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Mondi Uses RFID to Track Paper Rolls
With the challenges resolved, IPICO intends to offer the platform to other companies in the paper industry. "We purchased the intellectual property rights from Mondi and plan to take the application into the market," he says. "Where these projects fail is when companies believe the technology is proprietary and want to keep it for their own savings."
One expert close to the project says efficiencies gained from RFID could conservatively reduce annual costs at Mondi's March plant by more than £100,000 ($193,220). If the application proves successful, Mondi hopes to roll out the RFID platform next year to the nearly two dozen corrugated manufacturing plants it operates across Europe.
Companies drawn to RFID technology say the advantages range from better business processes that cut costs and reduce inventory, to improvements in asset management and order forecasts. Wall Street is paying attention. Steven Chercover, vice president and senior research analyst for paper and forest products at investment firm D.A. Davidson & Co., says, "It's good if you're an early leader, but early leads eventually evaporate, and then it becomes mandatory to offer and use the technology."
IP-X operates within multiple frequency bands. When entering the RF field of an IP-X interrogator, an IP-X transponder transmits its ID code continuously but at random intervals, enabling readers to receive IDs from several tags simultaneously. This, says IPICO, allows its hardware to use "tag talks only" (TTO) technology, which differs from the EPCglobal EPC and ISO 18000-6 standards, where interrogators talk first to initiate communication between reader and tag.
In July, IPICO proposed that the IP-X RFID air-interface protocol on which it has built its business be adopted as an International Standards Organization (ISO) standard (see IPICO Submits Its IP-X RFID Air Interface to ISO). Although the company claims IP-X as its patented, trademarked technology, it declared that other vendors can use the IP-X protocol on a royalty-free basis.
IPICO is not the first company to offer a system that tracks paper rolls. In 1999, International Paper, a $24.5 billion papermaker, set out to replace an imprecise bar-code system that produced inaccurate inventory information and missed customer shipments from its Texarkana, Texas, warehouse (see IP Unveils RFID-Enabled Warehouse). Four years later, IP deployed a system similar to Mondi's. Interrogators were mounted on clamp trucks that transported paper through the warehouse. Workers applied RFID tags prior to wrapping the paper around the core. RFID interrogators then tracked the flow of products automatically as they left the winding machine and moved through warehouses.
IP's RFID division, ASURYS, also began marketing the RFID system to customers that buy its paper rolls. In May 2006, the company absorbed ASURYS into its packaging group in a company-wide restructuring plan. International Paper, however, pledged to maintain in-house RFID expertise that can support paper and packaging.
One expert close to the project says efficiencies gained from RFID could conservatively reduce annual costs at Mondi's March plant by more than £100,000 ($193,220). If the application proves successful, Mondi hopes to roll out the RFID platform next year to the nearly two dozen corrugated manufacturing plants it operates across Europe.
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| Mike Clarke |
IP-X operates within multiple frequency bands. When entering the RF field of an IP-X interrogator, an IP-X transponder transmits its ID code continuously but at random intervals, enabling readers to receive IDs from several tags simultaneously. This, says IPICO, allows its hardware to use "tag talks only" (TTO) technology, which differs from the EPCglobal EPC and ISO 18000-6 standards, where interrogators talk first to initiate communication between reader and tag.
In July, IPICO proposed that the IP-X RFID air-interface protocol on which it has built its business be adopted as an International Standards Organization (ISO) standard (see IPICO Submits Its IP-X RFID Air Interface to ISO). Although the company claims IP-X as its patented, trademarked technology, it declared that other vendors can use the IP-X protocol on a royalty-free basis.
IPICO is not the first company to offer a system that tracks paper rolls. In 1999, International Paper, a $24.5 billion papermaker, set out to replace an imprecise bar-code system that produced inaccurate inventory information and missed customer shipments from its Texarkana, Texas, warehouse (see IP Unveils RFID-Enabled Warehouse). Four years later, IP deployed a system similar to Mondi's. Interrogators were mounted on clamp trucks that transported paper through the warehouse. Workers applied RFID tags prior to wrapping the paper around the core. RFID interrogators then tracked the flow of products automatically as they left the winding machine and moved through warehouses.
IP's RFID division, ASURYS, also began marketing the RFID system to customers that buy its paper rolls. In May 2006, the company absorbed ASURYS into its packaging group in a company-wide restructuring plan. International Paper, however, pledged to maintain in-house RFID expertise that can support paper and packaging.
