Report - RFID in CHINA (idTechEx 08_06)

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RFID in China Part 2 IDTechEx Exclusive

In this exclusive second part of his

report on China, IDTechEx re-

searcher Ning Xiao explores many of

the latest applications and imple-

mentations of RFID in China.

Food and livestock tagging, LF

Shanghai animal tagging

Shanghai has issued a local RFID

standard for animal and livestock

tagging. The main frequency is LF

(~125KHz). It also defines different

locations for different type of animal

tagging

• Dogs: LF glass bead tag, injected

under left neck skin

• Pig: LF ear tag

• Cattle: inside stomach

• Poultry: LF foot ring

Pet Management

Shanghai has been using RFID tech-

nology for pet management. The

project started in March 2003. Now

about 33,000 RFID tags have been

injected into the necks of pet dogs in

the city. The tag contains the dog’s

biometric details, vaccination history,

and the owners’ contact details. The

local authority hopes to use the tags

to maintain a database for the dogs,

handle possible emergency situations

efficiently and retrieve lost dogs

quickly.

The project was government funded

and there were little cost concerns

during the implementation. There is

no charge for the pets owners.

There are about 150 million pet dogs

in China. Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan,

Chongqin, and Guangzhou are top

five cities for pet dogs. Shanghai has

about 700,000, while Beijing has

nearly one million.

Pig and poultry tracking

Shanghai consumes 1000 tons of

RFID Printed Electronics Smart Packaging Smart Labels

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RFID in China Part 2 1

RFID in Korea – IDTechEx Excusive

11

Large scale pallet tracking pilot

15

Pharmaceutical RFID and Smart Packaging

17

Drug counterfeits in Europe – Another Wake-up Call

22

All the Technologies, Applications and Opportunities

24

IDTechEx Event Calendar

26

IDTechEx Reports 27

IDTechEx Consultancy 34


pork daily, 60% of which are

transported to the city from ten

pig farms in six different prov-

inces. These farms have fitted

RFID ear tags to their live pigs.

The tag will record data like the

farm information, breed, and vac-

cination history.

Shanghai has also issued 5000

RFID cards for the truck delivering

live pigs into the city. Only trucks

from authorised pig farms will be

allowed through the eight gate-

ways into the city. When a truck

arrives at the gateway, staff will

verify the information on the RFID

card, and enter data about the

arriving time, vehicle information,

and destined slaughterhouse.

There are nine authorised slaugh-

terhouses inside Shanghai city

providing 95% of the pork supply.

If the truck does not arrive at the

correct slaughterhouse, the sys-

tem will be able to record the de-

tails for future reference.

During the slaughtering and proc-

essing, relevant information will

also be written to the ear tags. All

this information will be recorded

in the central database and linked

to the barcode attached to the

processed product.

When consumers pick up the pork

product from the shelf in super-

market, they can scan the bar-

code in front of the portal to find

out information about the whole

product history, including infor-

mation about the farm, the

slaughterhouse, etc.

A similar project has been

launched for poultry, using RFID

audience flow control. The audi-

ence can enter the stadium for

difference matches with one sin-

gle ticket. The project was imple-

mented by Shanghai Hsic.

In 2003, the China Communist

Party Congress utilised RFID tech-

nology for access control and se-

curity. Texas Instruments pro-

vided the tags and readers, and

Beijing Angels Communications

Technology (www.angels.com.cn)

implemented the system. HF

13.56MHz badges were issued to

over 30,000 of the country’s most

important decision makers.

It is reported that the new chil-

dren’s theme park in Shanghai,

Hans Christian Andersen Theme

Park, will use RFID tickets. The

theme park will be completed by

the end of 2007.

Library

In the library application sector,

there are two major RFID deploy-

ments so far in mainland China.

Shenzhen Library has imple-

mented an RFID system. TAGSYS

provided two million RFID tags,

which were integrated and in-

stalled on books, CDs, VHS tapes,

patron cards, and other library

materials by TAGSYS’ local inte-

gration partner, Shenzhen

Seaever Enterprise Co. Ltd. The

project was complete in June

2006. Now visitors are able to

benefit from the automatic self

check out and return service. Ac-

cording to TAGSYS, this is the

second largest RFID library de-

Smart Labels Analyst August 2006 Issue 67

foot rings. Shanghai consumes

660 tons of poultry daily.

The livestock monitoring system

was implemented by Shanghai

Agriculture Information Ltd

(www.shagri.info).

Other projects

It was reported that Guangdong

Province is planning to put RFID

tags on over one million dogs.

Advanced ID will be supplying

over 550,000 microchips in the

first few years.

Carlyle RFID Technologies Ltd (a

venture company developed spe-

cifically by Carlyle Group and the

government for companion and

livestock animal identification ef-

forts) will be implementing this

project.

Nanjing city will also be injecting

RFID tags for pet dogs. It was

estimated that there are 60,000

dogs in Nanjing city.

It was reported that China has

fifteen billion poultry in total. Ad-

vanced ID estimates that there

are also 142 million cattle in

China.

Event / Venue tickets, HF

RFID has been used on tickets for

various events in China. One ex-

ample is the ATP Shanghai Tennis

Master Cup in November 2005.

200,000 smart tickets with 13.56

MHz RFID labels embedded were

issued. The technology prevents

counterfeit tickets and enhanced

RFID in China Part 2 - IDTechEx Exclusive (continued)


ployment in the world. The

world’s largest library RFID pro-

ject is the Seattle Public Library in

USA. The system was also devel-

oped by TAGSYS.

In March 2006, Jimei University

Library in Xiamen had completed

their RFID deployment. UPM Ra-

flatac delivered 300,000 RFID

tags for the project.

Shanghai is planning an innova-

tive RFID-based library project.

Instead of going back to the li-

brary to return books, readers can

drop the book into post boxes on

the street, and the Post Office will

be able to deliver the books back

to the correct library by reading

the RFID label attached to the

book. This project will be imple-

mented by 2010.

Manufacturing

Apparel

Need for quality control

The Esquel Group, the world's

leading cotton shirt manufactur-

ers, deployed RFID technologies

to track the cotton bales. The ver-

tically integrated apparel manu-

facturer is running a wide range

of businesses across the supply

chain from cotton farming, spin-

ning, cloth knitting, weaving and

dying to garment manufacturing.

Strict quality control is considered

as a key success factor for the

company which is serving a port-

folio of high-end buyers. When

capturing crop details down to

crop field level had become a pre-

Car industry

Manufacturing process

China FAW Group Corp has been

using RFID technology provided

by Vision Electronics in the paint-

ing process on the production

line, because of the high tempera-

ture environment, RFID enabled

the accurate tracking of work-in-

progress where other technologies

would have failed.

Vehicle ID labels

The China National Heavy Duty

Truck Group has installed RFID

smart labels on the trucks they

manufacture for storing basic in-

formation. The manufacturer can

benefit from efficient information

management and better customer

service. The system was devel-

oped internally by the Technical

Department of the manufacturer.

Other implementations

RFID technology has been utilised

by a number of major car manu-

facturers in China, for the purpose

of improving productivity, includ-

ing Beijing Hyundai, Changan

Ford, Shanghai Automotive Indus-

try Corp (Group), Chery Automo-

bile, Dongfeng Liuzhou Automo-

tive, and Changhe Automobile.

Shenyang Mitsubishi has been

using RFID solutions provided by

Omron.


vailing practice in the sector, the

Esquel Group decided to utilise

RFID technology to identify cotton

down to bale level. In this way,

the mixing and production plan-

ning can create yarn of consistent

quality in the spinning process.

Project details

The group implemented the Cot-

ton Bale Management Project in

2003. In the project an RFID tag

containing an identification num-

ber was embedded in the packag-

ing bag of the raw cotton once the

crop is harvested. Seed cotton

and other bale information such

as production dates and net

weight is stored in a database

which was accessible through the

internet. As the bale travelled

down the supply chain, additional

information was added. The prac-

tice converted the tradition hu-

man experience-based cotton

blending process into a program-

mable one, which is a more sys-

tematic approach to modern busi-

nesses. At the same time, it en-

hances quality control for the

company, enabling it to accom-

modate further changes re-

quested by customers with

greater attention to detail.

The application helped warehouse

management, with the reader on

the forklift identifying the pallet

information in real time by read-

ing the tagged bale, thus ensuring

the items are moved to and from

the correct location.



Appliance manufacturer

Haier Group is the largest appli-

ance manufacturer in China, and

has been supplying its products to

Wal-Mart . Early in 2006, Haier

conducted a RFID pilot to prepare

for the Wal-Mart mandate, and

improve productivity

The pilot was carried out in the

Special Refrigerator Department,

following the specification of EPC

standard. The RFID system oper-

ates across the whole supply

chain, from production line,

manufacturer warehouse, logistics

company warehouse, to store

warehouse. Around 200,000 pas-

sive UHF labels were fitted to the

surface of product packages. This

is the first deployment of dispos-

able RFID labels in a logistic appli-

cation in China. Vision Electronics

is the system integrator of the

project.

Logistics, Postal

China Post

In September 2005, China Post

had launched a pilot in Shanghai.

The purpose was to test RFID

technology in tracking mailbags

for EMS (Express Mail Service).

The processes involved include

mailbag transportation from hubs

to sortation centre, mail process-

ing and re‑packing in sortation

centre, mailbags transportation

between sortation centre and dis-

tribution centres.

This was a forty day pilot, during

which time 80,000 reusable UHF

labels were applied. Symbol Tech-

pallet, staff will use a handheld

interrogator to transfer the bar-

code information from the items

onto the RFID label on the pallet,

including the number of items,

model, and information of individ-

ual items.

