Tracability
This will be one of the key words to look for in the next 18 months of trade press (and general press) editorial for manufacturing professionals. Tracability? As one person I interviewed this week pointed out, no one wants to repeat the "Coca Cola fiasco" in Belgium where the company had to recall the entire country inventory of product because it couldn't track things down to a lot number.
When people think of RFID (radio frequency identification) right now, WalMart springs to mind instantly. This technology is useful for that company tracking pallets of goods. But look for more applications to feature RFID for the purpose of tracing manufacturing lots, so that recalls can be limited to just affected products. This is also a response to the Bioterrorism act, so that the effects of any terrorism incident in the food chain can be contained.
This New York Times article knocks Symbol Technologies, an easy thing to do given the problems of its recent executives, for buying an RFID technology company. But, Symbol has been a big in bar code technolgy applications. Look for it to bring RFID to the masses.
Symbol Technologies Buys Matrics, Accelerating Its Move Into Radio Tags. Symbol Technologies tested the patience of its investors by announcing an acquisition that is likely to cut into earnings for the next two years at least. By By BARNABY J. FEDER. [The New York Times > Technology]
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