Low-cost RFID Smart Labels
International Markets & Opportunities in Europe & North America – 2nd Edition

Publication date: January 2007

REPORT SUMMARY

First published in February 2006, we at Vandagraf have now completed a 2nd edition of this report - More comprehensive, revised forecasts, additional Case Studies.

The World of RFID labels continues to move very fast and developments are constantly being monitored by Vandagraf International. Low cost passive RFID label technology is heralded as the electronic super bar code that promises huge potential benefits and overall cost savings in retail and military supply chains. The enhanced security achievable with RFID labels is also of great potential value to the pharmaceutical sector.

The number of RFID labels consumed to continue to grow rapidly from around 0.6 million units in 2005 (1.2 million in 2006) to over 700 billion units in 2015.

Very significant opportunities (and also threats) exist for companies choosing to operate in the low-cost RFID label space.

The report contains breakdowns by:

• Level of label application of RFID Labels – Pallet / Shipping Case / Item levels

• RFID Labels End-user sectors – Retail sector, brand owners, fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs), clothing, consumer electronics, pharmaceuticals, military & third party logistics operators

• Silicon chip-based versus chipless RFID labels.

Low-cost RFID smart labels are set to revolutionise the world’s supply chains over the next decade. The advantages are compelling and include the following:

• RFID labels operate by wireless radio and do not require direct line of sight, which can be a major plus (and in some situations a potential minus). Bar codes are read optically and do require direct line of sight)

• RFID labels can store an identifier number in a silicon chip. Billions of different unique numbers are possible, so that RFID labels have the potential to identify very many individual items. Bar codes can generally only identify a type of product (a single stock keeping unit SKU with a unique bar code number will describe all products of that type

• The entire data capture process can be automated so that human error may be eliminated

• The data captured has the potential to be networked across entire supply chains in ‘real time’.

A significant disadvantage is the cost of RFID labelling, although the incremental cost of printing a bar code may be close to zero, an RFID label has a measurable unit cost.

The advantages will outweigh the disadvantages and the potential financial rewards are there for the taking, as some end-user sectors (incl. major retailers) have already been discovering.

The research and writing of the report has been carried out by highly experienced professionals, with strong backgrounds in packaging, labels, branded FMCG products, logistics and retail supply chains with hands-on industrial and engineering experience.

The principal author, James Bevan, has some 25 years professional experience in the packaging / labels/ logistics sector, during 20 years of which, he has been actively engaged in international consultancy projects. He has a number of years experience, researching, analysing and writing techno-economic reports, continuing to building on skills learned with the Battelle Institute in Geneva during the early 1980s.

Full Price € (Euros) 2,500 or equivalent in other major currencies.

240 pages.

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