We generally pay close attention when a non-profit starts to “muscle in” in service areas that are normally the domain of for-profit companies, in this case, consulting companies that might provide similar “jump-start services.” However, we don’t think many of those companies are as well equipped to do what EPCGlobal can in terms of overall education and, in most cases, may not even want to.

With EPC still sputtering in the consumer goods-to-retail channel, its clear that EPCGlobal is making moves to try to get the engine running a little faster, but there’s nothing wrong with that.

Conair Sees Business Opportunity in RFID

Personal and kitchen appliance maker Conair made some news this week, as well, that it had not only significantly deployed RFID in its Asian manufacturing operations and logistics flows back to the US, but has taken its learnings to start a separate company last year to develop RFID solutions to the wider market.

Conair says it tags at the item level at a Chinese factory, and then – very interesting to SCDigest – uses the tags for conveyor-based sortation in its DC. Many companies have eschewed automation in China due to limited payback due to generally low labor costs, but with labor costs rising there, Conair says that by moving from manual to auto-sortation, it has been able to significantly reduce the sortation time and labor needed each day - by as much as two-thirds.

RFID is then used to also track the products into shipping containers, which are themselves “e-sealed” with RFID and tracked as they move into the US.

This is clearly some advanced use of RFID, and recognizing that, Conair has formed a separate company, United Security Applications ID, to develop and market similar RFID-based solutions.

The web site is very basic and we couldn’t find an address for the business, leading us to wonder if the business may be Asian-based (though there is a US phone number).

This is an interesting development – more soon.

ABI Says RFID to See Good Growth – but Supply Chain Apps not a Key Component: The researchers at ABI said that overall global RFID growth should be good in 2009, up 11%, and as much as 16% if you exclude RFID-based “immobilizer” systems in cars, the volumes of which are suffering in the auto downturn just based on lower production numbers.

As we’ve noted before, you have to often take these types of market numbers with a grain of salt, without fully understanding what is included in the numbers and what methodology is used to make the estimates, but regardless, what struck us was that supply chain applications are still not yet an important driver of market growth.

ABI says the double-digit gains will come primarily from contactless ticketing, contactless payments (particularly in North America and Europe), item-level tracking in fashion apparel and footwear, asset management (not only corporate assets, but also returnable transport items, tools/parts, and work-in-process), baggage handling, real-time location systems (RTLS), and electronic identification documents.”

So, in that list, we have item-tracking in apparel/footwear and logistics asset tracking, both supply chain-related applications, but clearly the main drivers of growth for now remain in non-supply chain deployments.

Any reaction to this week’s RFID news? Are you surprised RFID growth is still not really being predicted in the broader supply chain? Is it smart for EPCGlobal to get into the consulting game in this modest way? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback button below.

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