Now let’s take a look at the factors which are expected to create a surging demand for RFID applications. Africa is vouching for RFID since it is looking forward to plug theft and counterfeiting. Secondly it can bring up the efficacy of the processes which can bring up the overall productivity levels.

I believe that RFID vendors can sense a serious opportunity for themselves in Africa. There are a lot of greenfield opportunities available where early adopters could certainly gain. In the case of Africa mining, asset management and supply chain is expected to surge demand for RFID applications in a big way.

Even though there are vast opportunities for the vendors but there are certain factors which are hindering its adoption. Most of the companies in Africa are small or medium scale enterprises and with the high cost of deployment associated with most of the RFID applications it would not be a suitable proposition for them and this is the primary reason why most of them are still clinging on to bar codes. It could be a problem implementing RFID in the manufacturing sector out there since a lot of metallic objects are incorporated which don’t gel with the technology.

Lack of collaboration too has been hampering the growth of the technology. Another factor is the shortage of proper infrastructure which has been inhibiting the growth of RFID out there. Even though there are a lot of challenges on the technical front in Africa but the future looks pretty bright out there since the prices of RFID are continuing to fall. Low cost tags would certainly serve the purpose of low value markets and the industry has now started to target the market in RFID in a planned and phased manner so that its benefit can be realized in the long run.

Though Africa presents a lot of opportunities but it still needs to be seen how quick the RFID industry is able to react and latch on to this opportunity presented to them.

Website: www.supplychainawards.com

Date: 14th May 2008

Forming the focal point of this year’s SCL Europe 2008 summit, the leading supply chain and logistics professionals from all over the globe are gathering for the inaugural European Supply Chain Distinction Awards.

Visit www.supplychainawards.com for full details

With nominees and winners independently chosen by the supply chain community after thorough evaluation by a world-class judging panel, the Awards will recognise leading enterprises for their success over the past twelve months in driving logistics excellence and delivering supply chain innovation from concept to contract.

Request your entry form today and put forward a nomination in the following categories:

* Excellence in Technology Award
* Operational Excellence Award
* Supply Chain Innovation Award
* Best in European Trade Compliance
* Best Logistics Hub Award
* Most Effective Collaboration Award
* Operation Excellence Award
* Best Supply Chain Solution Provider
* Best Provider of e-Business Solutions
* Social Responsibility Award
* Supply Chain Executive of the year

Register your interest at http://www.supplychainawards.com/submit.asp

Or Contact: Laurence Allen, Marketing Manager

Email: laurence.allen@wtgevents.com
Tel: 0044 (0) 207 202 7560

Date: 13th, 14th and 15th May 2008

Location: Swissôtel Düsseldorf, Germany

Contact Name: Oliver Sloane

Contact email: oliver.sloane@wtgevents.com

Contact Phone: 44 (0) 207 202 7558

Website: www.supplychain.eu.com

Company: World Trade Group

Event Description

Taking place from the 13th to 15th May 2008, SCL Europe 2008 will bring together the leading practitioners and providers of supply chain management and logistics from all over Europe, giving you the opportunity to evaluate latest best practice and the movement of the supply chain agenda into the boardroom.

Comprising keynote conference sessions, streamed focus groups, interactive event workshops and private one-to-one meetings with peers and partners across the logistics and value chain, find out how to execute effective measures to optimize your supply chain within a global and on-demand environment.

Featuring the AMR Research Strategy Session:

What makes a supply chain world class in today’s global market? Led by:

Kevin O’ Marah, Chief Strategy Officer, USA who focuses on:

* Putting risk management at the top of your agenda
* Developing leadership throughout the supply chain
* Creating the collaborative supply network
* “Greening” the supply chain

Learn from the cross industry experts, using their market experience to reinforce your supply chain and logistics operations:

* Connecting customers to the back end: Creating a truly end-to-end supply chain at Sony Ericsson
* Inventory optimisation at Continental Tyres: A best practice case study
* Redefining Pfizer’s distribution strategy to safeguard the supply of medicines
* Reverse logistics: An asset within the Motorola supply chain
* Preparing for the unthinkable in your business: A Bulmers case study
* Supply chain excellence through integration and collaboration in the Far East: A Pacific Brands cast study

View the latest programme at http://www.supplychain.eu.com/downloadpdfx2.asp

To register for the Platinum or Gold delegate package and qualify for an early bird discount of £200 off the registration fee, please visit http://www.supplychain.eu.com/pack_delegate.asp

Or Contact: Oliver Sloane – Manufacturing and Supply Chain Industries Director

Email: oliver.sloane@wtgevents.com
Tel: 0044 (0) 207 202 7558

A question must have popped in your mind as to who all contributed towards the creation of this draft then let me tell you that RFID vendors, privacy groups, analysts, government agencies and analysts were involved towards creation of the draft policy. Even recommendations of the public have been involved since the EC visualizes the draft being turned into a law so that policies can be framed clearly for the purpose of creating balance between the benefits of RFID and its impact on civil liberties of the public.