When a pallet is moved into the

warehouse, interrogators installed

on the entrance can read the tags

on the pallet and create an entry

record in the database. The

movement of pallets inside the

warehouse can be automatically

recorded.

With the implementation of the

RFID system, Baisha increased

the warehouse utilisation rate

from 30% to 80%. It was also

found that efficiency and accuracy

were significantly improved. Mel-

low Anti-counterfeit Net System

(www.macs.com.cn) implemented

the system for this project. It has

been reported that Haier Group,

the largest appliance manufac-

turer in China, has also deployed

RFID in its warehouse.

Tobacco, UHF

National Tobacco #1 Project

The National Tobacco Monopoly

Administration launched “Tobacco

#1 Project” in 2003, which aimed

to establish the national cigarette

production and operation decision

management system. It requires

all cigarette factories in China to

identify each pack of cigarette

with information about brand,

type, and origin from the point of

production, and submit the infor-


nology and Vision Electronics

have been supplying RFID interro-

gators for this project and the

system integrator is Concord

Unity.

RFID tags were attached to the

mailbags. Read-only tags were

used from hubs to Sortation Cen-

tres, alongside barcode label so

as to continue using the barcode

devices in hubs. Read‑write tags

were applied from sortation cen-

tre to distribution centre.

John Cunningham, Director, RFID

APAC of Symbol said at the 4th

Global RFID China Forum, that

Symbol had achieved 99.4% read

rate with no damage to the tags.

The processing speed had in-

creased from 400 bags per hour

(when using barcodes) to 600

bags per hour. All the criteria

have been met and China Post

has declared the pilot a success.

China Post estimates that the

payback period will be 5-6 years.

According to Symbol, China Post

will launch an item level tagging

pilot by the end of 2006.

Warehouse management

The RFID-based warehouse man-

agement system in Shenzhen,

Baisha Logistics is one of the ear-

liest RFID adoptions in the Chi-

nese logistics industry.

The system uses a combination of

RFID tags and barcodes. One

hundred RFID tags were fitted to

the pallets. When the products of

the clients come off the produc-

tion line and are loaded onto a



mation to the national central da-

tabase at the point when it arrives

at warehouses and stores. In this

way, the Administration can track

the cigarettes in real-time and

control the production and move-

ment of cigarettes throughout the

country.

The initial plan of implementation

was to apply a barcode onto each

pack of cigarette. But due to vari-

ous limitation of the barcode tech-

nology, the Administration de-

cided to carry out a pilot using

RFID technology in Hangzhou

Liqun Cigarette Factory in 2005.

Hangzhou Liqun Cigarette Fac-

tory

The pilot employs a solution com-

bining barcode and RFID labels.

Reusable UHF labels were sealed

at the middle of the 8,000 pallets

in the factory. Fixed interrogators

were installed at the convey belt

on the production line.

When the cigarettes get off the

production line, they are sorted

into packs (50 per pack) with a

barcode label automatically at-

tached.

Every 30 packs of cigarettes of

the same category are placed

onto the same pallet. During this

process, the fixed interrogator at

the convey belt will read the bar-

code information from each pack

and write them to the label on the

pallet. The information will also be

recorded in the database and sub-

mitted to the national central da-

tabase.

Potential

China is the largest cigarette pro-

ducing and consuming country in

the world. In 2004, 1,874.6 billion

cigarettes were produced.

Retail, UHF

Bailian Group is the largest re-

tailer in China, with 7,000 stores

across the country. Bailian has

launched its RFID pilot in Shang-

hai early 2006.

The pilot has been following EPC

standard, using 928 MHz passive

RFID tags at pallet level tagging.

The main focus of the pilot is to

test RFID in logistics and supply

chain management.

Intel, Vision Electronics (Beijing),

Jmar (Shanghai), VeriSign, ADT,

Cisco, and Psion Teklogix have

been involved in this project.

Railway, UHF

The ATIS (Auto Train Identifica-

tion System) project conducted by

the Ministry of Railway is one of

the earliest large-scale RFID de-

ployments in China. The project

started back in October 1999, and

was completed in July 2001.

During that time 17,000 locomo-

tives had been fitted with semi-

active labels, and 500,000 freight

carriages with passive labels. The

labels operate at UHF, containing

information about train type,

make, number, and freight. The

cost of each of these labels is ap-

proximate 20 yuan ($2.5)


If the packs on the pallet need to

be relocated, portable RFID inter-

rogators and barcode scanners

are installed on trolleys in the

warehouse for that purpose.

Forklifts can directly transfer the

pallets to the trucks. At the exit,

RFID interrogators are fixed un-

derground, which can read the

cigarette packs information and

display on the screen overhead.

In this way the information about

transportation can be recorded

and submitted, too.

When the pallets arrive at the

warehouse of trading companies,

barcode information of all 30

packs can be read from the RFID

labels without unloading the

packs from the pallet. The labels

operate at 915 MHz and cost

about 40 yuan ($5) each,

The Hangzhou Liqun Cigarette

Factory produces 5 million boxes

(25 million packs) of cigarettes

every year. By using RFID tech-

nology, they benefit from auto-

mating production process, im-

proving logistic and warehouse

management, and reducing labour

costs. ChinaSoft International

(www.icss.com.cn) is the system

integrator of the whole Tobacco

#1 Project. The pilot in Hangzhou

Liqun was implemented by China-

Soft and Vision Electronics.

S h e n z h e n Y u a n w a n g g u

(www.yuanwanggu.com.cn) de-

veloped the software system.

Yunnan Kunming Cigarette Fac-

tory and Chongqing Cigarette Fac-

tory have also implemented simi-

lar RFID solutions.



The interrogators are installed on

the rail. When the train passes

by, the reader will detect the ID

code of the train and transmit to

the central database at the Minis-

try of Railway. There are thou-

sands of interrogators installed

throughout the country. This is a

close-loop system. By implement-

ing ATIS, the Ministry of Railway

can benefit from accurate data

collection, and real-time locating

of freight trains. The RFID tags

and readers were supplied by AM-

TECH (acquired by TransCore in

2000)

Shenzhen Yuanwanggu

(www.yuanwanggu.com.cn) had

developed the software system

for the project.

Non-stop tolling / ETC (Electronic

Toll Collection), 5.8 GHz

Although there have been argu-

ments regarding the frequency

band for ETC systems, between

915 MHz, 2.45 GHz, and 5.8 GHz,

the government authority has

officially confirmed that non-stop

road tolling / ETC in China will be

using 5.8 GHz.

Beijing has implemented the ETC

system on Airport highway and

12,000 cards have been issued.

The technology was supplied by

AMTECH. Beijing plans to deploy a

non-stop road tolling system on

all the highways across the city by

June 2008, in time for the Olym-

pic Games.

Shanghai will launch a pilot

scheme using the ETC system

Hunan vehicle management

Hunan Province is deploying a

RFID-based vehicle tracking pro-

ject. The project was conducted

by Bureau of Transportation of

Hunan, with an investment of 350

million yuan ($44 million). The

target is to monitor all vehicles in

Hunan Province by installing RFID

labels on the vehicle number

plate.

Shanghai ports

RFID vehicle tracking technology

is also used in ports in Shanghai,

including Waigaoqiao, Yangshan,

and Luchao. All the container

trucks in these ports have been

fitted with RFID labels on the

number plates.

In total there are 68 gateways in

these three ports, some 15,000

RFID number plates have already

been issued.

Supplier

Nanjing Sample Group has imple-

mented the systems for the three

projects above.

Taxi price meters

Shanghai has installed RFID labels

on the price meters on taxis. The

main purpose is to improve the

efficiency of maintenance and

verification. By the end of 2005,

over 40,000 taxis in Shanghai city

had all been equipped with HF

RFID labels. The project was im-

plemented by Shanghai Hsic.


before the end of 2006.

The ETC project of 250 km-long

Shanghai-Nanjing Highway will be

finished by 2008. Nanjing Sample

Group and Intel will deploy the

project.

Fifteen highways in the Jiangsu

Province have set a timeline to be

completed some time in 2008.

Guangdong-Hong Kong highway

will implement an ETC system by

the end of 2006, approximately

50,000 tags will be issued for this

project

According to the highway tolling

strategy in Guangdong, by 2012,

the 5000-8000 km highway in

Guangdong will implement an ETC

system.

Vehicles

Electronic number plates

China Custom:

The China Custom has deployed

an RFID-based Smart Gateway

system to monitor the vehicles

entering and leaving its venues,

including warehouses and science

parks. RFID labels are embedded

in the vehicle number plates, so it

can be automatically recognised

when passing by the gateway. By

the end of 2005, over 400 Smart

Gateway systems have been in-

stalled, approximately 10% of

China Custom’s 4000 plus

throughout the country.



Airport luggage

On 24 May 2006, Beijing Airport

began luggage tagging for the

Beijing-Hong Kong flights from

Cathy Pacific. That is the first

RFID implementation in a major

airport on mainland China.

Guangzhou Baiyun Airport is plan-

ning to implement RFID for lug-

gage tagging in 2007, while

Shanghai Pudong Airport is cur-

rently conducting RFID pilots on

luggage tagging and logistics.

Military

In military, RFID technology has

been used on the number plates

of military vehicles for the pur-

pose of security and anti-

counterfeiting since the end of

2004. As military vehicles have

special dispensations in China

many people try and disguise pri-

vate vehicles as military ones.

Zhongshan Dahua Intelligent

Technology Co (www.twh.com.cn)

supplied the labels.

