By Mark Roberti

June 1, 2011—When we introduced the RFID Journal Awards in 2007 to highlight successful implementations of radio frequency identification technology, there were one or two good deployments in each category, and the judges were usually in broad agreement on who deserved the award. Over the past two years, there have been more strong submissions and less unity among the judges. That's a good thing. The use of RFID is clearly gaining traction, and companies are embracing the technology in new and important ways. "The job gets tougher each year," says one judge, who has rated entries from the beginning.

Gerry Weber International, the German women's clothing designer and retail chain, which won this year's RFID Journal Award for Best RFID Implementation, has one of the most ambitious RFID deployments we've seen yet. It involves some 240 outsourced manufacturing partners in China, Turkey and other countries, as well as a company-owned plant in Romania, a handful of third-party transport and warehouse logistics partners, and roughly 200 House of Gerry Weber stores in Germany. One benefit: 2 percent to 3 percent higher turnover at the store level (see story).


Royal Caribbean International, which won for Best Use of RFID to Enhance a Product or Service, developed a system that lets passengers on any of its 22 ships pay a flat fee for as many soft drink refills as they like, without having to handle money or wait in line (see story). Sales of the refill package jumped 107 percent on the initial test ship, which represented an increase of more than $435,000 profit in soda fountain sales. Not bad.