If you go through the draft report then there are several points which would pop up a number of questions in your mind. For e.g. if you go through Article 7.3 it states retailers would need to deactivate RFID tags at the POS until the customer decided against it. This could raise concerns as people would be looking at it from both social and economic considerations.

Article 7.5 it states that after a gap of three years when these recommendations will be put into practice EC would be reviewing its provisions to find out their effectiveness.

Another thing which is emerging is that the commission is even working towards developing RFID tags which can be reactivated and deactivated so that it does not become a matter of contention for both retailers and customers. As of now the policy in practice fails to differentiate between RFID tags which are attached to products permanently and the ones which are temporarily attached to products.

If you compare Europe over US then the former tends to have a lack of trust over newer technologies when compared to the latter which seems to be a liberal in this respect. Had the scenario of US prevailed in Europe it would have never allowed RFID to enter its territories. The process of public opinion in this respect will continue till 25th April this year and EC is hoping that the recommendations would be accepted by all the 27 member countries. Let’s wait for the outcome but I expect several issues to crop up in the coming months and it would not be easier to get the nod from every participating nation.

Their findings are based on secret sharing cryptography where a secret key is used for encrypting number and the key is then split into multiple shares. The approach has been named as privacy though dispersion. Here these people have tried to make an effort of coming up with a technique for shrinking key shares size and up till now secret sharing cryptography had been implemented in applications where the memory size of every key share was over 128 bits. They say that privacy through dispersion could be put to use for protection of data encoded to EPC Gen 2 UHF passive tags and there was no need for shifting to the Gen 2 standard.

Their approach is based on the premise that when tagged products move through the supply-chain their closeness to other tagged products decreases. In case of secret sharing the only means of code decryption is through collection of required number of shares of key required for decryption. Here objects are encrypted in bulk rather than individually. Upgradation of reader with firmware is the only change which EPC technology users in supply chain would require but every party would be requiring the algorithm and software for decrypting EPCs.

The trio is planning to conduct real world test of their approach in the pharma sector in close loop supply chain. This approach won’t work in case of drugs in bulk container but it could be definitely applied in case of medicines transported through supply chain but at this point of time there is an air of uncertainty whether tags could be encoded with any type of data which could be used for identification of drugs. This approach could be implemented by manufacturers which would enable them to authenticate their products while moving the supply chain where secret key could be shared among tags to cases which are part of the shipment. At this point of time it would not be easier to implement this approach in a quick fashion manner but in the future we might witness its implementation. Let me know what do you all think about it?

Delwar Hussein, a budding techie entrepreneur who has been propagating RFID in the country stated:

Typically, Bangladesh is always among the last few [countries] to start using any technology that is already in use for several years in other developed countries. The primary reason is the lack of know-how and, secondly, there’s the risk of investment in a new technology.

From healthcare to defense the initiative has already begun in the country which is generally one of the last few nations to taste technology which has already lived its life in most of the nations around the world.

So probably you will see Apollo Hospitals in Bangladesh which has implemented RFID out there to keep a tab on its employee’s attendance or for that matter Bangladesh Army adopting it for tracking its visitors and soldiers visiting the Dhaka Cantonment and it has already started purchasing RFID tags in huge quantities. RFID is getting a push from both public and private sector in the country.

Some of the most popular applications are employee tracking systems and hands free access control. People who turned out to be early adopters in the country are now expecting a better return on their investments but still there are many who have not been able to make up their mind with regards to the technology. It would be good if proper information is spread regarding the technology and benefits are explained so that we could see a better implementation of RFID.

There are a number of challenges which still have to be taken care of besides lack of awareness and one of them is in legal terms since government approval is required each time for using frequency spectrums and type approval for introducing new RFID products and services but the attitude of the government seems to be changing and in the future the Bangladesh government is expected to emerge as a major partner in the growth of RFID. The government is also very keen on introducing RFID based voter ID systems which would ensure better acceptance of the technology. Probably other developing nations could also take cue from it and adopt it for the betterment of their nation.

It was in 2003 when the company issued a mandate to its suppliers to tag their cases and pallets by 2005 which would enable both sides to ensure better tracking of products in the supply chain and a better inventory levels too. Though some of them have implemented it but still there are around fifteen hundred suppliers who have still not complied with this mandate.