RFID has also been used in the

Chinese field army for asset man-

agement. Shanghai Refine Tech-

nologies (www.rfidcn.com) pro-

vided an RFID system for real

time locating important military

equipments.

Future opportunities

High potential sectors

In June 2006, 15 government

ministries and authorities jointly

launched the “China RFID Tech-


RFID Pilot in Shanghai Pudong Airport: cargo sorting

Source: Vision Electronics



nology Strategy White Paper”.

This is a strategic guideline from

the government. Considering the

fact that Chinese RFID industry is

and will be heavily driven by gov-

ernment initiative, this White Pa-

per will be a good indication of

the future direction of the indus-

try.

The White Paper identified seven

application areas as sectors of top

priority:

• Public safety

• Manufacturing management

and control

• Logistics and supply chain man-

agement

• Import and export freight man-

agement at ports

• Traffic and transport manage-

ment

• Military

• Major events

Key applications under each sec-

tor are listed below:

Public safety

Pharmaceutical / Healthcare

Pharmaceutical / Healthcare is

listed as the first high-priority ap-

plication in the White Paper,

which indicates its significance

from the government’s point of

view. But so far no major pilots or

roll-outs in China have been pub-

licised yet.

tor for RFID anti-counterfeit la-

bels.

State Tobacco Monopoly Admini-

stration is also conducting the

Tobacco #1 Project which re-

quests the traceability of individ-

ual packets of cigarettes (50 per

pack). The first RFID pilot was

launched in Hangzhou Liqun Ciga-

rette Factory in 2005 using UHF

technology. Labels were applied

at pallet level.

RFID labels can provide both the

anti-counterfeiting and tracking

capabilities, if RFID is chosen it

will create a massive item level

tagging application.

China is the largest cigarette pro-

ducing and consuming country in

the world. In 2004, 1874.6 billion

cigarettes (37.5 billion packs)

were produced.

Coal mine worker safety

V i s i o n E l e c t r o n i c s

(www.vetc.com.cn) is the market

leader of mine interrogators in

China. Gejun Zhang, CEO of Vi-

sion Electronics, believes that if

the Chinese government was to

issue a RFID mandate, mining

safety would be one of the most

likely application areas.

There are currently 26,000 coal

mines, over seven million coal

mine workers in China, more than

all the other countries in the

world put together.


Food safety and livestock

traceability

Beijing Olympics Games wants to

trace all the food supplies using

RFID. Sichuan and Shanghai have

launched pilots to track livestock

throughout the whole product life-

cycle.

Dangerous item management

Shanghai have deployed RFID

projects to manage gas cylinders

and f i reworks/f i recrackers.

Shanghai Hsic is the market

leader for this application.

Anti-counterfeiting

China has severe problem of

counterfeit products, especially in

the market of alcohol and ciga-

rette.

China is a main producer of rice

wine, with annual production of

five million tons. But the counter-

feit wine can take 15% of market

share, causing a lost of 1.2 billion

yuan.

According to State Tobacco Mo-

nopoly Administration, within

2004, there were a total of

269,000 incidents of counterfeit

cigarettes, and 687,000 packs of

counterfeit cigarette were seized.

But it was estimated that over

five million counterfeit cigarette

have entered the market.

Both alcohol and cigarette are

high value goods, which are less

price-sensitive. There will be

great potential in this market sec-



Manufacturing management

and control

China is the world’s most impor-

tant manufacturing base. Chinese

government hopes that RFID

technology can be used at pro-

duction line so as to improve the

productivity and management

efficiency.

The White Paper listed cars, appli-

ances, and apparel as the three

most important areas.

Logistics and supply chain

management

The logistics and supply chain

infrastructure in China is ineffi-

cient. 20% of the GDP was spent

on logistics, compared to 8% in

the USA. The government hopes

that RFID will enable the trace-

ability, visibility, and efficiency

throughout the supply chain.

The White Paper specified the ap-

plication of warehouse, logistics

transportation, retails, container

transportation, and postal service.

Container management is a prom-

ising application for RFID. The

number of containers used in

China accounts for 25% of that of

the whole world. China Interna-

t i ona l Mar ine Conta iners

(www.cimc.com) in Shenzhen is

the largest container manufac-

turer in the world, taking 55% of

the global container market.

safety and border control would

be possible sectors, but he

thought a nationwide mandate for

livestock tagging was less likely.

“Livestock industry in China is

administered by a number of dif-

ferent ministries, it is not easy to

coordinate, ” he said.

The ongoing livestock tagging

projects in Sichuan and Shanghai

were both initiated by local gov-

ernments.

Timeline

The RFID Technology Strategy

White Paper had specified the

timeline for the development of

Chinese RFID industry

Stage One (2006-2008): This is a

“cradle” period. The industry

mainly focuses on technology re-

search and development, estab-

lishing standards, and launching

pilot projects.

Stage Two (2008-2012): The in-

dustry continues growing. Core

technologies are achieved by local

companies and put into produc-

tion, and the national standard

will be established. RFID will be

used in wider applications.

Stage Three: The industry will be

mature. RFID will be widely used,

and combined with other tech-

nologies in applications.

The industry seems to be optimis-

tic and believes the day the Chi-

nese RFID industry takes off is

not far away.

Jiazhen Wang, General Manager


Traffic and transport manage-

ment

The public transit payment card is

already a mature application in

China. But the ETC application on

highway has just started. China

has over 19,000 km of highway in

total, which is the second highest

in the world.

As for vehicle management, Nan-

j i n g S a m p l e G r o u p

(www.samples.com.cn) has im-

plemented a number of major

projects with its electronics num-

ber plate solutions.

Major events

China will be hosting a series of

major international events in the

near future, including the Olym-

pics Games 2008 in Beijing, the

World Expo 2010 in Shanghai,

and the Asian Games 2010 in

Guangzhou. RFID ticketing will be

a promising market sector, as

well as RFID solutions for vehicle

management and facility manage-

ment

Mandates?

Like Japan and Korea, no retailer

in China is as dominant as Wal-

Mart , not even the largest retail

chain, Bailian Group. It is gener-

ally believed that the retailer

mandate is unlikely to happen in

China.

The mandates would come from

the government, if there were to

be any. Gejun Zhang from Vision

Electronics suggested that mining



of Shanghai Hsic, believes that

wide adoption of RFID in China

will happen in 2008-2009, with

the national standard and fre-

quency allocation established,

costs reduced, and the industrial

value chain coming into shape.

“RFID will be skyrocketing (in

China) when it starts to mature in

retail business in 2010”, com-

mented Zebra China.

IDTechEx is authoring a new re-

port on RFID in China and East

Asia. For inclusions, input or en-

quires please contact Ning Xiao

[email protected]


RFID pilot in Bailian Group

Source: Vision Electronics



In a recent report to an informa-

tion forum held by the Ministry of

Information and Communication

in Korea, the Korea Association of

RFID/USN claimed that RFID-

related equipment and device

shipments would reach 524.2 bil-

lion won ($551.8 million) in 2006,

compared with 290 billion won in

2005 and 153.5 billion won in

2004. IDTechEx believes that

these forecasts may be inflated by

inclusion of complete ticketing

systems etc. They can not there-

fore be compared with our fore-

cast of a global market for RFID

systems including tags of just un-

taken several other countries in

use of RFID. For example, it is

one of the largest adopters of

RFID on airport baggage after

China and the USA, following issu-

ance of the new global standard

by IATA in late 2005. Korea is an

early adopter of RFID in libraries

with at least nine libraries so

equipped. The Government

backed Ubiquitous Sensor Net-

work USN program in Korea in-

volves RFID and is very ambi-

tious, foreseeing billions of dollars

of yearly business emerging.


der $3 billion in 2006.

Nonetheless, Korea is one of the

world leaders in RFID. Primarily

this is because it is a leader in

production and use of RFID smart

cards. These are the biggest sec-

tor of RFID at present. Other sec-

tors employ larger numbers of

RFID tags, usually in the form of

labels, but RFID cards and their

systems are more sophisticated

and more expensive. Other sec-

tors employ more tags, notably

pallet, case and item level RFID,

but the tags are much lower in

cost. Recently, Korea has over-

RFID in Korea – IDTechEx Excusive

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

United States

United Kingdom

Japan

Germany

China

France

Netherlands

Korea

Canada

Australia

Number of case studies

Korea has overtaken several other countries with its use of RFID

Source: IDTechEx RFID Knowledgebase


The IDTechEx Knowledgebase of

2,100 cases of RFID in action in

81 countries shows that Korea

has become eighth in number of

cases of RFID in action in the

world with 54 at the time of writ-

ing, a rising figure. It is probably

in a similar position in value of

RFID orders placed.

However, there are clouds on the

horizon. In 2008, item level tag-

ging will become the largest RFID

market in the world, overtaking

RFID cards and their systems.

After that, the rise in pallet and

case tagging will push RFID cards

into number three position. Al-

ready, there are more examples

of these applications in the world,

than of RFID cards.

Pallet and case tagging is happen-

ing primarily because some lead-

ing US retailers and the US Mili-

tary demand that their suppliers

do it, but widespread “voluntary”

tagging of pallets and cases at the

preferred frequency range – UHF

– has been delayed in much of

East Asia and Europe as users

wait for the local radio regulations

to be eased. In Europe,

Item level RFID will dwarf all

other forms of RFID in a few

years. Here Korea is largely a fol-

lower and it needs to do much

more, for the benefit of Korean

institutions such as hospitals and

for the benefit of exports. A possi-

ble scenario for value of item level

erator of Seoul's transit fare col-

lection system. Riders of trains

and buses in Seoul and surround-

ing areas now mainly use contact-

less smart cards to pay their

fares.

