RFID Journal, the leading media and events company covering radio frequency identification (RFID), and EPCglobal North America, a not-for-profit member organization supporting Electronic Product Code (EPC) technology adoption, today announced that Monica Laufenberg, CIO of Maersk Line, and Khaled Haram, CIO of Handleman Company, will present keynote addresses at EPC Connection 2007. The conference and exhibition will be held at Chicago’s Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Oct. 2-4.
Maersk and Handleman have been engaged in groundbreaking pilots of EPC technologies in the shipping and entertainment industries, respectively. These early adopters will provide their pilot results and discuss how their respective industries can deploy EPC technologies cost-effectively to achieve positive supply-chain benefits.
“We are very pleased to have two C-level executives from very important players in the shipping and entertainment industries presenting at EPC Connection,” said Mark Roberti, founder and editor of RFID Journal. “Senior executives from all industries will learn from the work these two companies have been doing.”
Maersk has been working with a customer to test the use of EPC technologies among multiple players in the supply chain. EPC RFID tags were applied to cartons at a Maersk Logistics warehouse in Hong Kong, and shipped in containers equipped with RFID to a warehouse in Japan. Laufenberg will discuss how the pilot was conducted and the results achieved to validate the EPCglobal standard’s value in the supply chain.
Handleman, meanwhile, has integrated RFID into the production line at one of its facilities, and has been testing the technology’s ability to take cost out of the entertainment industry supply chain and improve on-shelf availability—a crucial concern in an industry where demand for movies, music and computer games can be volatile.
“These two keynoters show that EPC technology is not just for use in the retail and consumer packaged goods industries,” says Michael Meranda, president of EPCglobal North America. “It has the potential to deliver value in many industries, and EPC Connection is all about sharing learnings across all industries.”
The event will feature four educational tracks: Supply Chain/Inventory Management, IT/Infrastructure, Manufacturing and Distribution/Logistics. It will also feature three preconference seminars—EPC Essentials, RFID in Packaging and the sixth RFID Academic Convocation—highlighting the latest research on RFID applications.
In addition, EPC Connection 2007 will offer new case studies and objective end-user presentations from such companies as Ahold, Amerisource Bergen, Anheuser-Busch, Boeing, Cephalon, Coca-Cola, Dean Foods, Dow Chemical, Dow Corning, Excel, Kimberly-Clark, Jungheinrich Lift Truck, Lockheed Martin, McKesson, Microsoft, Northrup Grumman, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Rolls-Royce, Schiff Nutrition, Shaw Industries, Technicolor, Wal-Mart and Wilson Sporting Goods.
“RFID Journal has always been committed to providing the highest quality information about radio frequency identification, and helping companies understand the benefits of EPC technologies is a big part of that,” said Mark Roberti, founder and editor of RFID Journal. “This event will feature the same high-quality presentations that RFID Journal’s other events are well-known for.”