Now Wal-Mart seems to be acting tough with its suppliers and in order to ensure that compliance is met it will be charging a $2 fee for every pallet which is not tagged with RFID from Jan 30. Wal-Mart is now looking forward to convert its seven hundred store Sam’s Club division as an example of RFID supply-chain technology in action by 2010. Talks have already been going on for around months with Sam Club suppliers for RFID compliance and a letter dated Jan 7 including a 21 month timeline was sent for meeting the timeline. Just have a look at the timeline:

- Jan 30, 2008: pallet-level tagging for DeSoto, Tex., distribution center.
– Oct. 31, 2008: pallet-level tagging for an additional four distribution centers, case- and mixed-pallet level tagging for Texas distribution center.
– Jan. 30, 2009: pallet-level tagging for remaining 17 distribution centers, case- and mixed-pallet level tagging for an additional four distribution centers.
– Oct. 31, 2009: case- and mixed-pallet level tagging for the remaining 17 distribution centers; selling-unit -level tagging for Texas distribution center.
– Jan. 30, 2010: selling-unit-tagging for an additional four distribution centers.
– Oct. 31, 2010: selling-unit-tagging for remaining 17 distribution centers

The suppliers already seem to be in a state of shock due to a fee being imposed and in case they don’t meet up the deadline a number of them could face fee as high as $3.

It looks as if the company wants to set Sam Club as an exemplar of RFID supply chain technology making a big impact. The good thing from suppliers’ point of view is that since there are fewer suppliers for Sam Club and customers here opt for larger cases of products as compared to those which are sold in retail stores hence bringing down the cost of RFID tags to 20 cent a piece which makes life a lot easier for the suppliers.

Wal-Mart was one of the early adopters of the technology and from this it seems that it won’t relent until and unless it utilizes the technology to its full potential. Best of luck Wal-Mart in your endeavors!!

I would like to relate this same conversation to this RFID racking pilot being implemented by a Rhode Island school district. Let me tell you the complete program in short detail - Middletown, Rhode Island, school district is looking forward to attach RFID tags to schoolbags of toddlers who use buses as a means of transportation to reach school and this would enable the parents to know that their child has reached home safely or not and hence take care of their anxiety. GPS system has been implemented to enable parents and school authorities to track the buses.

Though the district says that this system would improve upon the efficiency and productivity of the school but there are a few groups who are already raising an eyebrow on this decision. They feel that the government is looking forward to intrude their privacy and collect their personal information for their own benefit but here the same question emerges - whether privacy is more important or safety?

Since the tag would be containing only an ID and not any personal information such as their name, address or other information there is a very slim chance that their privacy would be intruded upon and for a child who at this stage of life cannot decide about their right or wrong it becomes necessary to keep a watch on them so that they do not get harmed in the absence of their parents. I have myself heard stories of parents telling that their children were left in the school buses since they overslept and this left many parents horrified making them feel that their child had been kidnapped. If technology had been around these very parents would not have to go through such traumatic situations.

From my viewpoint I believe at this stage the safety of the kid is paramount as compared to their privacy and nobody would understand this better than the parents of the kid for whom their children are more important than anything else in their lives. But at the end of the day it’s not my opinion which counts but you who being the parent of the kid needs to have the final say as to whether you need to use RFID to track your children or not.

Wal-Mart which was one of the leaders in implementation of RFID in the retail sector saw other retail players too move towards the technology and try and ape its success. Until then most of them were adopting a wait and watch policy. One such example is Reliance Retail in India which is looking forward to cash in from RFID.

Another positive thing which emerged out in 2007 was the growing interest of Europeans in RFID where it looked forward to develop certain standards pertaining to it and big names such as Marks & Spencer, Airbus etc moved towards RFID. Europe was not just about METRO implementing the technology. Though 2007 saw troubled economies around the globe but this did deter RFID from moving ahead. The last six months saw RFID pocketing $219 million in private equity investments with $59 million in the pipeline. The figures look small but you must realize the fact that this is just the start for the technology and will surely exude confidence in the industry.

This year also saw growing interest in RTLS and saw various implementations being announced and most of the implementation was carried out by the health sector. Another arena which RFID is making its presence felt is in the mobile arena which saw players such as Nokia and Samsung trying to emerge as early adopter.

One more thing occurred - the EPCglobal Gen2 UHF standard which was meant to create a difference in the supply chain deployments could not as companies found it difficult in implementation as problems were being faced in exchange of data. After all these good things you must be wondering how can RFID remain away from controversies and you are absolutely right since reports made rounds that RFID can cause cancer but still there are doubts about it and studies are going on to establish the authenticity of these claims.

Even though RFID has not been able to match the expectations of everybody but we can say at the end of the day that the RFID industry still registered progress and witnessed a strong implementation towards the asset management applications. Overall we can say that 2007 has been a promising year for the whole industry and we look forward to an even better year for the technology in 2008.