The Seoul Metropolitan Govern-

ment and transit operators re-

structured the fare collection sys-

tem last year to make it more

efficient. Since last July, the Ko-

rea Smart Card Co., which oper-

ates the fare-collection system,

has issued 3 million "T-money"

cards. The company has also

been testing the T-money applica-

tion on miniature cards that fit

into specially equipped mobile


RFID tags by application in 2016

is shown below. Surprisingly,

much of it is being driven by anti-

counterfeiting, managing standing

assets (hospital equipment, ar-

chives, museums, weapons etc)

and error prevention rather than

supply chain efficiency. Korea

must become a major player in

the larger segments shown below

if it is to continue to be a leader in

RFID in the years to come.

Later this year, commuters in

Seoul, South Korea will be able to

pay their transit fares with a tap

of their mobile phones, under

plans by Korea's three large mo-

bile network carriers and the op-

A possible scenario for value of item level RFID tags by application in 2016

Source: IDTechEx

Military, $1.00bn

Spare parts, manufacturing parts and

tools, $0.90bn

Consumer goods, $0.66bn

Other healthcare, $0.49bn

Drugs, $0.40bn

Archiving (documents, samples, art galleries,

museums) Other, $0.40bn

Postal, $0.25bn

Tires, $0.14bnBooks, $0.10bn

Retail apparel and other high priced goods,

$0.20bn

Rented textiles/ laundry, $0.01bn

RFID in Korea – IDTechEx Excusive (continued)


handsets. That project has been

delayed, however, because of

technical problems. But D.W. Cho

of the company's business plan-

ning team tells Card Technology

sister publication CardLine Europe

the mobile contactless fare pay-

ment service will be ready for the

general public before the end of

the year.

With the card, subscribers of mo-

bile carriers SK Telecom, KTF and

LG Telecom will be able to read

on their handset screens how

much value they have left in their

electronic transit purse and to

reload the purse over the mobile

network. They will not only be

able to pay for train and bus fares

with a tap of their handsets on

gate readers, but also make some

retail purchases. Since the first of

the year, T-money cardholders

have been able to pay for small

purchases at two convenience

store chains in Seoul. Transaction

volumes for T-money cards at the

stores are still very small, Cho

says.

Whereas the rest of the world re-

gards RFID enabled mobile

phones as inevitably an HF Near

Field Communication technology

sooner or later, there is some en-

thusiasm in Korea for UHF ver-

sions.

In Korea, RFID tags have been

moulded into some cosmetic bot-

tles but we do not have millions of

drugs tagged for anticounterfeit-

host a major conference on RFID

in Hong Kong in 2007.

For more contact

[email protected]. To

access the RFID Knowledgebase

go to www.rfidbase.com


ing as in the USA. We do not yet

see tens of millions of items of

apparel tagged in shops for effi-

ciency, as in the UK or the mil-

lions of books being tagged in

bookshops in The Netherlands,

though there is considerable li-

brary, museum and archive tag-

ging. Military items are probably

not tagged to the extent of such

items in other countries. Japan is

in the lead in use of RFID enabled

mobile phones. Despite regularly

touring Korea to gather informa-

tion, we only have eleven case

studies of RFID at item level in

Korea and most of these are only

trials as yet.

Are Korean hospitals up with best

practice (eg in the USA) in tag-

ging assets to prevent theft and

loss? How many world class sup-

pliers of item level tags and sys-

tems will there be in Korea?

These questions need to be an-

swered if the country is not to slip

back down in the league table of

countries using and producing

RFID in the years to come.

The IDTechEx RFID Knowledge-

base has over 50 case studies

from Korea (see below for a com-

plete list).

For more read “Item Level RFID

Volume 1 – Forecasts 2006-2016,

technologies, standards”, “Item

Level RFID Volume 2 100 Cases,

Paybacks, Lessons Learned”.

www.idtechex.com. IDTechEx will

RFID in Korea – IDTechEx Excusive (continued)


Airlines and Airports Asiana Airlines, baggage tracking and monitoring, Korea Korea Airport Association, bag-gage tracking, Korea Animals and Farming National Computerization Agency, agricultural products/ crops culti-vation, Korea National Computerization Agency, marine environment information collection, Korea Books, Libraries, Archiving Booxen, pallet, conveyance, Ko-rea Changwon City public Art museum item level Korea Korea USN Center, Property man-agement records, item level Korea National Assembly Library of Ko-rea, item level , Korea National Library of Korea, item level , Korea National Museum of Korea, audio tour guide, Korea Six public libraries in Korea item level Uijenbo Library, books item level , Korea Financial, Security, Safety Chohung Bank, contactless pay-ment cards, South Korea Daejon cash card, South Korea Public Servants' cards, South Ko-rea Pusan City, South Korea Seoul, contactless transit ticket-ing, South Korea SKT, KTF, LGT, Cellphone contact-less payments, Korea South Korea Army, transactions, cards, Korea Healthcare Catholic Medical Center - Kang-Nam St. Mary's Hospital, people, Korea National Computerization Agency, blood packs and storage rooms,

Military Ministry of National Defense am-munition boxes item level Korea Ministry of National Defense pal-lets Korea Passenger Transport, Automo-tive Car Immobilizers/Clickers, Hyun-dai Daejon, contactless transit ticket-ing, cards South Korea Seoul Korea, cards, cellphones, Korea Seoul Korea, mass transit cards, Korea South Korea, transit cards, Korea Transport in South Korea World Cup 2002, vehicle identifi-cation, Korea Retail, Consumer Goods Cosmetics item level Korea National Computerisation Agency, beef item level Korea Samsung-Tesco, CL GLS, pilot testing, Korea Samsung-Tesco, Pallet and box tagging, Korea Seoul Korea, cards, cellphones, Korea


item level, Korea Seoul National University Hospital card Korea Unimed Pharma, drug tracking, item level South Korea Yonsei University, blood packs and storage rooms, item level, Korea Land and Sea Logistics, Postal Busan RFID Test Center, intermo-dal containers/ ULD, Korea Fuji Xerox, "Japan-China-Korea Supply Chain RFID Pilot Project", pallet/ case, China, Japan, Korea Hyundai exports RFID trial, South Korea Korea Post, trial, item level Korea Korean Post, pallets, Korea Ministry of Commerce, Industry, Energy automobile parts contain-ers/ cases active tags Korea Ministry of Commerce, Industry, Energy Korea automobile parts cases passive tags Korea Samsung-Tesco, CL GLS, pilot testing, Korea The Port of Busan, container tracking, Korea Leisure, Sports Casino chips, Korea Chosunilbo Chunchon Interna-tional Marathon, race timing - 2004, Korea Future Household pavilion, Korea JoongAng Seoul International Marathon, race timing - 2004, Korea Mobile phone, Korea Seoul International Marathon, race timing - 2005, Korea Yangji Resorts, RFID membership system, cards, Korea Manufacturing Hyundai, crated parts and sup-plies monitoring, Korea National Computerization Agency, concrete item level, Korea

RFID in Korea – IDTechEx Excusive Korean Case Studies from the IDTechEx RFID Knowledgebase


Battery assisted tags

Sometimes passive RFID tags fail

to achieve the required perform-

ance needed for an application,

particularly when an environment

contains metal or fluids, or where

large numbers of tags need to be

read very quickly. The former

situation is especially true for pas-

sive UHF systems where the RF

field is easily reflected by metal,

for example, creating RF blind

spots and resulting in non-reads.

A solution to this is battery as-

sisted labels, which incorporate a

power source on the tag which

pre-energises the silicon chip so it

can be read much more reliably in

such circumstances. Unlike active

French based logistics company.

In summer 2006, the company

completed the six month pilot

which used tens of thousands of

labels. The pilot involved two pro-

jects.

Inventory tracking alcoholic

beverages

The first was inventory tracking of

alcoholic beverages. Using an

RFID enabled forklift, the logistics

provider could make an inventory

check every week rather than

every quarter without the RFID

system. This helped ensure that

they pay the right amount of ex-

cise tax as they can now closely


tags, which act as a transmitter,

battery assisted tags do not

transmit data (they backscatter it

like a passive tag) and they

therefore need less power then

active versions and can utilize

laminar, flexible, environmentally

safe batteries. In this case study

we cover an example where pas-

sive RFID did not successfully

work but battery assisted tags

provided the ideal solution.

Large scale pilot

This large scale pilot employed

Power Paper PowerID labels which

were implemented by systems

integrator NBG ID in a major

Large scale pallet tracking pilot A case study from the IDTechEx RFID Knowledgebase

Company: Third Party Logistics Service Provider of a Leading Global Logistics Company (company is confidential)

Application: Retail and logistics, pallets

Area of use: France

Benefits sought: Pallet tracking (shrinkage reduction), precise inventory information for duty (inventory reduction)

Status: Large scale pilot

Tag supplier: Power Paper

Frequency: UHF

Format: Battery-assisted (printed thin and flexible battery), passive “PowerID” label

Range: Many meters

RFID reader supplier: PowerID

Number of readers: 5

System Integrator: NBG ID

ROI period: 6 months for inventory tracking; 12 months for pallet tracking


monitor what has left the bonded

area of the DC warehouse rather

than just estimating it. The

French Government is pushing

others to do the same. Power Pa-

per reported that 100% reads

were achieved in this project.

Tracking mixed pallets

The second project utilized RFID

labels on a retailer’s mixed pallets

as they left the distribution cen-

ter. The mixed pallets usually

contain products that include

metals, liquids, and foils. The

PowerID label is read at reader

gates found at the dock door of

are deploying RFID for the first

time act conservatively and rela-

tively slowly. However, moving

from demos to pilots then large

scale pilots proves to users the

ROI at each stage and gives them

confidence for mass deployment.

