The business recently received a gold Connecticut Quality Improvement Award (CQIA) Innovation Prize, recognizing creative ingenuity and entrepreneurial cutting edge development.
IP’s Smart Packaging team implemented the first fully operational commercial RFID-enabled warehouse at its Texarkana, Texas mill, improving inventory management, asset tracking and shipping accuracy for the mill’s large paper roll inventory. To provide real-time location accuracy, RFID tags are placed and tracked from the core of paper rolls, which can measure up to 75 inches in diameter and contain approximately 35 gallons of water.
"By combining passive RFID in the form of Electronic Product Code (EPC) with our proprietary location system, we are able to improve the thinking behind warehouse management," says Alan Clark, general manager of IP’s Smart Packaging business. "Our successful deployment at Texarkana was just the beginning; now our customers are able to experience inventory certainty in their warehouses or distribution centers and improve their business through the implementation of our WTS." Smart packaging’s WTS can be used to track any product, not just paper, and it is configurable and scalable to any business need.
"We are honored that the CQIA Partnership recognized our company for innovative results and the value we have delivered to our customers," says Clark. "We are dedicated to working with our customers and implementing RFID solutions that help them succeed, and this award is evidence of our commitment."
International Paper was among several other companies in Connecticut that the CQIA Partnership recognized with an Innovation Prize. Aetna, Cendant, GE, Pfizer, Pitney Bowes and Purdue Pharma were among those awarded. The CQIA, America’s first state-level quality award, was founded in 1987 using criteria from the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for Performance Excellence in an effort to advance innovative programs that improve quality, performance and marketplace competitiveness.
