Feb 23, 2024Editor's Note: The RFID Journal awards was launched more than 20 years ago to highlight the best in RFID and IoT implementations within key industries. Since then, scores of companies and their solutions have been recognized for improving operations and driving efficiencies. As we get ready to announce the nominee's for the 2024 RFID Journal Awards, we thought we would go back five years to look back at the winners in 2019. Three finalists for each category will be invited to speak at RFID Journal LIVE! In Las Vegas, April 9 to 11 when the winners are announced.
At the RFID Journal LIVE! 2019 conference and exhibition, held last week in Phoenix, Ariz., RFID Journal announced the winners of its 13th annual RFID Journal Awards. The winners were selected in six different end-user categories:
Best Retail RFID Implementation
Grupo Boticário—for its use of RFID to improve the flow, identification, tracking of and management of goods in its distribution centers and stores.
Best Manufacturing RFID Implementation
BAE Systems—for its use of RFID to track tools, saving 1,248 hours that workers previously spent annually searching for missing items and performing work-in-process, resulting in a reduction of approximately 2,400 hours per year of time tracking WIP.
Best Logistics/Supply Chain RFID Implementation
HP—for its use of RFID, combined with new printing technology called Link, to quickly identify counterfeits and product diversions.
Best Health-Care RFID Implementation
The Adventist Health–White Memorial Medical Center—for its use of an active RFID-based real-time location system to increase operating room utilization by 18 to 22 percent, and to reduce staffing costs by $500,000 per year.
Best RFID Implementation (Other Industry)
The Airport Authority Hong Kong—for its use of RFID and a flexible robotic arm to revolutionize the baggage loading and reconciliation process.
Best Use of RFID to Enhance a Product or Service
Close Brothers Brewery Rentals—for its use of RFID and a new software platform to track and monitor 2.2 million casks and kegs rented to suppliers.
In addition, RFID Journal presented the Best New Product award to RF Controls for its overhead reader system which enables companies to track tagged goods between zones, as well as update tasks and workflow based on real-time location data. Furthermore, the editors gave this year's RFID Special Achievement Award to the IEEE Council on RFID for its work in producing the annual IEEE RFID event and promoting the work of RFID researchers from around the world.
"The projects and products submitted this year were among the most impressive the judges have ever seen," says Mark Roberti, RFID Journal's founder and editor. "We are certainly seeing how RFID has matured into a technology that is delivering real value to companies in different industries and different areas of the world."