It is indicative from this case

study, and many others, that the

user company wishes to remain

confidential – they realize they

are onto a winner and seek to

exploit the technology ahead of

their competition.

More information on these case

studies may be found at Pow-

e r ID ’ s case s tudy page

http://www.power-id.com


the distribution center and at the

dock door of the retailer’s stores.

The reader gate assures the ship-

ment of pallets to the correct

stores. In this project 99.7%

read rates have been achieved.

Following these successful pro-

jects a larger scale implementa-

tion may be rolled out. Fully ena-

bling one distribution center alone

would require two million labels

per year.

Commenting on the challenges of

the RFID industry today, Erez Ka-

hani, Executive Vice President of

Power Paper’s PowerID division,

told IDTechEx of an industry wide

issue; that many companies who

Large scale pallet tracking pilot (continued)

Left - Reader at dock door at DC used for outgoing pallets to stores. Right - Labels on shelves and pallets

Source: PowerID


RFID in healthcare is growing rap-

idly to become a $2.1 billion

global business in 2016. Smart

packaging for healthcare has ad-

ditional value, for example in pa-

tient compliance recording blister

packs that electronically record

when each pill is taken – or more

strictly when it is removed from

the pack. Aardex has a different

version where the plastic bottle of

pills is continuously weighed by a

load cell in the base, thus re-

cording when a pill is removed.

These packages are used in drug

trials and they incorporate RFID

so that the record can be linked to

the patient. They deal with a

problem arising from the fact that

50% of patients take their medi-

cation incorrectly either in quan-

tity, time or duration. In rheuma-

tology it is 65%, arthritis and mi-

graine being only 7-15% but most

other afflictions are in the 40-

60% range for non-compliance –

a severe problem for the patient,

those prescribing and those trial-

ling drugs.

Marketing, patient and profes-

sional advantages

When two equally efficacious

drugs enter the market, the one

with better compliance is likely to

be more widely used. Non-

compliance is costly and risky. It

costs $100 billion yearly in the US

alone. It costs the drug industry

dates (you overheated it for so

long, therefore dispose of it at

this earlier date) and electronic

monitoring of degradation in stor-

age and transport. Widespread

use will follow cost reduction by

use of new finer electronic and

electric inks such as the Parelec

Parmod® silver conducting ink

used in litho, flexo and gravure

printing. Indeed, even semicon-

ducting and dielectric inks are

being developed by the German

chemical company Merck and oth-

ers and some of these will be suit-

able for high speed printing of

replacements for the silicon chip

in labels and packaging. The

printed alternative is cheaper,

more damage tolerant and thin-

ner. Packaging companies Dai

Nippon Printing and Mreal are

among those developing printed

electronics for packaging. For

more attend RFID Smart Labels

Europe, London 19-20 September

www.smartlabelsEurope.com

Compliance monitoring pack-

ages roll out

The National Institutes of Health

trial of its antibiotic Azithromycin,

is currently using 30,000 smart

packages that record which tablet

was taken in a six month trial in

twelve US academic institutes. We

estimate that these smart pack-

ages are sold for around $20.

Fischer Clinical Services is carry-


over $8 billion annually in unfilled

new and refill prescriptions.

Patients are often confused over

the reason for the medication.

After all, they average only six

minutes when meeting the physi-

cian. Patients are often not fully

convinced that their treatment is

necessary. Some do not get their

medication in the first case. If

they do, then 30-50% of them

are not taken correctly, according

to MeadWestvaco. Many patients

fail to get refills where prescribed

and 28% of over 45 year olds ad-

mit to discontinuing the pre-

scribed medication prematurely.

Antidepressants are particularly

bad in this respect.

Drug companies have come to

realize that spending heavily on

creating new blockbuster drugs is

risky and less and less cost-

effective whereas encouraging

patients to take medication cor-

rectly benefits the patient, re-

duces load on physicians and hos-

pitals and sell more of existing,

non-contentious drugs.

Reducing false data, benefit-

ing patients

The smart blister pack and plastic

bottle reduce the amount of false

data recorded in drug trials and

eventually such packs will appear

in the home, probably enhanced

by self-adjusting electronic use-by

Pharmaceutical RFID and Smart Packaging


ing out the trial using smart blis-

ter packs from Information Medi-

ary of Canada. Novartis is also

carrying out a drug trial, in this

case using smart blister packs

from Cypak of Sweden, a com-

pany that uses packager Mead-

• It assists the medical provider

in explaining the optimal pre-

scribed regimen

• Enrols the patient as a partici-

pant in their own therapy


Westvaco for some of its market-

ing.

This improved compliance through

smart packaging features the fol-

lowing:

Pharmaceutical RFID and Smart Packaging (continued)

Information Mediary Compliance Drug Pack

Source: Information Mediary


• Simplifies medication admini-

stration for the patient

• Provides interaction and

prompting, reinforcement and

cueing

• Creates a permanent and con-

tinuous intervention that de-

mands little involvement by the

physician or pharmacist

• Supports the brand message all

the way to the medicine cabinet

• Builds efficacy and integrity

• Reduces medication errors

• Reduces the development of

antibiotic resistant bacteria

Patients have responded very

positively to packages that display

their performance over the past

week: they try to do better. Medi-

cation non compliance costs the

US alone about $100 billion and

125,000 deaths yearly. It is re-

sponsible for 10% of hospital ad-

missions - $31 billion yearly and

380,000 patients. It is responsible

for 23% of nursing home admis-

sions - $15 billion yearly and 3.5

million patients (source NIH).

Tamper recording and supply

chain efficiency

Sometimes printing – or at least

partial printing – has been used to

At the WHO meeting February

2006 in Rome, Dr Nils Behrndt

noted that 27 incidents of coun-

terfeit drugs in the EU legitimate

supply chain were identified be-

tween 2001 and 2005. Alexander

Vladychenko, noting the increas-

ing sophistication of drug counter-

feits said, “Counterfeit drugs are

on the verge of becoming a silent

pandemic.”

To combat this, RFID on each

small package, with unique identi-

fication of that precise package

(“mass serialization” under EP-

Cglobal numbering and network)

permits reverse audit, called

“pedigree” by the pharmaceutical

industry. Pedigree, combined with

sophisticated software, permits

the origin and destination of even

the smallest package is known at

all times.

The Food and Drug Administration

in the US is expected to legislate

on this within the next year or so

when certain aspects are resolved

such as the best frequency to use.

Meanwhile, Pfizer is RFID tagging,

at item level, all Viagra for the

US, GlaxoSmithKline is tagging

Trizivir and AstraZeneca and oth-

ers are rapidly following. Cardinal

Health, TAGSYS and others have

developed smart shelves in cabi-

nets, refrigerators and trolleys

that can read such tags for error

prevention, automatic reordering

and theft prevention. Wal-Mart

has taken delivery of about three


make packages that record when

tampering is attempted or

achieved. This permits investiga-

tors to calculate where, in the

supply chain, attacks typically

occur and arrests have been

made using this technology. Cy-

pak is a leader here, incorporating

RFID. Indeed RFID, particularly at

item level, can help to improve

the recall of pharmaceuticals. Well

over 1000 such recalls occur

every year and they are less than

perfect. The cost of the reverse

supply chain is significant, not

just the safety aspect. For exam-

ple the retail and pharmaceutical

markets must absorb $2 billion

yearly from return of outdated

and overstocked products.

Anti-counterfeiting

The World Health Organisation

estimates that counterfeit drugs

cost the pharmaceutical industry

$40 billion yearly. The Centre for

Medicines in the Public interest

projects global counterfeit drug

sales to reach $75 billion in 2010,

a 92% increase on 2005. Drug

counterfeits average 6-10%

worldwide according to WHO and

the UN and “Up to 15% in the

global medicines supply chain”

according to an analysis in PloS

Medicine in 2005. 12% are coun-

terfeit in Russia, 40% in some

countries in Africa and South

America. Over 100,000 people die

from counterfeit drugs every year

in China alone.



million tagged drugs at item level

for improving automation of

stocktaking and customer service

and theft prevention in its phar-

macies. Omron and Avery Denni-

son use high speed gravure print-

ing to create the RFID antennas

on these labelled packages.

Talking packages

Another technology receiving the

attention of the printing and pack-

aging industry is the Envi-

sionAmerica system by which an

RFID label under the regular label

of patient information electroni-

cally records a duplicate of that

information. A device held near

then speaks out loud the informa-

tion to assist the blind, partially

sighted, illiterate, dyslexic and

those shaking from an affliction or

in a dark place when they need to

read instructions. That is about

one third of all patients, according

to studies. Indeed, City University

in London even found that 25% of

fully sighted consumers can not

read or have difficulty reading

instructions, the figure being 73%

for partially sighted people. The

US Institute of Ophthalmology

reports that nearly 50% of people

over the age of 65 develop one of

three chronic eye diseases, the

figure rising because of the age-

ing of the population. The Envi-

sionAmerica talking label system

is now being rolled out across the

clear packaging and labeling is a

contributory factor in 25% of re-

ported medication errors and far

better human interfaces through

smart packaging can certainly

help here.

Demographic timebomb

The demographic timebomb by

which patients, nurses and physi-

cians are, on average, getting

older, cannot improve the situa-

tion. Even today, the Aventura

Hospital Group reports that 2% of

administered doses in hospitals in

the US are incorrect. However,

AstraZeneca has been a pioneer

in using an electronic handshake

based on an innovative form of

chipless RFID for error prevention

and recording procedures with

Diprivan anaesthetic, over 30 mil-

lion RFID enabled syringes having

been delivered so far into Europe

and Japan.

