Archive for March 5th, 2012
What Have We Learned About RFID?
While the past 10 years have seen ups and downs when it comes to the use of radio frequency identification, we now know a great deal about how and where the technology delivers value.
Mar. 5, 2012—In 2004 and 2005, the hype regarding radio frequency identification technology was at its peak. Article after article was published by the mainstream media, touting the technology as revolutionary, and claiming it would transform the global supply chain. I used to cringe every time that I read such a story, because as much as I believed in RFID’s ability to deliver business benefits, it clearly was not going to deliver them overnight.
Then, in 2008 and 2009, there were articles reporting that RFID was dead, that it had been abandoned by Wal-Mart and that it was too expensive to be of any practical use to anyone. Again, I cringed—but I never lost faith. It has always been obvious to me that RFID would be able to deliver significant benefits to companies, and it was just a matter of time before obstacles would be overcome and the technology would reach the point of maturity at which it could be deployed on a large scale.
RFID is reaching that point, and you don’t have to take just my word on this. This year’s RFID Journal LIVE! conference and exhibition—to be held on Apr. 3-5, 2012, in Orlando, Fla.—will feature numerous speakers whose employers have deployed or will soon deploy RFID on a large scale, and who will explain how and where the technology delivers value. These businesses and organizations include Airbus, American Apparel, Bell Helicopter, Bloomingdales, Boeing, Cisco Systems, Deere & Co., Grupo Industrial Morgan, McDermott International, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Steelcase, TopGolf, the U.S. Department of Defense, the Veterans Health Administration, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts and many others.
What is interesting is that these companies represent the aerospace, electronics, energy, entertainment, manufacturing, military and retail sectors. In other words, RFID is delivering value to a small number of businesses across a wide variety of industries. That means other firms in those sectors can also benefit from the technology.
Here are some of the things we’ve learned about RFID during the past 10 years. Not surprising, they vary by industry:
• In retail, RFID enables companies to more effectively manage complex inventories. The ability to quickly count and identify items that look very similar but are different makes it possible to ensure that stores always have the correct items on shelves when customers want to buy them.
• In manufacturing, RFID can greatly reduce the cost of tracking work-in-process, by reducing or eliminating the need to scan bar codes. It can help companies better manage finished inventory and ensure that they always ship the proper items to the right customers.
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France’s Areva increases backlog of orders
Areva, the French maker of atomic reactors, increased its backlog of orders by 3 per cent last year to €45.6bn, in a surprise vote of confidence for the industry after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan last March.
It said orders had increased 7 per cent in the last three months of the year.
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However, the state-owned company, whose operations range from mining uranium to dismantling old nuclear plants, also reported a €1.9bn loss on an operating level, compared with a €423m loss in 2010.
Much of the shortfall was related to a €1.45bn writedown on Uramin, a Canada-based uranium miner that was bought by the company during a bubble in the commodity’s price and which has been shown to have smaller reserves than expected.
The loss is wider than expected after the company said last year that operating losses would be “up to €1.6bn this year”.
The Uramin writedown was embarrassing for Anne Lauvergeon, the former Areva chief executive, who made the purchase in 2007. However, she says the deal was also signed off by the French government and the board of Areva, including her successor, Luc Oursel, who took the helm in June last year.
The company paid €1.8bn for Uramin, which has assets in Namibia, the Central African Republic and South Africa, when uranium was trading at about $138 per pound. The commodity used to power atomic reactors now trades at about $50 per pound after demand slumped after the nuclear disaster in Japan.
The company also took a €426m provision on Uramin in 2010.
The controversy around the Uramin deal has led to allegations from Ms Lauvergeon that she was spied on by a Swiss intelligence company operating at the company’s behest. A legal action alleging that her husband’s phones were tapped by the Swiss firm is continuing. An Areva director has confirmed that he did hire the firm to investigate whether there was any financial wrongdoing around the deal, but denied that he sanctioned a spying operation. A separate investigation by three company board members found no evidence of wrongdoing on the Uramin deal.
Areva said sales fell 2.6 per cent to €8.9bn in 2011, while net losses were €2.4bn, compared to an €883m profit in 2010. Mr Oursel said the strong order intake “confirms the commercial dynamism of the group”.
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Henkel launches casein-free adhesives
Henkel, supplier of adhesive technologies, has launched a new generation of casein-free adhesives for beverage manufacturers.
According to Henkel this expansion of the range means greater production and budgeting security for the industry, as well as making it possible to save up to 30 percent on adhesives. Based on robust polymers, the Optal XP product series can withstand demanding conditions – such as in bottle cellars, in beverage retailing, during transport, in refrigerators or during cleaning – and offers a longer shelf life and temperature stability. It is said to eliminate existing drawbacks for beverage labeling and is suitable for high-speed machines or slow labeling processes, cold or hot, dry or wet conditions, heavy labels or thin aluminum foils, condensation-water resistance or extreme resistance to ice water.
The adhesives are already being used for returnable and disposable bottles. In addition, market testing was recently carried out for further Optal products that offer labeling options for PET returnable packages and no-label look containers.
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