Posts Tagged ‘RFID’

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ClearCount Medical closes $5M in funding

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

ClearCount Medical Solutions, an innovator of patient safety solutions for operating rooms, has received a $5 million shot in the arm from Draper Triangle Ventures and other existing investors. The Series B financing will allow the company to drive market penetration and research and development of its RFID-based solutions for hospital patient safety applications.

ClearCount has developed an FDA-approved sponge counting and detection solution that was recently put into use at VA Pittsburgh Healthcare. The RFID-based platform uniquely identifies each sponge so that they can be easily counted and detected, avoiding having surgical sponges left in patients after medical procedures.

“Thanks to the strong backing of our investors, this past year ClearCount completed a valuable distribution deal, signed major new customers and introduced an important new product that is making surgical procedures safer every day,” David Palmer, CEO of ClearCount Medical Solutions, said in a release.

“ClearCount’s patented RFID technology and offerings are more relevant than ever,” said Mike Stubler, Managing Director of Draper Triangle. “As improving the quality of healthcare continues to be a national focus, solutions that can also impact the efficiency and value a hospital offers its patients are sure to be adopted.”

Retained sponges are the most frequent and dangerous of retained surgical items, a “Never Event” resulting in non-payment to hospitals and significant risk to patients. A large multi-center trial recently demonstrated that as little as a 30-minute surgical delay can nearly double the risk of infectious complications, so clearly every minute counts.

The company was also featured recently in the Wall Street Journal. Click here to read the article.

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Free RFID trial intended to jump-start RFID in medical device sector

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

Medical device companies have no excuse not to at least trial RFID technology. Raftar, a provider of RFID and mobile application based logistics and distribution solutions, today announced a “risk-free” way for medical device companies to prove that RFID can streamline sales and distribution operations for their business.

During the limited time offer, Raftar will deliver a full bundle of RFID  services – including its RFID-based warehouse and mobile, field service automation software — and will manage the entire 90-day pilot process from implementation and training through to successful completion. The RFID solution provided by Raftar will utilize Impinj high performance Monza® tags and Speedway® readers.

The “risk-free RFID” pilot will enable qualified companies to deploy an RFID-based case scheduling and inventory management and tracking solution that extends from a selected warehouse location to the point of consumption at the hospital in the field, with no up-front investment.

After the 90-day pilot, participating companies will have the option to discontinue the program with no obligation or deploy a fully functional production system, supported by a robust business case and real-world performance benchmarks.

“The driver here is to remove the uncertainty surrounding RFID in the medical devices industry,” said Ismail Nalwala, Raftar’s President and CEO. “Strong evidence exists globally that our technology can create dramatic operational efficiencies by slashing order processing times from 30 minutes to seconds and to help sales and customer service reps drive better service results for hospital and surgeons. The financial benefits continue through to inventory reduction and extend to better quality through order accuracy and item-level visibility. With the ‘Risk-Free RFID’ Pilot program, Raftar hopes to remove the uncertainty and enable companies to get practical experience with our solution and RFID and formulate a go-forward strategy.”

“We are excited that Raftar is exposing more medical device companies to the benefits of the latest RFID technology. In 2010, we’ve seen a surge in the use of UHF RFID technology and rapid growth in the variety of RFID enabled devices,” said Kerry Krause, vice president of marketing for Impinj. “Raftar’s software solutions and medical device industry domain expertise combined with Impinj’s hardware offerings, provide an optimal solution for accurate item-level counting of loaner kit items, including metal implants and instruments.”

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TheStreet: Wal-Mart item-level tagging doesn’t represent an invasion of privacy – or does it?

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

I’m a firm believer that privacy concerns about RFID are fading as the benefits of the technology become more apparent to consumers. While there is still a ways to go on that subject, a recent poll by TheStreet suggests that consumers are not concerned about privacy invasions from RFID – although only by a small majority. In the poll, 53.3 percent of respondents said they do not consider RFID tags a breach of privacy, while 46.7 percent believe their rights could potentially be violated.

The publication doesn’t reveal any information on margins of error, but you’ve got to believe that the poll isn’t far off from a 50-50 split on the topic, which suggests further education is needed when it comes to privacy. Regarding the Street poll, first I’d like to know why the poll results were buried in the last paragraph. Secondly, I’d like to know how many people TheStreet surveyed, and how familiar they are with the technology.

Click here to read previous coverage of privacy issues in RFID 24-7.

Click here to read the full story from TheStreet

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Posted in Privacy & Legislation, Retail | No Comments »

VDC Survey: RFID decisions being made at the ops level; respondents will triple RFID spend in 2010

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

There are some interesting changes occurring when it comes to buying patterns for RFID technology. Long considered an IT decision for many enterprises, more and more buying decisions are being made by operations executives.

In his annual survey on RFID operations, Drew Nathanson, practice director at VDC Research, notes that 19 percent of corporate influencers are now at the operations level. That number is up dramatically from 9 percent a year ago. Almost one-third of buying decisions are still made within IT, while 11.3 percent of decisions are made at the C-level, a number which is also dropping.

