At last week’s RFID Journal LIVE! 2023 conference and exhibition, RFID Journal—the leading source of news and in-depth information regarding radio frequency identification (RFID) and other Internet of Things (IoT) technologies—announced the winners of its 17th annual RFID Journal Awards. The event was held in Orlando, Fla., and the winners were selected in six end-user categories. For a complete list of finalists for each category, see Finalists Announced for 17th Annual RFID Journal Awards.
Best Retail RFID/IoT Implementation
This year’s award went to Lojas Renner, which deployed RFID to improve its product replenishment from stock room to sales area, to optimize processes involving deliveries of up to 20,000 items per day at each store, and to boost inventory count accuracy and frequency (see Lojas Renner Raises Customer Approval with RFID).
Best Manufacturing RFID/IoT Implementation
This year’s award went to Pilkington Brasil, a car glass manufacturing company that uses returnable metallic racks to supply products to automakers. The company implemented RFID to determine how many active metal racks it had in its inventory, to manage the flow of those racks among customers, and to reduce container shrinkage and attrition (see Pilkington Brasil Tracks Product Packaging via RFID).
Best Healthcare RFID/IoT Implementation
This year’s award went to Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, which implemented a multifunctional passive RFID architecture for its entire institution, as well as for collaborative use, allowing the same readers to be applied to different use cases, thereby reducing costs for future deployments (see Israelita Albert Einstein Hospital Uses RFID to Track Temperatures, Assets).
Best Logistics/Supply Chain RFID/IoT Implementation
This year’s award went to U.S. Marine Corps Logistics Command, which utilizes RFID technology to monitor a large inventory of diverse equipment, as well as to improve its inventory management and accountability, and to prepare for an imminent Department of Defense-mandated audit.
Best RFID/IoT Implementation (Other Industry)
This year’s award went to Avon and Somerset Police, for its Dementia Safeguarding Scheme, an IoT-based solution designed to reduce the number of people living with dementia who were reported as missing, while safeguarding them in public settings and allowing citizens to assist them by contacting next of kin (see Police Distribute NFC Wristbands to Bring Home Those with Dementia).
Best Use of RFID/IoT to Enhance a Product or Service
This year’s award went to United Parcel Service (UPS), which transitioned from manual to automated scanning with wearable RFID technology, and which instrumented its vehicles with RFID readers that enable customer pickup scans as smart packages are loaded onboard, along with other visibility options.
Best New Product
This year’s award was presented to InPlay for its NanoBeacon Bluetooth Low Energy SoC IN100, which is designed to eliminate the need for software programming (see InPlay to Release Low-Cost SoC for Simple BLE Deployments).
RFID Special Achievement
In addition, RFID Journal presented the 2023 RFID Special Achievement Award to Mark Roberti, the company’s founder and editor (see Meet the Influencers: RFID Journal Founder Mark Roberti). In 2022, Mark retired after 20 years’ of educating companies about RFID and IoT technologies (see The Wind of Change, Connections and Recollections, and On Mark Roberti’s Retirement), so he could spend more time with his family. Since retiring, Mark has launched a consulting firm, RFID Strategies, to help end-user companies deploy RFID, and to assist RFID firms in marketing their products (see RFID Journal Founder Launches Consulting Firm).
RFID Journal congratulates this year’s winners and finalists for their terrific projects and products. These companies and individuals demonstrate that RFID and IoT technologies are delivering business benefits to companies in a variety of industries worldwide.