.com.
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Special
RFID World 2004 Pricing for TI eNews Subscribers
As the signature sponsor of RFID
World 2004 in Denver, Colorado, on April 21 –22,
Texas Instruments would like
to extend to its eNews subscribers the special
registration pricing of $395 to attend the full,
2-day conference and exhibition.
Sign up today - only a limited number of registrations will
be available. Register at
www.rfid-world.com/rfid04/ and use
the registration code TISP.
Featuring keynotes from Texas Instruments Inc. and Microsoft
Corporation, RFID World 2004 is devoted to assisting companies
in all industries with practical, in-depth strategies for
deploying RFID and EPC solutions.
The 2nd annual event will have eight breakout tracks over
two days, and more than 30 educational sessions and case
studies to address key issues in the RFID industry. Tracks
include EPC implementation and compliance, retail and supply
chain management, logistics and warehousing, healthcare
and pharmaceutical, government and military materials management
and IT architecture and infrastructure.
In addition, a concurrent, day-long preconference event
on April 20 will precede RFID World 2004 - t he
RFID Bootcamp for business managers and IT executives. The
NFL's all-time leading rusher Emmitt Smith will be a featured
speaker discussing the use of RFID to authenticate sports
memorabilia.
To register for these events, visit www.rfid-world.com/rfid04/.
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TI-RFid
Sponsors IDC RFID Update Conference
Texas Instruments has signed on as the gold
sponsor of IDC’s RFID Update: Business Challenges,
Benefits and Realistic Expectations taking place June 6-7,
2004 at the Sheraton Boston Hotel in Boston, Mass.
The event will present the latest news and key end-user
case studies and pilots to help enterprise decision-makers
answer pressing questions about RFID such as the business
values and risks in adopting RFID, deployment costs, compliance
and standards issues, among others.
Presentations will be made by companies includsponsor of
IDC’s RFID
Update: Business Challenges, Benefits and ing, CVS, Johnson
& Johnson, Michelin, Abercrombie & Fitch, EPCglobal,
Inc. and Accenture.
To learn more about the event and to register go to www.idc.com/rfid04
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TI-RFid
to Speak at Pharmaceutical RFID Technologies Conference
Kelly Stark, business development manager
for the pharmaceutical and healthcare markets, will present
“Taking RFID from Possibility to Reality,” Wednesday,
April 21 at the Pharmaceutical RFID Technologies Conference,
held in conjunction with RFID World in Denver, Colorado.
The show takes place April 21-22, 2004 at the Denver Marriott.
Stark will speak on the value of RFID within the pharmaceutical
and healthcare markets highlighting successful implementations
of RFID in the supply chain as well as for product authentication
and diversion prevention.
For more information on the Pharmaceutical RFID Technologies
Conference, contact Barnett International at 1-800-856-2556,
ext. 2200 or visit their Web site at http://www.barnettinternational.com/edu-conf.jsp
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