While the use of Electronic Product Code™ (EPC) standards and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is exploding globally, the uptake in Australia has been much slower. This is partly due to companies in the US, Western Europe and Asia needing to comply with customer mandates (such as Wal*Mart) and federal regulations (for drug traceability) while Australian businesses, without these immediate pressures, have stood back and watched.
But local activities are starting to gather speed and GS1 Australia, as the EPCglobal representatives in this country, launched the EPC/ RFID Australian Advisory Group in November 2006. 70 business leaders gathered to learn how they could be involved with the group which aims to set the direction of Australian industry, leverage overseas experience, implement pilots, share information, and participate in global standards development:
Maria Palazzolo, GS1 Australia’s CEO said: “Now is the time for action. We need to show our global trading partners that we are preparing Australian businesses to support RFID technology with the internationally accepted EPC standards. We can’t ignore anymore the enormous EPC/ RFID activity in Asia and the global approval for EPC standards by governments and industry.”
GS1 Australia is actively involved in ensuring global standards meet local needs through a variety of user-led groups, projects and pilots. In 2006, pilots concerning EPC standards and the EPC Network™ were conducted, the results are publicly available on the GS1 website so that as many businesses as possible may learn of the benefits.
One pilot in particular, the ‘EPC Network Australian Demonstrator Project’, was a world-first that saw the implementation of the entire EPC Network across a complete supply chain. It successfully demonstrated that:
• A single set of global standards reduces time and saves money • Cross-functional teams make implementation easier and give participants greater benefits • Internal knowledge is critical to success • The EPC • Network’s benefits apply to all organisations and increase with greater trading partner participation.
The follow-up pilot, called the ‘EPC Network Australian Demonstrator Project - Extension’ (NDP Extension), is currently underway. It finishes in April 2007 and is examining business processes such as how EPC/RFID and the EPC Network can provide end-to-end visibility of goods, enabling improved inventory management and including paperless ordering, electronic proof of delivery, traceability and returns.
“By using EPC standards we can ensure the process is easily transferable and can be rolled out to other sites,” says John Hearn, GS1 Australia’s General Manager for Member and Industry Support.
Dr John Mo, Discipline Head Manufacturing and Materials Engineering, RMIT University agrees: “This extension will be useful to illustrate how EPC standards facilitate the interoperability of different pieces of technology, allowing companies to achieve complete integration of EPC information into their business process,” he said.
GS1 Australia and RMIT University are managing the project and providing technical advice, while Telstra is providing EPC communications through their Adaptive Asset Manager RFID solution and networking infrastructure for other project team members such as Capilano Honey, CHEP, Franklins, Linfox, MasterFoods Snackfood, Procter & Gamble and Westgate Logistics. Retriever Communications is RFIDenabling their application at CHEP and providing a scanning application for handheld RFID readers, integrated to the Telstra system.
Along with contributions from the consortium, the project is supported by the Australian Government through the Information Technology Online (ITOL) program of the Department of Communications, Information Technology, and the Arts (DCITA).
It is expected that the pilot will provide quantifiable results about the benefits of using RFID technologies and EPC standards to facilitate paperless delivery and electronic proof of delivery (ePOD), thus enabling the identification of over or under delivery. The aim is to use the EPC standards for the process to ensure it is easily transferable and can be rolled out to other sites.
Pilot findings will be publicly launched on 20th June at the SMART 2007 conference in Sydney. For further information go to: http://www.gs1au. org/products/epcglobal/ or contact GS1 Australia on 1300 366 033.
