(2007-12-10) Tomas Kubicek
Companies PENAM, a leading bread producer in the Czech Republic, Barco, barcode and RFID system integrator, and Alfa Plastik, producer of plastic mouldings, developed first Czech RFID crate for deployment in bakeries.
Towards the RFID crate development lead the PENAM’s efforts to increase the process automation of production and warehousing operations, elimination of lost reusable assets and ensuring the complete product traceability and visibility within the production and supply chain. The identification of bakery crates by RFID tags is the eliminary prerequisite for further RFID technology deployment through the production and warehousing facilities and thus reaching the maximum level of system efficiency.
RFID crate represents a unique innovative solution of its kind in the Czech Republic and it means a significant shift in development and adoption of new technologes as for RFID and automatic identification as well as for plastic industry markets.
From technology point of view the solution was developed by companies Barco, RFID systems integrator, and Alfa Plastik, producer of plastic mouldings. At the current stage on the simple looking solution is a result of several month´s development, testing and searching for suitable and economically beneficial combination of plastic packaging and passive UHF radio-frequency tagging. As a suitable RFID technology for this application were selected RFID UHF Squiggle tags from Alien Technology that complied with performance demands on read range, reliability and economical demands on the possible lowest operation cost and total investment rentability.
About Barco
Barco has been operating on the IT market since 1993. Since its beginning it has been focused on auto-ID and AIDC systems based on barcoding and RFID technology, and its integration into existing ERP systems. As a system integrator in this area, Barco offers integrated portfolio of services - analyses and design, supply and deployment of mobile terminals, barcode scanners and their accessories, development of software equipment for terminals, development of customer tailor-made software for data collection and processing from terminals, supply of barcode printers and their integration into existing system, labels printout, expendable supplies and full customer after sales service. www.barco.cz
About Alfa Plastik
Alfa Plastik is an established company with high competence in plastics industry. It focuses on production and injection of plastic mouldings, constructions and the production of moulds and tools for logistic packaging and automotive industry. The tools division offers very complex high-tech molds for injection molding, especially for precise technical plastic parts production. Alfa Plastik production force is equipped with production facilities in injection molding, welding of plastic parts, printing, assembling. All processes are managed by quality management system, certified according to ISO 9001:2000. www.alfaplastik.cz
About PENAM
PENAM Corporation is a leading Czech producer in the filed of bakery, flour-milling, pasta and confectionary products with tradition from 1992. PENAM is strongly focusing on the quality management. It is a holder of certificate ISO 9000:2001 and almost all plants have received international HACCP certificate. PENAM has received whole range of industry awards, among all award “Klasa” and prestigous award “Zlatá Salima”. The company is headquartered in Brno. www.penam.cz
About Alien Technology
Alien Technology is a leading technology and product provider of UHF Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Integrated Circuits (IC), tags, readers and professional services. Alien Gen 2 products, along with software solutions from partners, help solve business problems for customers to improve productivity, processes, security and asset tracking for closed-loop and supply chain systems. Alien’s facilities include corporate headquarters in Morgan Hill, CA; RFID tag manufacturing facility in Fargo, ND; the Alien RFID Solutions Center in Dayton, OH; Quatrotec’s offices at the San Francisco International Airport (SFO); and sales offices in the US, Europe and Asia. www.alientechnology.com