New solutions

Packaging that flashes light and

even speaks when the patient

should take the medication will

help. So will packaging with large

scrolling instructions in glowing

images. Experimentally, we have

seen electrically operated pack-

ages that lock, go rough

(electroactive polymers) or go

black when the contents have ex-


USA following years of trials in the

Chicago region.

Printing technologies

Lithographic and other printing

techniques will be used to print

sensors, antennas and eventually

the complete electronic circuits in

these and other forms of smart

packaging for pharmaceuticals,

including packs that speak to give

prompts and instructions. Mean-

while, for the small runs currently

involved, screen printing usually

suffices, with rotary screen print-

ing sometimes in use as with an-

tennas on ASK RFID labels. Chi-

nese printers are putting RFID

antennas directly onto paper and

ACREO of Sweden has a “chipless”

(no silicon chip) RFID process that

is printed onto paper.

Preventable medical errors

The US Institute of Medicine esti-

mates that preventable medical

errors in the US cost $17 billion

yearly. A study in the UK National

Health Service showed 10% of

patients suffering an “adverse

event”. While a report by the UK

National Patient Safety Agency

says, “No single technology can

solve the NHS’s unfortunate habit

of giving patients treatments that

were intended for other people”.

An NHS study has shown that un-



pired. There are already packages

that call you back if you have

taken one pill and should have

taken two – they say so out loud -

and one experimental pack shouts

“not now” if you touch it at the

wrong time. This may seem hu-

morous to a healthy person but it

is a lifesaver to the confused eld-

erly and sick, who will increas-

ingly have to self medicate as the

population ages. Read Electronic

S m a r t P a c k a g i n g

www.idtechex.com

Child resistant packaging

Another aspect is child resistant

packaging where smarter me-

chanical and electrical technolo-

gies are being explored for the

packaging. The Child Accident

Prevention Trust finds that 20%

of under fives can open safety

tops and the move to blister

packs has made things much

worse, with most babies penetrat-

ing them – they use their teeth.

In Europe, 110,000 children are

injured by accidental poisoning

every year yet child resistant clo-

sures are one of four interven-

tions that could reduce this 94%

(WHO). The US is more active in

dealing with this problem. Strict

US packaging laws in 1974 have

saved the lives of 460 children

under five from oral prescription

drugs. Aspirin related mortality

reduced from 7 to 0.1 deaths per

pliers of low cost batteries and

Power Paper licenses a battery

printing process.

Big future

Smart packaging for pharmaceuti-

cals clearly has an exciting future

and the adoption rate is not as

dependent on price as may seem

at first sight. Think of the prob-

lems described above – all of

which involve billions of dollars

yearly. Think of the brand value

destroyed by counterfeiting as

just one example and remember

that legislation is going to push

some of this technology through

anyway.


million. In 30 years, child resis-

tant packaging saved the deaths

of 900 children from aspirin and

prescription drugs combined.

However, the shift from hospital

to home treatment, fast dissolving

drugs, and increased use of blis-

ter packs (now 95% of European

drugs) on the basis of cost and

environmental protection are

among the threats. Of course, the

challenge is to improve child re-

sistance while making it easy for

the shaking, weak, elderly and

infirm to obtain their medication

efficiently and easily.

Printed batteries

Now that batteries can be printed

on packages or at least applied as

very low cost laminates, there is

interest in electrical baby proofing

technologies and “active” RFID

where there is a battery in the tag

to give longer range and manage

sensors.

Indeed, talking packages and

compliance monitoring packages

all need batteries and the coin

cells currently used are expensive

and, with their spring contacts,

unreliable compared to printed

versions which also have the ad-

vantage of being thin and envi-

ronmental as well. Thin Battery

Technologies and Graphic Solu-

tions are among the leading sup-



Lipitor is world's biggest-selling

prescription drug, with annual

worldwide sales of $12 billion,

making it an attractive target for

counterfeiters.

British authorities have found a

new batch of counterfeit packs of

Pfizer Inc's Lipitor cholesterol tab-

let in the legitimate supply chain,

highlighting the risk posed by

fake drugs, officials said early Au-

gust. In this wave of attack, the

Medicines and Healthcare prod-

ucts Regulatory Agency MHRA –

part of the UK Government De-

partment of Health - first seized

fake Lipitor tablets in July 2005

and it said at that time that more

packs from that batch had ap-

peared. The latest packs recalled

had a different lot number. The

popular press reported that the

counterfeiters had cracked the

coding system and that this type

of counterfeit tends to originate in

Italy and East Asia.

Fortunately the examined samples

were chemically harmless, if inef-

fective. "The testing of the coun-

terfeit product indicates that there

is no immediate risk to patients,

but because it is a counterfeit we

can not guarantee its quality,"

Danny Lee-Frost, Head of En-

forcement at the MHRA said in a

statement. "The MHRA advises

patients to stop taking tablets

from this batch and to contact

their pharmacist. If patients have

any concerns about possible side

effects they should discuss them

with their doctor." Pfizer said it

was deeply concerned by the find-

ing.

established with item level RFID

as key in combating this. It is

likely to legislate if it gets insuffi-

cient response from the industry

in tagging all prescription drugs,

starting with the most counter-

feited such as Lipitor and Viagra.

In the US, the industry believes

that legislation will be applied late

this year or next year, the only

delay being deciding such aspects

as the frequency to be used.

Leadership by Pfizer, Purdue,

GSK and others

The US Pharmaceutical industry,

seeing the enormous financial

exposure to recalls, lawsuits, in-

vestigations and damage to repu-

tation caused by mounting num-

bers of counterfeits of increasing

sophistication, is keen to comply.

Indeed several drugs are already

RFID tagged for the US Market

such as Pfizer Viagra, Purdue

Pharma Oxycontin and GlaxoS-

mithKline Trizivir. Wal-Mart has

been demanding RFID on Type 2

(addictive) drugs, albeit at a dif-

ferent frequency, with Johnson &

Johnson, Abbott Laboratories and

others complying.

Tony Walsh of Domino Printing

Sciences describes the initial

Pfizer approach as follows,

“The solution that Pfizer decided

on is exactly the ‘hybrid’ combina-

tion of RFID and alternative data-

carriers – in this case the two-

dimensional Data Matrix code –

that the FDA heard about at its

public meeting. Each item is as-


"This is the third time that a Pfizer

medicine has been targeted, after

the two previous incidents related

to the discovery of the same

batch of counterfeit Lipitor in the

last year," said Olivier Brandi-

court, managing director at Pfizer.

"Enough is enough, and we are

calling for the MHRA and law en-

forcement agencies to conduct a

full and thorough investigation

into this incident and the general

vulnerability of the medicines

supply chain."

The incident underscores the

growing threat of fake medicines,

which the British watchdog said

had become a worldwide problem

and a lucrative business for crimi-

nal gangs.

In the US, the Food and Drug Ad-

ministration FDA announced a

Lipitor recall as far back as May

2003 caused by counterfeits and

there have been subsequent inci-

dents. Albers Medical Distributors,

Inc., voluntarily recalled three lots

of 90-count bottles and warned

healthcare providers and others

that these three lots of counterfeit

Lipitor represent a potentially sig-

nificant risk to consumers.

Big difference in European re-

sponse vs US

In the US, The Food and Drug

Administration is deeply con-

cerned about pharmaceutical

counterfeits and particularly those

entering the legitimate supply

chain, including retail pharmacies,

and it sees pedigree (provenance)

Drug counterfeits in Europe – Another Wake-up Call


signed a unique number similar to

an Electronic Product Code (EPC)

number, which is encoded, veri-

fied and locked into a high-

frequency RFID tag – married to

the primary label – at a produc-

tion-line speed of 120 bottles per

minute. The numbers are allo-

cated at each packaging point

along the production line re-

cording the ‘parent-child’ relation-

ships between the various RFID

tags on packs, cases and pallets.

Once the RFID tag is locked, the

EPC number is passed to a Dom-

ino laser that prints the number

onto the label in a 2D Data Matrix

code format, alongside the lot

number and the expiry date (in

human-readable form). A pre-

printed barcode showing the

products National Drug Code is

also on the label.”

Reactionary approach in

Europe

The European pharmaceutical in-

dustry in the form of the Euro-

pean Federation of Pharmaceuti-

cal Industries and Associations

has not advocated use of RFID or

the US level of expenditure. In

November 2005, it issued a report

“White Paper on the Anticounter-

feiting of Medicines”. This basi-

cally ditched RFID until at least

2010 as too expensive but recom-

mended mass serialisation on a

2D barcode as meeting its crite-

rion of total cost of ownership

(from tag to database) of the

anti-counterfeiting measure being

no more than one Euro cent per

Severe weaknesses of bar-

codes for anticounterfeiting

IDTechEx would comment that,

although EPCglobal seems willing

to issue tranches of numbers for

use on barcodes and to permit

such a system to use the EP-

Cglobal Network ™, there will be

serious disadvantages. All bar-

codes are easily copied, obscured

and damaged and all have to be

read one at a time, usually with

human involvement. No barcode

can be read through obstructions

or even when seriously dirty.

Checking for counterfeits via a

barcode is therefore likely to be

very infrequent compared with

what will be possible with RFID,

where enormous quantities of

items can be checked in a blink of

an eye without human involve-

ment.

