RFID Strategy -- RFID's Role In The Synchronized Value Chain

Avatar Partners

Speaker: Marlo Brooke
Sponsored by: Avatar Parnters

Join Marlo Brooke, President of Avatar Partners (www.avatarpartners.com), a consulting services organization specializing in strategic planning and systems integration for supply chain, New Equipment Digest and Machine Design as we explore RFID's Role in The Synchronized Value Chain. This webinar is an exclusive event with the Online Manufacturing WebExpo & Conference.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) may be dominating the spotlight these days, but the prized technology is merely a stepping stone in the overall vision of the future of business and supply chain dynamics. RFID is, in fact, a convenient tool designed to execute the vision of EPCglobal, a worldwide effort supported by major players like GS1 (formerly EAN International), GS1 US (formerly the Uniform Code Council), healthcare consortiums and the FDA. The goal of EPCglobal is to automate the supply chain in such a way that would significantly reduce the immense costs and risks that are exponentially crippling trading partner relationships today. Ironically, to many manufacturers, these problems are not obvious in day-to-day operations. Companies have lived with the problem for so long that they hardly notice its existence. And yet, according to some, these inefficiencies cost even small manufacturers millions of dollars per year.

The remedy? A totally networked economy in which there is perfect synchronicity between supply and demand, such that the moment an item is used, purchased or consumed, an automated trigger produces the right and appropriate action to the supplier all the way back to raw goods procurement. Right product, right place, right time. We call this the Synchronized Value Chain.

How does EPCglobal envision this happening?

By essentially computerizing -- with an RFID device -- all widgets, uniquely and individually, so that an organization can have total visibility of the movement of all goods in real-time synchronicity. This unprecedented micro-level visibility suddenly opens awareness to the dark spots in the supply chain, the "unheard" areas where companies once made generalized assumptions about what was happening without empirical data. Assumptions in supply chain are not good: they create underages and overages of raw goods and inventory, the need for greater storage space, unnecessary transportation costs, customer service issues, and lost sales.

We look forward to you joining us for this informative and free event!