RFID Journal, the leading source of news and in-depth information regarding radio frequency identification (RFID) and other Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, has unveiled the finalists for this year’s RFID Journal Awards. The winners will be announced at RFID Journal LIVE! 2021, the company’s 19th annual conference and exhibition, which will be held at Arizona’s Phoenix Convention Center on Sept. 26-28. All winners, along with the runners-up, will receive a prestigious crystal award.
“Despite the global pandemic, we continue to see major RFID projects across most industries,” says Mark Roberti, RFID Journal’s founder and editor. “There were a lot of new applications this year, and selecting just three finalists was not easy.” End-user companies were nominated in five categories:
Best Retail RFID Implementation
• C&A Modas, for its use of RFID to improve inventory accuracy and real-time visibility, enabling it to sustain its accelerated online and omnichannel growth
• City Furniture, for its use of RFID in all showrooms to improve inventory accuracy and reduce the time personnel spend completing inventory reconciliation
• Havan S/A, for its use of RFID on hundreds of thousands of products to improve inventory visibility and on-shelf availability
Best Manufacturing RFID Implementation
• BAE Systems, for its use of RFID to track chemicals and ensure expired substances are never used
• Danaher–Cepheid, for its use of RFID to increase production of COVID-19 test kits with less manpower during the pandemic
• Kloeckner Metals, for its use of RFID to reduce the time workers spend locating metal in facilities, and to increase production
Best Health-Care RFID Implementation
• Başakşehir Çam and Sakura City Hospital, for its use of RFID and IoT technologies to maximize utilization for more than 187,000 assets
• DriQ Health, for its use of RFID moisture sensors to ensure incontinent nursing home patients do not suffer skin problems
• Tallaght University Hospital, for its use of RFID to quickly locate medical equipment
Best Logistics/Supply Chain RFID Implementation
• Lockheed Martin, for its use of an RFID-enabled autonomous robotics system to perform nightly cycle counts, improving inventory accuracy and visibility
• Logistik Unicorp, for its use of RFID to audit its inventory of hundreds of thousands of items, saving more than $100,000 in labor annually
• Schaeffler, for its use of RFID to improve real-time inventory visibility, increase efficiency, lower operational costs and boost customer delivery performance
Best RFID Implementation (Other Industry)
• ESAN Eczacıbaşı Industrial Raw Materials, for its use of active RFID to track the locations of personnel and equipment with sub-meter level accuracy, improving safety and mine efficiency
• Harvard Medical School, for its use of RFID to inventory 15,000 assets across 160 buildings, reducing the time involved by 75 percent
• Weatherford, for its use of RFID in oil well components in offshore rigs, decreasing completion times for customers by 60 percent
Best Use of RFID to Enhance a Product or Service
• Fairville, for a system that rewards students for biking to school, which reduces the greenhouse gases from idling automobiles
• MTR, for its use of RFID and GPS to monitor light rail vehicle speed and operations, as well as improve pedestrian safety
• SunWest Engineering, for its use of RFID to reduce the environmental impact of thousands of physical inspections, while maintaining compliance with regulations
• Swiss Post, for its use of LoRaWAN to enable citizens in remote areas to request mail pickup
The judges also selected 10 finalists for Best New Product being exhibited at this year’s LIVE! event. The finalists are:
• Asygn‘s passive UHF RFID embeddable strain sensor
• Avery Dennison‘s atma.io connected cloud solution
• EM Microelectronic‘s em|aura-sense passive RAIN IC with a capacitive sensing interface for creating a variety of sensors
• Identiv‘s uTrust Sense SyringeCheck smart injectable dose-monitoring solution
• IDRO‘s optical RFID system for smart factory optimization implementation.
• Impinj‘s E710, E510 and E310 RAIN RFID reader chips
• InPlay‘s low-power, low-cost, firmware-free Bluetooth beacon IC
• MetalCraft‘s DuraDestruct RFID security tag
• Powercast‘s Robotic RFID Reader and Batteryless ESL Autonomous Price Checker/Changer System
• STMicroelectronics‘ NFC tag ICs with special privacy features
In addition, RFID Journal’s editors will present the 2021 RFID Special Achievement Award posthumously to Dr. Patrick King, who did more than anyone to advance the use of passive UHF RFID in harsh environments. King founded Technologies ROI to market his innovations, which include tags that can survive temperatures of 400 degrees Celsius (752 degrees Fahrenheit), as well as others that can be welded to metal objects.
LIVE! 2021 will feature eight industry-focused, technical and how-to conference tracks, fast-track training presented by RFID4U, RFID Professional Institute certification and more than 50 exhibitors showcasing the latest RFID products and solutions. For additional information, please visit rfidjournallive.com.