RFID Compliance
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Announced Retail Mandates
The mandate specifications provided in this section are generally understood and available in the industry. Many of the companies that announce mandates do so in a confidential manner. Therefore, we encourage you to seek definitive specifications and guidance directly from the company you need to supply RFID compliance labeled products. Miles Technologies welcomes the opportunity to act as a technology consultant on your behalf. This means you will leverage our extensive RFID solution engineering to save time and money on your RFID project.
From a practical sense, you should consider that most specifications will be somewhat ‘fluid’ in nature. And will solidify as experience with the technology and production environments expand…so close communications with your partner is key.
Mandate Summaries
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Wal-Mart Mandate
- EPC compliant 915 MHz tags on each pallet, case or carton, or large unit (like
a tire or TV).
- Standards
- EPC Tag Constructs Only
- Up until June 30, 2006 Accepting UHF Class 0 or Class 1 – 64 or 96 bit EPC
- Starting July 1 EPC Class 1 GEN 2 will only be accepted.
- Current human readable and barcode
- Performance requirements for all product types:
- 100% pallet tags read at receiving with distance up to 10 feet without orientation preference.
- Conveyor: 100% carton tags (600fpm) at 10 feet without orientation preference.
- Note: During the initial start up period not all distribution centers are coming on line for RFID labeling. So each company works with Wal-Mart to identify which SKU’s will be RFID taged.
- Time frames and Distribution Centers
- Top 100 suppliers by January 2005, next 200 January 2006, rest of suppliers (about 20,000) by January 2007.
- Distribution Centers
- Comment: Suppliers are NOT allowed to pass along tag cost to Wal-Mart and must find a way to use the technology to their advantage to lower costs
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Best Buy
- EPC compliant 915 MHz tags on each pallet, case or carton, or large unit (like
a tire or TV).
- Standards EPC Based tags
- Accepting UHF Class 0 or Class 1 – 64 or 96 bit EPC
- Both SSCC and GTIN tag types will be required.
- Migrate to Class 1, Generation 2 (“UHF GEN2”) as soon as available.
- Current human readable and bar code
- Performance requirements for all product types:
- Read rates meet or exceed 99.7%
- Dock door reading requirement 3-6 feet
- Conveyor read distance is between 2-5 feet at 600fpm
- Time frames and Distribution Centers
- Major suppliers engage in pilots and preparation for case and pallet tagging starting 1/2/06 with full deployment in the September 2006 timeframe.
- All by 5/1/07
- A single distribution center during pilot phase and staged release as full deployment occur
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Target™
- EPC compliant 915 MHz tags on each pallet, case or carton, or large unit
- Standards EPC Based tags
- Accepting UHF Class 0 or Class 1 – 64 or 96 bit EPC
- Both SSCC and GTIN tag types will be accepted, the use of either type depends on the
item, shipping container and pallet configuration (ie. Mixed goods)
- Migrate to Class 1, Generation 2 (“UHF GEN2”) as soon as available.
- Current human readable and bar code
- Performance - None
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Albertsons™
Albertson announced in March of 2004 that they were going to pilot RFID with an objective
of having the Top 100 participating in case and pallet level tagging by April 2005. Other than this information there is not much in the generally available information category.
As more and more Companies announce mandates and the information becomes generally known in the industry we will report it here. However, we can not stress how important it is to treat this information purely as a guideline.
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Solutions
Meeting the mandates isn’t just slapping an RFID tag on a case or pallet and shipping it. It’s about growing your business, protecting relationships, and embracing a powerful new technology! One that promises to yield unprecedented efficiencies in the supply chain, for both you and your customer.
Depending on the mandate or your requirements, Miles Technologies has three different solutions to meet your RFID needs.
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Compliance Partner- enterprise wide RFID software solution |
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CP Express- simple and affordable solution to help you meet compliance labeling mandates. |
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CPExpress Print - encodes and prints RFID labels for DoD and retail based compliance applications. |
When Miles Technologies engineered the Compliance Partner RFID software, we focused on what meeting the mandates truly means from a technology and business perspective.
 We found four key requirements for meeting the mandates!
1. Generate and manage a proper EPC and/or DoD number.
2. A QA system to verify that your RFID tags will read mandate distances (up to 10’ / 600fpm) after handling, placement, and before you ship them.