The European Pharmaceutical in-

dustry is not the law. It is possi-

ble that the disparate national

European legislators will emulate

the more robust approach to

pharmaceutical counterfeiting be-

ing taken in the USA and drive in

such modern technologies as

RFID by mandate. Alternatively,

will the lack of a pan European

equivalent of the FDA to demand

RFID be a weakness? Will that

lead to counterfeiters repelled

from the US targeting Europe

even more?

Learn more - hear from Procter &

Gamble on the world’s counter-

feiting problems at RFID Smart

Labels Europe Sept 19-20

www.smartlabelsEUROPE.com


item.

As advocated in the US, it recom-

mended beefing up the legisla-

tion, penalties and policing of

counterfeits and development of

the use of existing Good Manufac-

turing Practices GMP and Good

Distribution Practices GDP. It

sought to make the legal supply

chain “a closed shop” mimicking

the US approach.

However, in stark contrast to the

Americans, the EFPIA said, “The

cost per packaging line at manu-

facturers level, for the pan Euro-

pean database as well as for the

authentification point (bar code

readers) have to be calculated.

The total impact on the Cost of

Goods shall not be higher than

one Euro cent per pack”. It rec-

ommended an Electronic Product

Code EPC system of unique iden-

tity numbering using tranches of

numbers issued by EPCglobal but

only to be applied in 2D barcode

form. It said that ideally even the

blisterpacks themselves should be

so marked. The new barcode in-

formation should at least include

manufacturer’s name, product

name, batch number and expiry

date. The barcode number should

be randomised so sequential

number counterfeiting is pre-

vented. It said that all the work

on anticounterfeiting of drugs in

Europe should be channelled

through the EFPIA.

Drug counterfeits in Europe – Another Wake-up Call (continued)


The Opportunity for Active RFID

Active RFID Europe is the premier forum for users and

developers of Active Radio Frequency Identification

and short range wireless communications devices to

meet and discuss moving the industry forward into

valuable, commercial opportunities. Delegates will

learn how to take advantage of the capabilities of Ac-

tive RFID, including the new second generation RFID

enabled cellphones.

Key speakers include:

Hot applications, hot new technology, global

information – don’t follow the crowd!

The seventh annual RFID Smart Labels Europe event

from IDTechEx is now co-located with the first Active

RFID Summit Europe, covering active RFID and active

RFID combined with WiFi, Bluetooth, ZigBee and sen-

sors. We bring you the World of RFID all in one loca-

tion.

Key speakers include:


All the Technologies, Applications and Opportunities Two events, one location

Delegates from 24 countries registered so far www.smartlabelsEUROPE.com

For registration enquiries please contact Sarah Lee at [email protected] or on +44 1223 813703

LEAD SPONSOR

OTHER SPONSORS


Attended by 150 delegates from 9

countries in 2005! To get involved

in the 2006 event, email Corinne

Jennings at

[email protected]

Active RFID is now evolving rap-

idly. It has transformed safety

and security in over one hundred

hospitals in the last year alone by

locating staff, patients and assets.

Essential to the military and in-

creasingly popular elsewhere,

sales of active RFID will rocket to

$6.8 billion in ten years. One re-

cent order was for $425 million.

At the world’s only major confer-

ence on the subject “Active RFID

Summit” in Atlanta November 5-

6, Boeing, General Electric, Aven-

tura Hospital, Cisco, National

Computerisation Agency Korea

and best in class university re-

searchers and suppliers will give

the latest uses and break-

throughs.

At the cusp of WiFi, ZigBee, Real

Time Location Systems (RTLS),

Ubiquitous Sensor Networks

(USN) and more, this is a global

revolution. Wavetrend for ubiqui-

tous applications, AeroScout for

low cost location and Ubisense for

precision – it is all there, including

advances from AVX, Identec Solu-

tions, Visonic Technologies and

Syscan. Information Mediary tells

how drug trials now use its RFID

packs recording which pill was

taken when. Speakers fly in from

the UK, Israel, Korea, Canada and

elsewhere and there are optional

Masterclasses.

www.activeRFIDsummit.com

For exhibition, attendance or any

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Active RFID with RFID WiFi, Bluetooth, ZigBee & Sensors

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IDTechEx Event Calendar Welcome to the IDTechEx Events Calendar. Each month we list events of interest to Smart Labels Analyst readers to

keep you updated on the things that are going on in the world or RFID and smart labels.

For further information on any of our events please contact us on [email protected] or phone +44 (0)1223 813 703.

September 19-21, 2006 London, UK

www.smartlabelseurope.com

The next IDTechEx Event…

Event Venue Details and Weblink

September 19-21, 2006 London, UK

Assessing the REAL needs, technolo-gies and opportunities See www.smartlabelseurope.com New in 2006: Active RFID Europe

Active RFID Summit USA

2006

November 14-15, 2006 Atlanta, USA

The world’s largest event dedicated to Active RFID. Go to www.activerfidsummit.com for updated information

December 5-6, 2006 Phoenix, USA

The third annual Printed Electronics USA event from IDTechEx. See www.printelec.com

February 20-21, 2007 Boston, USA

The world’s largest conference and ex-hibition focused on smart labels. Attended by delegates from 29 countries in 2006. See www.smartlabelsUSA.com

Printed Electronics Asia 2007

RFID Smart Labels Asia 2007

2007

Learn and network with companies in East Asia at our Asian events in 2007 For further details, see www.idtechex.com



To order any of our publications please go to www.idtechex.com For further information about any of our products please contact [email protected]

or telephone +44 (0) 1223 813703 or use the order form the last page of this journal

IDTechEx Reports RFID and Smart Label Reports

Major updates July 2006

RFID Forecasts, Players and Opportunities 2006-2016

Using new, unique information researched globally by IDTechEx technical experts, we analyse the RFID market in many different ways, with over 120 tables and figures. They include detailed ten year projections for EPC vs non-EPC, high value niche markets, active vs passive, readers, markets by frequency, markets by geographical region, label vs non label, chip vs chipless, markets by application, tag format and tag location. Cumulative sales of RFID are analyzed as are the major players and unmet opportunities. It covers the emergence of new products, legal and demand pressures and impediments for the years to come.

Updated June 2006

Real Time Locating Systems (RTLS) 2006-2016

This unique report covers the technology and market for what will be a multi-billion dollar market by 2013. It includes active RFID devices based on WiFi, etc, and over 30 case studies. There are also detailed forecasts.

Updated in July 2006

RFID Profit, Fund Raising and Acquisition Strategy

There is a great need for profit optimization and careful product positioning and repositioning in the frenetic but unforgiving RFID market that is increasing ten times to become a $26 billion business in 2016. RFID is entering most sectors of corporate, public and private life so understanding how to create enduring profit from such a choice of designs and applications, software, hardware and services, calls for great care and modern management tools.

Brand new for August 2006

Item Level RFID Vol 1 – Forecasts, Technology, Standards

Item level RFID will shortly be the largest and most prosperous sector, driven by anticounterfeiting, archiving, standing assets and supply chain efficiency of high priced products. This unique new two part report gives the full picture and ten year forecasts. Volume One concentrates on market forecasts, the technologies and standards. Buy both volumes and receive a massive discount.

Brand new for August 2006

Item Level RFID Vol 2 – 100 Case studies, Paybacks, Lessons

Item level RFID will shortly be the largest and most prosperous sector, driven by anticounterfeiting, archiving, standing assets and supply chain efficiency of high priced products. This unique new two part report gives the full picture and ten year forecasts. Volume Two concentrates on one hundred users' case studies, paybacks and the lessons learnt. Buy both volumes and receive a massive discount.

Updated June 2006

Active RFID 2006-2016

Active RFID is little reported, but its use is growing rapidly. Several applications have been above $100 million. It is responsible for over 20% of all spend on RFID. Learn how to use it and how to sell it. Forecasts to 2016





IDTechEx Reports New in February 2006

Chipless RFID Forecasts, Technologies & Players 2006-2016 This report analyzes the prospects of the end game of RFID - ultra low cost tags that do not include a silicon chip. We assess the technologies that are available and emerging, players, challenges, the opportunity and give ten year forecasts.

Technologies compared

Short Range Wireless

Learn the unique benefits of Dynamic Short Range Communications, ZigBee, Bluetooth, WiFi , RFID and Near Field Communication, and explore how they can be used together to great effect.

Updated July 2006

Near Field UHF RFID vs HF for Item Level Tagging

Everyone agrees that item level tagging is going to be the biggest market for RFID in terms of both spend and number of tags sold. Everyone agrees that item level tagging has its own, special requirements making it different from other categories of RFID such as the tagging of people, animals, pallets, cases and vehicles or RFID in passports, tickets and smart cards. But there the agreement ends...

Over 370 terms defined

The IDTechEx RFID Encyclopedia

This comprehensive handbook explains the magnitude of technology choices, applications and terms of radio frequency identification RFID.

Printed Electronics Reports

Updated in April 2006

Organic Electronics Forecasts, Players, Opportunities 2006-2025

This report brings you new, unique information researched globally by IDTechEx. 20 year forecasts are given for the full range of organic electronics – including logic, displays, memory, power, electrostatic and RF shielding and sensors.

Major updates in April 2006

Printed Electronics

Printed electronics is a term that encompasses much more than the long awaited commercialisation of thin film transistor circuits TFTCs and organic light emitting diode displays. Both will have greatest potential when we can print them on common packaging material. TFTCs will be more robust and lower in cost than silicon chips so they will appear everywhere from singing gift cards to smart medical packaging and moving colour pictures in electronic books. However, those devices are only a part of what is going on.

Over 380 terms defined

The A to Z of Printed and Disposable Electronics

This is the first comprehensive handbook to cover the full range of terms associated with this exciting, fast moving topic

Also available FREE with the Organics Electronics Forecasts, Players, Opportunities 2006-2025 report.





