Waukesha, WI - RedPrairie Corporation, a leader in global supply chain technology solutions, announced it has built a fully functional, EPC-compliant RFID laboratory - the first of its kind in the supply chain execution industry - to test RFID technology in a real-world environment. The RFID Lab is driving customer pilot programs, enabling RedPrairie customers and prospects to research RFID tag placement and readability as they prepare for RFID compliance. In addition, using company-specific data and scenarios, the RFID Lab is helping companies determine how RFID will impact their supply chain and how they can achieve maximum value from RFID investments through supply chain process improvements.
RedPrairie Company Leader John Jazwiec says, "Our objective in developing the first EPC-compliant RFID Lab is to help customers test a variety of hardware solutions, tag configurations and products to understand how the technology applies to their business requirements. Companies considering RFID implementations benefit from applying the RFID technology in our high-tech lab to determine first-hand how RFID will work with their products and packaging."
The RFID Lab has experienced daily traffic since it opened in early October. Last week, for example, more than a dozen representatives from a major food manufacturing company used the high-tech RFID Lab environment to experience RFID technology in action. The delegates were able to send tagged cases and pallets through RedPrairie's RFID portal to evaluate the equipment and process. One end user notes, "RedPrairie is ahead of the competition in providing a testing environment for RFID compliance issues. Testing our products with various tags, readers and RedPrairie's technology was a tremendous opportunity that has helped validate our planned RFID strategy and solidify future RFID initiatives."
After experiencing RedPrairie's RFID lab in action, many customers have provided products for testing tag applicability and have asked to be involved in the evolution of the lab. This end user involvement enhances the lab findings for all customers by adding a broader range of testing scenarios covered.
RedPrairie's RFID Accelerator(tm), a middleware compliance application, is at the heart of the RFID Lab, integrating RFID scanned information with WMS data to produce the ASN and shipping documents required by Wal-Mart and the Department of Defense. It accepts scanned data from multiple tag manufacturers including, among others: Alien, Matrics, and Intermec. RFID Accelerator(tm) will enable companies running virtually any distribution technology to become compliant with the RFID information-sharing requirements. RedPrairie has also developed a mobile lab for client pilot studies and industry events.
Gary Morgan, Group Leader, Technical Services at RedPrairie and the RFID Lab creator says, "Even though current focus is primarily on Wal-Mart case & pallet level compliance, it's clear the technology will have a long-term impact far beyond this initial scope. RedPrairie is making major investments in applying RFID technology to solve a wide range of business problems that will drive down logistics costs and transform distribution. The RFID Lab is just one of the ways we are partnering with our pioneering customers to advance this technology and develop best practice methodologies."
RedPrairie delivers superior logistics results by driving out more logistics costs than anyone in the industry, and enabling customers to consistently achieve their supply chain objectives. For additional information, call 1.888.624-8448, or access http://www.redprairie.com
