Feature stories

ASIA-PACIFIC, 14 January 2005

As one of the most talked about and anticipated technologies of recent times, radio frequency identification (RFID) is fast becoming a major priority for manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers and retailers around the world.

With retailing giants such as Wal-Mart requiring their top 100 suppliers to adopt RFID by next year, the technology is poised to have a dramatic impact on the future of many core business functions - such as retailing, warehousing and distribution.

HP has long seen the unique value in RFID and has invested significant resources in researching and piloting the ongoing development of the technology. With the tenth largest supply chain in the world, the company even uses RFID to manage its own supply chain and has participated in the current test program run by Wal-Mart, the world's largest retail company. HP also provides a range of RFID services to customers.

'We're taking our own best practices and marketing them as a service to customers, and that gives us a huge advantage,' Salil Pradhan, HP Lab's Chief Technologist for Sensor Networks said.

'You can say as a vendor that you understand the physical or integration issues involved. But until you've built a real program like we have, it's impossible to understand everything that needs to happen to make RFID work in the real world.'

On an industry level, HP has taken a leadership role in working with global organisations - including the Singapore Government - in developing and applying vital industry standards for RFID technology. With other leading firms, HP has also formed a consortium, EPC Global, tasked with ensuring RFID interoperability by encouraging early adoption of worldwide standards.

Now HP is packaging up this extensive knowledge and expertise in a range of initiatives designed to help customers throughout Asia-Pacific and Japan better understand the technology and how it applies to their businesses.

HP Cooltown in Singapore, for example, has developed an RFID Cafe to demonstrate how RFID works in managing a very intelligent supply chain process, using an actual cafe as an example.

After registering a customer's personal profile - including their drink of choice - an RFID tag embedded at the bottom of a coffee cup enables customers to receive a personalised cup of coffee. After placing their coffee cup on the counter, the RFID reader embedded within the counter top reads the customer's personal information and projects the visitors image and data onto HP LCD monitors at the back of the counter.

Smart shelf solutions also showcase the technology's ability to manage the entire supply chain, from re-triggering the ordering process when coffee runs out, to changes in stock and inventory levels, as coffee is reordered and re-stocked.

Information from the RFID tags also enables the cafe to track valuable data in real time, from the best coffee customers over a period of time, to the most popular coffee brew of the day.

According to Mark Manners, the Director of Cooltown Singapore and Mobility, the cafe is designed to showcase the technology in an innovative and engaging way, from an end-user perspective.

'The aim of the cafe is to trigger an innovation or 'invent' process within customers, so that they can see the functionality of RFID in action and how it may apply to their business,' Manners said.

'We are also planning a range of workshops to further engage, inform and educate customers on the value of this unique technology, in addition to helping them map out potential RFID deployments within the context of their business environments.'

Another initiative giving customers greater access to the latest in RFID technology is the company's newly launched RFID Centre of Excellence in Taiwan.

The Centre aims to showcase the latest RFID innovations and best practice from HP's RFID experience.

According to Mingpey Chou of HP Taiwan, the Centre aims to provide a demonstration and lab environment where customers can better understand their RFID infrastructure requirements and build their RFID roadmaps.

'Our aim is to make RFID technology real for our customers, while demonstrating proofs of concepts for business and technology processes, particularly for businesses involved with retailing, manufacturing and warehousing,'

'Using actual business scenarios, we aim to show the powerful impact RFID can have on increasing revenues and productivity by improving every day business processes, such as inventory management, product quality control and logistics traceability.'

The Taiwan-based Centre is the second HP RFID Centre of Excellence in the world - the first was in Palo Alto, U.S., and another centre has recently been opened in Milan, Italy. The company is planning future centres in Geneva, Singapore, Tokyo and the United Kingdom.

HP believes that these two new regional initiatives will provide customers with a better understanding of RFID, as the technology is increasingly woven into every day business processes.

'A lot of companies around the region are showing an interest in RFID but many of them have no idea where to start,' Manners said.

'By leveraging our global expertise, we're providing customers with a unique insight into the value RFID can add to their organisations, now and into the future.'

» RFID feature story
» Talking RFID with Wal-Mart's CIO
» EPCglobal
» Cooltown demo centers / Singapore