IDTechEx Reports Application Specific Reports

Updated in August 2006

RFID in Airports and Airlines 2006-2016

RFID is an extremely powerful enabling technology in airports and aircraft, serving to improve security against criminal attack, safety against general hazards, efficiency, error prevention and data capture and to remove tedious tasks. It can even create new earning streams where it makes tolling feasible without causing congestion and where new airport “touch and go” cards offer new paid services without delays.

Updated in June 2006

RFID in Healthcare 2006-2016

The RFID business is growing so fast that few applicational sectors can beat that scorching rate of growth. Healthcare is one of them thanks to the new tagging of drugs, real time location of staff and patients and other developments including automated error prevention. This unique report gives a full technical and market analysis illustrated by 63 case studies. It is a vital resource for the healthcare profession and all who wish to support it.

Updated in April 2006

RFID for Postal and Courier Services 2006-2016

Detailed ten year forecasts are given plus a full explanation of the technologies. In detail, there are 30 new case studies of RFID in action in the postal and courier service in North America, Europe, the Middle East and East Asia. The major breakthroughs that will provide future success are discussed. Postal services ignoring this accelerating change will become uncompetitive and suppliers missing out will regret it.

Updated in July 2006

Food and Livestock Traceability – Forecasts, Needs, Best Practices

Strict new legislation on food traceability is largely driven by recent outbreaks of diseases such as mad-cow disease, foot-and-mouth disease and avian flu and accidental contamination. However, consumers also demand more information, as do the police and customs. This report analyses the use of DNA, RFID and other technologies, with a profusion of case studies from across the world.

Detailed case studies

Thirty RFID Case Studies in Retail

This covers retail and the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) supply chain. Introduction. Thirty detailed studies from across the world. Jargon buster appendix

RFID Retail Case Studies30 Detailed Case Studies with Comprehensive Statistics andIn-depth Analysis

www.idtechex.com

Detailed case studies

Thirty RFID Case Studies in Logistics

This has an introduction and thirty detailed case studies on RFID in the logistics industry, e.g. freight tagging, driver access, condition monitoring, tachometer card. Jargon buster appendix

RFID Logistics Case Studies30 Detailed Case Studies with Comprehensive Statistics andIn-depth Analysis

www.idtechex.com





IDTechEx Reports Updated in February 2006 RFID Food and Livestock Case Studies A major new report from IDTechEx provides, for the first time, no less than forty detailed case studies of RFID in action in food and livestock.

Over 440 terms defined Food and Livestock Traceability Encyclopedia It is tough to learn one’s way into the subject of food and livestock traceability nowadays. It has expanded to include the disciplines of medicine, biology, chemistry, electronics, computer science and more. We have therefore prepared this encyclopedia to give an unusually broad introduction to the acronyms and terms.

IDTechEx Subscription Services

RFID Case Studies Knowledgebase

Over 2,100 case studies, over 2,200 organisations, 81 countries and growing rapidly. The variety of case studies in this Knowledgebase is a salutary reminder that, although the supply chain is seen as ultimately the biggest application for RFID, the less hyped applications such as Libraries & Archiving, Passenger & Personal Transportation, and Healthcare, are moving ahead extremely rapidly. This is a searchable electronic database, with many links and slide presentations, by far the largest available.

Smart Labels Analyst

In depth analysis on emerging RFID and Smart Label technologies from this leading independent journal. We invest tens of thousands of dollars to send our technical experts to conferences and organisations you may not visit. We travel intensively from New Zealand to China, the USA, Europe and the Middle East. Read new forecasts, technology assessments and more. This is not another newsletter full of misleading press releases. It is serious analysis with numbers, figures and graphs.

Smart Packaging Reports

Introductory report

Smart Packaging

Introductory report on the whole subject. Needs, applications and technologies for smart packaging whether consumer, postal, military, healthcare or other. 350 organisations are covered.

Hottest sector

Electronic Smart Packaging

This report is an in-depth study of electronic smart packaging, the hottest sector. Forecasts to 2015. Already over 50 billion packages have been fitted with electronic smart packaging devices - and now the market is really taking off. This report exclusively analyses this extraordinary situation based on the imminent commercialization of the toolkit of technologies which will open up the industry.



IDTechEx Reports Price List Item Level RFID Vol 1 – Forecasts, Technology, Standards RFID in Healthcare 2006-2016

Item Level RFID Vol 2 – 100 Case studies, Paybacks, Lessons

Volume 1 Hardcopy Electronic Hardcopy & Electronic

GBP (£) £1,000 £1,200 £1,500

Eur (�) �1,500 �1,800 �2,250

USD ($) $2,000 $2,400 $2,800

Volume 2 Electronic only

GBP (£) £800

Eur (�) �1,200

USD ($) $1,500

Two report deal - electronic only

GBP (£) £1,600

Eur (�) �2,400

USD ($) $3,200

RFID Forecasts, Players and Opportunities 2006-2016

RFID in Healthcare 2006-2016

Hardcopy Electronic Hardcopy & Electronic

GBP (£) £1,000 £1,250 £1,350

Eur (�) �1,500 �1,850 �2,000

USD ($) $1,800 $2,250 $2,500

Active RFID 2006-2016

Real Time Locating Systems 2006-2016

Chipless RFID Forecasts, Technologies & Players 2006-2016


GBP (£) £800 £1,000 £1,200

Eur (�) �1,200 �1,500 �1,800

USD ($) $1,500 $1,800 $2,200



IDTechEx Reports Price List RFID Profit, Fund Raising and Acquisition Strategy

Printed Electronics

Electronic Smart Packaging

RFID for Postal and Courier Services

RFID in Airports and Airlines


GBP (£) £1,000 £1,250 £1,350

Eur (�) �1,500 �1,850 �2,000

USD ($) $2,000 $2,500 $2,750

Organic Electronics Forecasts, Players and Opportunities 2006-2025

Smart Tagging and Smart Packaging in Healthcare

Smart Packaging

Food and Livestock Traceability

Electric Vehicle Forecasts, Players, Opportunities 2005-2015


GBP (£) £1,200 £1,500 £1,600

Eur (�) �1,800 �2,250 �2,400

USD ($) $2,400 $2,800 $3,200

Near Field UHF RFID vs HF for Item Level Tagging

Electronic only

GBP (£) £99

Eur (�) �149

USD ($) $189

Short Range Wireless – Ebook only

Electronic only

GBP (£) £500

Eur (�) �750

USD ($) $1,000



IDTechEx Reports Price List The A to Z of Printed and Disposable Electronics

The IDTechEx RFID Encyclopedia

Food and Livestock Traceability Encyclopedia

Electronic only

GBP (£) £250

Eur (�) �375

USD ($) $500

RFID Food and Livestock Case Studies

30 RFID Retail Case Studies

30 RFID Logistics Case Studies


GBP (£) £400 £300 £450

Eur (�) �600 �450 �675

USD ($) $750 $600 $850

Subscription Services – all prices for 12 months access

Smart Labels Analyst Knowledgebase

GBP (£) £250 £1,500

Eur (�) �375 �2,250

USD ($) $500 $2,800

RFID Knowledgebase sections – Electronic only

Electronic

GBP (£) £400

Eur (�) �600

USD ($) $750



Introduction

At IDTechEx we aim to help everyone in the RFID smart labels and smart packaging value chains from inven-

tors and venture capitalists to value added suppliers, system integrators, major users and facilities managers.

We do not compete with these businesses.

We endeavour to be particularly well informed about smart labels and appropriate enabling technologies and

unusually rapid in our response to customer's requirements and work hard to "see the future". IDTechEx

sponsor relevant academic and not-for-profit organisations to support the industry and this also enables us to

provide our clients with the latest knowledge which they may not have access to. For example, we are spon-

sors of EPCglobal, SAL-C (Smart Active Labels Consortium), Ubiquitous Computing (Japan) and active mem-

bers of EuroTag. IDTechEx is also a member of AIM, IEE and the Institute of Packaging. This support does

not, however, conflict with our strict independence.

We are unusually global in our reach. Our staff includes native foreign speakers and we regularly visit compa-

nies and conferences across the whole world, as well as holding our own conferences in the US, Europe and

Japan. . In the last six months, we have provided consultancy services in Europe, the USA, Japan and Korea.

Recent successes

• Investigation of potential investment for Cazenove Private Equity

• RFID acquisition strategy for a global electronics giant*

• Teach-ins and brainstorming of smart packaging and RFID strategy at packaging companies in Ireland, the

US, etc; at a major food manufacturer, clothing retailers and a microchip manufacturer*

• Internal training courses on RFID and smart packaging in the US and UK for Rexam, one of the largest

packaging companies in the world

• Assessing optimal technologies and materials for ultra low-cost smart labels of various types and business

plans for such products for various companies*

• Business due diligence of a planned acquisition for a US multinational* and similar work for two venture

capitalists* planning certain investments. Recent work includes business due diligence for PolyTechnos of

Munich, Germany for investment in Plastic Logic, UK

• Helping start-ups* in France, UK and the US

Contact us

Should you require advice on RFID or smart packaging, please contact us. We will sign an NDA (Non-

Disclosure-Agreement) as necessary in order to help you and your company.

Please email [email protected]

* Much of the consultancy carried out by IDTechEx is under Non-Disclosure-Agreements (NDA), therefore

names of many of our clients cannot be revealed. However, it includes many of the famous names in Japan,

the US and Europe.

IDTechEx Consultancy



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Report - RFID in CHINA (idTechEx 08_06)

Documents

Transcript of Report - RFID in CHINA (idTechEx 08_06)