But clearly, the RFID spend is diverting from the IT department.

“That shifting to operations is huge,” says Nathanson. “This used to be about IT and how are we going to support this new data collection tool and what do with all this information? Now, the strategy has shifted to firm’s knowing they can support RFID in their infrastructure, so what are they going to do with it and who is going to run it and make sure they get the right solutions that provide the best overall return. And that falls to the ops people.”

Nathanson says that most CEOs and high-level execs are basing decisions on the recommendation of their manufacturing ops people, as long as IT can support the technology. In addition, 17.9 percent of corporate influencers are in the logistics/distribution/shipping and receiving area. In addition, most decisions re mad eat corporate headquarter locations.

In May, Nathanson revealed that the mostly tier one firms in the survey spent an average of $1 million apiece on RFID technology in 2009. This year, that number is expected to grow to an average spend of $3.5 million per company, as firms expand the technology out to their entire value chain.

“That’s a tremendous uptick,” says Drew Nathanson. What’s more impressive is that the same group of companies expect to spend almost $7 million apiece on RFID in 2011.

CORPORATE INFLUENCERS
Executive (CEO, President, Owner, SVP, EVP …) 11.3%
Manufacturing/Operations 19.0%
IT 32.7%
Logistics/Distribution/Shipping & Receiving 17.9%
Quality Control/Quality Assurance 2.4%
Security 7.1%
Compliance 3.0%
Product/Project Directors/Managers 6.5%
Other (Specify) _____________) 0.0%

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Lockheed realigns Savi division

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

Interesting news out of Lockheed Martin today. The firm initiated several actions designed to reshape its portfolio and strengthen its performance over the long term, including realigning its Readiness & Stability Operations (RSO) and Savi Technology with Lockheed’s Simulation, Training and Support (STS) unit under Electronic Systems. The new line of business will be named Global Training and Logistics, a closer fit for the breadth of its products and services and the international scope of its business.

Read the full press release here.

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RFID will help to measure carbon footprint for individual items

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

Ever wonder about the carbon footprint of the pair of imported shoes you just purchased? Or the Chilean grapes you bought at the fruit store? Well, RFID is playing a greater role in carbon tracking, a movement that is bound to gain steam in the wake of the incredulous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. government is already considering carbon taxes and carbon cap-and-trade programs for corporations, and is likely to accelerate that effort in the wake of the environmental disaster in the Gulf sparked by the U.S.’ still insatiable desire for oil.

This week, NXP signed on as a sponsor for the European Supply Chain Institute (ESCI) Supply Chain Carbon Council. Established in 2007, the Supply Chain Carbon Council works in partnership with global innovators from the technology and strategic advice sectors to tackle the issues surrounding carbon emissions management and reduction.

NXP’s involvement marks the start of a multiyear research and development program promoting the application of RFID/NFC applications to accurately measure the carbon footprint of individual products, as well as allowing for effective carbon labels. The program will also highlight the application of supporting data management technologies.

The program will highlight the ability of RFID and NFC-enabled applications to bring a high level of visibility to a product’s emissions output at all stages in the supply chain. ESCI leaders hope to eventually use the solution on a global scale.

“To have an interrogatable label on all products that gives the true real time emissions footprint’ of the product is invaluable to business and ultimately the consumer,” says John Connors, CEO of the European Supply Chain Institute.

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VDC survey reveals outstanding growth for RFID

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

Some great news came out of VDC Research’s RFID webcast today. The mostly upbeat presentation predicts good times ahead for RFID. Specifically, respondents in the survey — mostly tier one firms — said they spent an average of $1 million apiece on RFID technology in 2009. This year, that number is expected to grow to an average spend of $3.5 million per company, as firms expand the technology out to their entire value chain.

“That’s a tremendous uptick,” says Drew Nathanson, practice director at VDC.

What’s more impressive is that the same group of companies expect to spend almost $7 million apiece on RFID in 2011. “What you are seeing here is that scale is happening, and a lot of these applications and deployments that have been scaling at a slower pace are starting to pick up,” says Nathanson. “And the biggest companies have put budgets aside so they can scale this through the value chain.”

The other exciting aspect to the RFID growth story is that although existing customers make up a large majority of RFID sales, new customers are picking up steam and converting pilots into major deployments. By 2012, these new accounts will represent enough new business to provide momentum for the industry for many years.

“This is exciting,” says Nathanson. “This is the first time we’ve seen data tell us that new accounts will outweigh existing accounts, which means RFID is expanding into other markets and other parts of the value chain.”

Check back at RFID 24-7 for more outtakes from the VDC survey.

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Koa tree article feedback from around the globe

Monday, May 10th, 2010

Received some great feedback from last week’s article about the use of RFID to tag individual Koa trees on a plantation on Hawaii. The RFID tree tracking database being developed by Hawaiian Legacy Hardwoods (HLH) will allow investors in the HLH Koa reforestation project to track and monitor the progress of their investment in real time. The company embedded about 20,000 RFID tags into its new crop of trees this year, and looks to increase that to 100,000 trees during the next growing season. Within two years HLH will tag at least 250,000 new trees as it moves toward planting 1.3 million Koa trees.

