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Republic Polytechnic has partnered home furnishings company Aussino Home Fashions and technology solutions provider NEC Solutions Asia-Pacific to develop the region's first radio frequency identification (RFID)-enabled supply chain management solution for the retail industry based on the electronic product code (EPC) standard.
Mr Fong Yew Chan, director of Republic Polytechnic's School of Engineering, said that an RFID test bed facility would be established in the school and Republic Polytechnic will work with its industry partners to explore how RFID technologies can improve the inventory process.
RFID (radio frequency identification) is a method of using radio waves to identify people or objects by storing information on a microchip. The EPC is developed by a consortium of over 120 global corporations and university labs to make RFID standards compliant and inter-operable with different physical and back-end systems.
RFID technology is deemed to be superior to the conventional method of using barcodes because the tags can be read without requiring line of sight. Barcodes can only provide limited information on the product and can be unreadable if exposed to wear and tear.
RFID tags are less susceptible to damage and can provide specific information on any single product. For example, it can tell the difference between cartons of milk on the supermarket shelf and identify which one might be close to its expiry date while barcode technology can only identify the type of product and its manufacturer.
However, the initial high cost of implementing RFID is an inhibitor to its adoption and most companies already have extensive barcode systems in place.
As part of the research and design process of the partnership, students and staff of Republic Polytechnic will work with NEC as it supplies the technical framework needed to develop and test the system for Aussino's supply chain system.
The system is not only expected to increase efficiency, reduce labour costs and administrative errors for Aussino, but also allow its supply chain partners to track products and improve inventory turnover.
Mr Fong hopes that the partnership will spur other companies to adopt RFID. According to a report by Frost and Sullivan in March, the revenues of the Singapore RFID market totalled $8 million in 2004 and could reach $15.8 million by 2009. - TODAY/fa
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