IT Scan

November 25, 2004
EPCglobal India unleashes EPC-based RFID apps

NEW DELHI -- EPCglobal India, the Indian arm of EPCglobal Inc., was recently launched in India to help Indian companies implement electronic product code (EPC) based RFID applications. EPCglobal Inc. operates through a network of 101 organizations across the world and provides business led standards to companies worldwide to help implement EPC based RFID solutions.

Global buyers Metro, Wal-Mart, the US Department of Defence, Tesco, and Albertsons have mandated their top 100 suppliers to affix EPC enabled RFID tags at case/pallet levels from January 1, 2005, and for all suppliers by 2006. Wal-Mart alone is poised to increase its sourcing from India to $5 billion by 2010 from the current $700 million. Other major global retailers are also looking at ramping up significantly out of India with the dismantling of garment quotas from December 31, 2004. Indian companies will now need to comply with international mandates for adoption of EPC based RFID tags on their consignments to remain on their supplier lists.

L-R: Dr. Sanjay Sharma, Co-founder, Auto-ID Labs, MIT, Ravi Mathur, CEO, EPCglobal India & Dr. G Wolfram, Head, 'Future Store', Metro AG.

This includes exporters of virtually all retailed products - medicines, home furnishings, auto components, general merchandise, leather, garments, etc. Ranbaxy Laboratories is already in the advanced stage of adoption of EPC based RFID tags in response to Wal-Mart's deadline operative from January 1, 2005.

Ravi Mathur, CEO, EPCglobal India, said: "Providing EPC based RFID solutions has the potential to emerge as one of India's largest IT exports and Indian IT companies should quickly gear themselves up to offer the same to the rapidly growing number of global organizations adopting EPC based RFID technology. Parallely, Indian exporters must pro-actively takes steps at adopting this technology being increasingly mandated by buyers worldwide. Other Industry segments like seaports, airports, railways, pharma companies, automotive companies, defense, oil and gas, and other manufacturing companies can also stand to gain through significant transformation, which this technology brings to their supply chain through product visibility and information sharing using the power of the Internet. EPCglobal India will work jointly with the industry and the government to address all such opportunities."

Adopting EPC based RFID technology will help detect counterfeit merchandise in supply chains, leading to safe and genuine products at retail shelves. Retailers can expect 25 percent reduction in inventory levels, near 100 percent reduction in theft and fraud and a minimum of 3-4 percent increase in sales. This is not all! Manufacturers will benefit through increased sales, complete inventory visibility, enhanced labor efficiency and real time track & trace of goods.

Dr. Gred Wolfram, head, 'Future Store', Metro AG, Germany, and member of EPCglobal, GSI Germany, added: "RFID enables us to have the full visibility of the items, cases, and pallets in the entire collaborative supply chain. Using RFID, we can increase efficiency and reduce costs across the entire process chain."

RFID uses radio waves that enable it to automatically identify product items from a distance and out of direct line of sight. The EPC system harnesses this capability to provide a global network in the Internet space to enable automatic identification of any product item in the supply chain of any company, in any industry, anywhere in the world. This allows trading partners in different industries to connect and securely manage important supply chain processes with a speed and accuracy not available until now.

In this system, specific product identification codes known as EPC are stored on a RFID tag, which is embedded on a product item. When this product is passed across various stages of the supply chain where readers are placed, the EPC is read and passed on to a computer. The computer then maps the EPC to a URL on the Internet space where information about the product, its manufacturing, shipping, and other related data are stored. The EPC standards and specifications will go hand in hand with other product identification technologies like the barcode.

The concept of EPC has been developed by the Auto-ID Center, an academic research project headquartered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, in a unique partnership of nearly 100 global organizations. EPCglobal India is an affiliate of EPCglobal Inc. It will operate as a division of EAN India, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the promotion and implementation of business applications based on interoperable, open international standards developed collaboratively with industry sectors.

Contact:
EPCglobal Inc.
www.epcglobalinc.org

EAN India
www.eanindia.com