3. Associate case labels to pallets
4. Export data for Advance Shipping Notices (ASN) / EDI type transactions.
Compliance Partner vRFID (CP) meets these requirements uniquely and with powerful automated routines that make life simple. In fact, CP’s power and ease of use makes things so simple that most installations are completed in a day.
In relation to the above, here is a summary of Compliance Partner vRFID unique features.
1) EPC & DoD Numbers - CP automatically generates the correct label and numbering scheme by SKU and by customer, because it uses Process Profiles which can be system wide or by customer. For example if Wal-Mart® wants EPC compliant tags in SSCC for mixed loads, but GTIN on pallets of the same item and you’re shipping only SSCC to Best Buy® for now, no problem. A few clicks and you set up a Wal-Mart® and Best Buy® profile and you can change processing rules at any time.
2) QA System - A quality assurance system is at the core of Compliance Partner.
- Graphics.
- Color coded action buttons and focus areas.
- Transaction time & date stamping.
- A unique state based processing system which filters out only the tags CP has written for the order…no spurious reads, stray tags or duplications.
- MS SQL Database with full processing history and audit trails.
- Our unique signal strength testing engine that detects and rejects weak or improperly placed tags. Upon successful testing, the Signal Strength, Time and Date of the read is recorded.
 3) Association -The power of RFID technology surfaces in its granularity. A properly generated RFID label is unique in the world and can be tracked with great detail to maximize control over stock-outs, recalls, expiration dates, theft and more. But the benefits are compromised if you don’t know what cases are on what pallet?
That’s why CP provides several superior processes for associating RFID case tags to pallets versus error prone portal methods.
- Auto-Associate - Automatically groups case tags and associates them to a specific pallet tag upon reaching a pallet load.
- Shrink Wrapper Associate - A great routine that automatically reads and associates case tags to a pallet tag while the wrapper is spinning.
- Assigned Reader Associate - Simply designate a reader at a pallet build station or divert line, and all that passes in a defined area is associated and grouped based on pallet load settings or manual finish pallet buttons.
4) To complete the cycle, you can output data from Compliance Partners MS SQL database to aid in creating your Advance Shipment Notice (ASN) as well as case to pallet association. Depending on the retailer you are partnered with, the level of detail on this transaction will vary. However, this is extremely important when shipping to the DoD using the DoD label format. This label format does not include SKU data, so your ASN must identify the product at the case level and by pallet.
Meeting the mandates with Miles Technologies and the Compliance Partner vRFID assures that you have positioned your business for growth and are leveraging the technology…and our $15K site licensing program is very attractive! |
CP EXPRESS™
The simplicity and affordability of CP EXPRESS™ helps you meet compliance labeling mandates without training or hassles. CP EXPRESS™ installs in minutes and supports all the major RFID printers and Readers.
CP EXPRESS™ comes complete with:
- Flexible Label templates for Retail & DoD
- EPC & DoD compliant numbering routines
- RFID Printer support
- Digital picture support to aid in positioning labels on placement sensitive product
- Tag read/verification with read Time & Date Stamp capturing
- Associate case and pallet labels
- Complete with popular MS Database support and easy ad hoc report generation
- Export of data for ERP, WMS, ASN, etc
Your CP EXPRESS™ system can be in a standalone or networked configuration. Experience the power & ease of use with our FREE Evaluation copy! |
CP ExpressPrint encodes and prints RFID labels for DoD and retail based compliance applications. Its easy color coded user interface has operators printing and complying in minutes!
CP ExpressPrint prints to all industry standard RFID printers.
CP ExpressPrint can perform the following functions:
- The ability to generate and manage proper DoD
and/or EPC numbers
- Print from multiple stations without duplication
- Built in database tables – No programming!
- Manage RFID serial numbers by SKU/Case/Pallet
- Upgradable to CP Express for RFID reading
- Industry templates or Design your own
- Export data for WAWF, ERP, WMS, ASN, etc.
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DoD & EPC Numbers
CP ExpressPrint properly generates and manages both DoD and EPC numbers and will not repeat them, because they are tracked in the database (MS Access, MSDE or MS SQL Server).
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Printing Labels
CP ExpressPrint comes complete with templates for DoD and retail, plus a label design packages to customize them to your requirements. The operator can choose label formats for SGTIN, SSCC (mixed pallets) or DoD.
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| Label Design packages do not offer: |
• DoD or EPC conversions
• Logging by SKU |
- Multi-Station without duplication
- Upgradability to RFID reading!
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