One comment comes from David Ong, Managing Director of  Tripro Technology Sdn Bhd. His firm is working on a pilot project to help to create a RFID system to assist the Malaysian Forestry Department to track and manage its forest inventory. “With the availability of this new RFID application, it will indeed accelerate our objective,” he says.

And the folks at I.D.ology in Wisconsin wrote to tell us that while they have been busy with tagging and micro-chipping cattle to deal with food safety concerns, they have also come up with programs to tag field crops and link the crop to a GPS originated, location specific, date and time stamp to accompany fertilization and harvesting data.

Looks like Hawaiian Legacy Hardwoods won’t be the “only ones on the planet” doing this for long!

Keep the feedback coming!

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RFID will track Koa tree data at Hawaiian tree farm

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

Tree huggers will clearly love this one. In a first-of-its kind application, Hawaiian Legacy Hardwoods (HLH) is in the process of implementing an RFID tree tracking database so that investors in the HLH Koa reforestation project can track and monitor the progress of their investments in real time. About 20,000 trees have already been tagged.

The RFID-based system, combined with sophisticated GPS technology and a plantation-wide mapping system, will soon allow investors to use tools like Google Earth to drill down on their specific sustainable lumber investment from space and to pinpoint their specific stand. HLH is way out in front of the industry on this one; company executives expect the rest of the industry to follow suit within the next 10 years.

Each Koa tree planted will be equipped with an RFID tag, meaning that each individual tree is equipped with its own computer signature, which will track ownership, growth, maintenance, lumber-yield and pedigree for the tree owner. The GPS / GIS system will locate each tree by an exact set of geographic coordinates, allowing the tree owner to locate their trees on maps and by satellite imagery.

Trees must be ordered in lots of 100. The current pre-planting price is $6,639 per 100 trees for Koa. One of the reasons for the minimum order is the very nature of the forestry management process. Trees must be pruned and thinned with only the best trees growing to full maturity. With a small number of trees this process can create statistical anomalies in yields.

“This high-tech program will give a level of comfort to forestry investors that has never been available before now,” says Jeff Dunster, CEO of Hawaiian Legacy Hardwoods.

The HLH project provides the unique opportunity for individuals and institutional investors alike to invest in Koa trees as a sustainable commodity by purchasing specific units (100 Koa trees per unit).  HLH has made it possible for this investment opportunity to be accessible to a wide range of investors and investment vehicles including trusts, IRAs and 401Ks.  While this is a 25-year project, profits are realized along the way through thinning and harvesting. HLH is currently offering tree lots for the 2010 planting season.

The HLH Plantation is located 34 miles north of Hilo, above historic Umikoa Village on the slopes of Mauna Kea. The 2,700-acre sustainable forestry project will support the growth of 1.3 million rare tropical hardwood trees, primarily Koa, indigenous only to Hawaii.

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Airbus outlines process improvements from RFID

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

Carlo Nizam, head of value chain visibility and RFID for Airbus, provided updates on several RFID initiatives at today’s general session at RFID Live. RFID has greatly helped Airbus at several of its European operations. In Hamburg, Germany, Airbus turned to RFID to keep track of 800 container shipments. Airbus utilizes just-in-time manufacturing, so there is typically little or no reserve stock for many parts.

“We needed to make sure each container was delivered to the right place, the first time and every time,” said Nizam. By using RFID and installing 100 readers at the facility, Airbus was able to reduce the number of containers by eight percent. “That pays for the project and puts money back in our pockets as well,” said Nizam.

Airbus is also using RFID to provide visibility for tool management. The manufacturer uses more than 500,000 tools company wide, and each tool is required to be booked-in and booked-out when in use. Lost tools need to be hunted down, often a laborious process. In addition, tools need to be repaired and calibrated, which is done manually with bar codes.

“Visibility is not reliable and we don’t know how many times a certain tool has been used from a calibration standpoint,” said Nizam. “So we repair them every four months regardless of how often they are used, and that costs lot of money. Using RFID allows us to book-in and book-out tools and to use more of a fixed time basis for repair and calibration based on a usage basis.”

The solution, which helps to manage the mandated tool maintenance schedule, was initially used to tag tens of thousands of tools at an Airbus plant in the UK, and is now being duplicated at plants around the world.

Nizam said Airbus’ most exciting RFID project centers around using active ultra wideband RFID technology to track work in progress at plants around the world.

“We want a real-time view of our work in progress across multiple sites across the world,” he said. To achieve that, Airbus is adding active tags onto major component assemblies. By knowing where components are at all times, Airbus can quickly track work in progress and measure delivery needs for each plant in real time.

“By having all this information we can compare it against the targets we set in our software programs,” said Nizam. “Should there be too much inventory or a process violation, it is flagged in real time.”

The system is not complete yet, but is on target to be live in June.

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