Maximum RFID expertise eV on the RFID user days 2008 of VDEB Association IT SME

Competent and practically presented the RFID User Days 2008 of VDEB everything worth knowing about the use of RFID technology at 22. and 23. October as part of SYSTEMS. Now the Congress documentation is available.

"The high potential for innovation and growth, which has been confirmed in many studies for the cross-sectional technology Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), is now beginning to emerge," said Dr. Oliver Grün, Chairman of the VDEB, the RFID User Days 2008 in his welcome speech. He was able to refer to good figures regarding the market growth of RFID technology for 2008. Around 2,16 billion RFID tags are expected to be sold worldwide this year. According to analyses, sales will break through the 5,3 billion US dollar mark.

"RFID technology has moved from the development stage to the application stage," summarized Dr. Oliver Grün presented the development of the past few years to an interested audience of end users and experts.

dr Christian Plenge from the METRO Group confirmed this view in his presentation. "Our firm goal is to use RFID as a control tool for our entire supply chain in ten years' time," he explained on the first day of the RFID User Days, which was dedicated to the topic of RFID in trade and logistics. In doing so, he underlined the importance of RFID for the corporate development of the METRO Group in particular and for retail as a whole.

From production at the manufacturer to order picking in the distribution center and shelf management in the branch, RFID is currently being used at the METRO Group and will be used even more in the future, according to the wholesale group's emphatic intention.

The REWE Group is also pursuing a similarly dedicated RFID strategy, which is striving for process leadership using the Electronic Product Code (EPC) and RFID. "With this claim, we want to clearly express that for us the holistic view and optimization of the processes and the process quality are in the foreground, which means that we have not defined cost or technology leadership as our primary purpose," explained Jörg Sandlöhken approach of the REWE Group.

In this context, user reports from suppliers such as Mars GmbH and Nestlé Deutschland AG showed how RFID can be used to perfect processes to the mutual benefit of suppliers and retailers. In his keynote speech, Stefan Hockenberger from SAP AG presented various practical implementations of the software company after an overview of the current state of the art of RFID technology and an outlook on the future Internet of Things.

Such innovative solutions for the realization of customer strategies were then dealt with in great detail in the last subject block. The importance of EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) for networking complex logistics networks was particularly emphasized in this regard. Accordingly, Klaus-Peter Stoll from e-integration GmbH was able to state: "RFID not without EDI!"

RFID for medium-sized companies was the focus of the second day. In his keynote speech, Harald Dittmar from sys-pro GmbH took up the enormous cost pressure that medium-sized companies in particular are exposed to in competition and countered this with rationalization effects and potential savings due to RFID. Jens Oehlmann (Elmicron GmbH) put it succinctly: "RFID integration makes you fit for the future."

Ralf Vinzenz Bigge from GS1 Germany GmbH made it clear how much today's successes of RFID are also based on efforts of the past. With his explanation of the EPC, he bridged the gap between past standardization achievements and today's different possible uses of RFID. The variety of RFID applications became evident in the reports on different sectors, such as security technology, industry and pharmacy.

The event ended with the presentation of the VDEB RFID Award 2008 to Silverstroke AG.

This year, the RFID User Days 2008 were again able to live up to their claim as the most important event for practical and innovative RFID solutions in the German-speaking area. "What particularly appealed to me was that topical issues were discussed and that UHF technology was discussed, which is anything but easy to use, which was also addressed in the lectures, which were attended by very competent and experienced speakers," explains Chris Schiebel from smart-Tec GmbH his positive vote for the RFID User Days 2008.

For those who could not be there, the congress documentation is now available on CD-ROM for EUR 89,00 (incl. shipping costs, plus VAT). Whether case studies, technical solutions or RFID strategies, the presentations leave no question unanswered.

Source: Aachen [ VDEB - Rolf Chung ]