May 05, 2016RFID Journal announced the winners of its 10th annual RFID Journal Awards during RFID Journal LIVE! 2016, the company's 14th annual conference and exhibition, being held this week at the Orange County Convention Center, in Orlando, Fla.
The winners were selected in six different deployment categories:
Best RFID Implementation
• Decathlon—for its use of RFID tags on 90 percent of the products it sells, and for adopting RFID technology at every one of its 43 DCs and 1,030 stores in order to improve on-shelf availability and reduce shrinkage (see Decathlon Sees Sales Rise and Shrinkage Drop, Aided by RFID)
Best Use of RFID to Enhance a Product or Service
• TrackCore—for its tissue and implant tracking software integrated with RFID enclosures for a seamless workflow and real-time inventory visibility
Most Innovative Use of RFID
• Florida Hospital—for its use of data from its real-time location system to improve its processes, including the reduction of a surgical patient's time in recovery by 10 to 24 minutes
RFID Green Award
• Golden Environmental Mat Services—for its use of RFID to manage construction mats, and to track the sterilization of contaminated mats in order to reduce environmental impact before deploying them back into the field
Best NFC Deployment
• CityPoint—for its use of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology in London's CityPoint office building to track keys, monitor security patrols, and secure entrances and exits to the building
Best IoT Deployment
• Hospital de la Vega —for its use of Bluetooth Low Energy beacons and an Internet of Things platform to track the locations of patients, personnel and assets, and to share that data with hospital administrators and relatives
In addition, for the first time in its history, RFID Journal presented the Best New Product award to two companies: SMARTRAC, for its Sensor Tadpole Tag, and Phase IV Engineering, for its RFID Sensor Reader. Phase IV's RFID Sensor Reader is designed to be easily integrated with a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) running a customer's machinery. SMARTRAC's Sensor Tadpole is a passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) sensor that can detect the presence of moisture and forward that information to an ordinary RFID reader (see RFID News Roundup: Smartrac's Sensor Tadpole Tag Can Detect Water Leaks in Cars, Ships, Planes).
Furthermore, RFID Journal's editors gave the 2016 RFID Special Achievement Award to Pam Sweeney, Macy's senior VP of logistics systems, for her leadership of that company's RFID efforts and her tireless work to promote standard practices for the use of passive UHF RFID throughout the retail supply chain.
