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RFID technology can effectively solve the increasingly rampant product anti-counterfeiting phenomenon. In RFID anti-counterfeiting applications, clothing anti-counterfeiting is commonly used. The clothing manufacturer puts its own unique RFID tags in the carton at the same time as the clothing, and each carton has its own unique ID code.
It is estimated that the global market affected by counterfeit products has reached 300 billion US dollars each year, which is quite a staggering amount and is 10% of the total world trade. While counterfeit products flood the market, they also cause a lot of job loss. An estimated 100,000 people in the EU lose their jobs due to counterfeit products. Not to mention, the anti-inferior products of some special products, such as aircraft parts and medicines, directly threaten people’s lives.
The global market affected by counterfeit products reaches 300 billion U.S. dollars each year, which is 10% of the world’s total trade.
For manufacturers, one of the main advantages of RFID technology is that it can be directly integrated into current products, machines or equipment without major changes to current production equipment. The RFID tag itself has the function of reading and writing, can be written into the manufacturer’s unique encrypted code, and can be easily integrated into various commodities.
An important factor in whether the RFID system can be used in business is that the same type of label can be applied to different products, because this can lead to an expansion of the production scale of the label, and ultimately reduce the price of the label to an acceptable range. However, for some valuable products, the size of the label is far more important than the price of the label.
In general, the size of UHF tags is larger than that of UF tags. For small and valuable products, a slightly larger size label is likely to affect the appearance of the product. In this case, the size of the label is required to be as small as possible, so as not to cause obstacles to users. From the perspective of tag storage data, read-only tags are generally one-time programmable and low-cost, but there must be a back-up database for effective tracking.
The storage capacity of tag data that can be read and written multiple times is relatively large. Generally, all product information can be stored without the support of a backup database. This kind of label is more expensive, and the size is larger than the one-time programmable label.
For manufacturers, the last thing they want to see is that the reading of RFID data slows down the speed of production. UHF tags have a long reading distance and are generally more suitable for use on boxes or pallets; HF tags have a short reading distance and are suitable for fixed places such as shelves.
When using RFID tags, another factor that needs to be carefully considered is the material of the goods. This has a particularly great impact on products that frequently come into contact with water during use, or products where the label is attached to metal. If it is the former case, the tag must be waterproof and use HF technology; because the longer wavelength of the HF system is not easy to be absorbed, high-frequency RF signals are easier to penetrate water or other liquids. HF labels have been tested on textiles and clothing for many years and have been proven to resist large changes in liquids, pressure and temperature differences.
When the label is attached to the metal surface, it will also affect the RFID system. RF signals cannot pass through metal, so when the metal material is relatively close to the HF antenna or UHF tag and reader, the reading and writing distance of the RFID system will be greatly affected. Another adverse effect is absorption: metal can absorb RF signals, which also affects HF and UHF tags to varying degrees.
The reading and writing distance of HF tags is relatively short. When the UHF tag is far enough away from the metal surface, its reading and writing distance is relatively long; but if the tag is too far away from the metal surface, its obtrusive part will affect the usability of the tag, so the ideal height is 5mm.
The clothing manufacturer puts its own unique RFID read-write tags and the clothing produced in the carton at the same time, and each carton has its own unique ID code. When the production is completed to the delivery process, each carton passes through an RFID tag reader, and all carton information will be read and transmitted to the PC. The PC software system compares the actual information read with the planned delivery of the carton to determine whether it will be released. At the same time, if the carton is released, the ID number of the carton will be written into the memory of each label and locked .
Manufacturers can also write corresponding information to other data blocks of the tag through the handheld RFID device during QA inspection and other stages. In this way, the entire transportation process of all clothes from production to distribution center to retail can be recorded.
The famous American writer Robert Louis Stevenson once compared wine to “bottled verses.” Today, as wine producers and sellers gradually turn their attention to radio frequency identification (RFID), this In addition to romance, this kind of magical liquid seems to have added a bit of “wisdom”. In addition, wine manufacturers are constantly looking for new ways to promote their products. In the colorful packaging marketing, RFID will gradually become the new favorite. While achieving the tracking function, it will also help to improve the product safety of the consumer supply chain. RFID is also of great benefit to the product counterfeiting problem that entangles the wine industry.
Recently, Americans’ enthusiasm for wine has increased a lot. The number of people drinking at least one glass of wine a week has increased from 19.2 million in 2000 to 25.4 million in 2003. According to the “Entrepreneur” magazine, this growth trend will continue. In addition to the wealthier and older Baby Boomers, young people in the Thousands, who are in their 20s, have also shown great interest. Following this, the US wine industry has experienced rapid growth, with wine sales rising steadily, retail sales increased by 2.8%, and restaurant and bar sales increased by 8.1%. This year the wine market is expected to reach 21.6 billion US dollars. The latest data from the California Food and Wine Association show that California wine production will still dominate the US market. There are more than 3,000 wineries in the United States, and there are more than 800 in California alone.
Although the wines in supermarkets and specialty stores come from many different factories, the trend in the U.S. market in recent years has been more and more centralized. Because of the skyrocketing cost of land and operations, competition has become more intense, and wineries are constantly merging to form economies of scale. There are also wineries acquired by other big brands, such as Constellation Brands, Diageo and Chalone Wine Group. EJ Gallo is a leading American wine producer and the world’s second largest wine group. With its huge sales volume, Gallo was also included in the second batch of Wal-Mart’s leading suppliers who must complete the ban. Before January 2006, RFID tags were affixed on pallets and boxes shipped to Wal-Mart.
According to a report by the AMR research company, consumer product companies will spend about $25 million to complete Wal-Mart’s requirements. However, the difficulties and complexity of the situation faced by wine manufacturers are greater than that of any other consumer product company. This is because American wine sellers must use local distributors in order to comply with national laws. In order to meet Wal-Mart’s requirements, wine manufacturers cannot just develop and use their own internal RFID systems. They must work with their distribution partners to complete the requirements. In fact, companies like Gallo have to rely on supply chain partners to ensure that manufacturers meet their requirements. On the other hand, if distributors use RFID tags, they can bring value-added services to major producers at least in the short term.
With the expansion of the scope required by retailers, more wine companies are required to use RFID tags on at least pallets and boxes. For the wine industry, it is necessary to consider from different perspectives not only to complete the requirements, but also to evaluate the potential benefits of RFID to the enterprise, and to improve the tracking and monitoring of the production process and finished products. The winery not only wants to improve internal management operations by using RFID tags on the pallets and boxes of the finished products, but also wants to use RFID tags on the barrels in the production process. In the UK, Trenstar and ScotTIsh Courage Brewing demonstrated how to use RFID tags to better track wine barrels. Their application shows that by using special materials to make tag antennas and choosing suitable locations to install RFID facilities on containers will greatly improve the reading rate of liquid targets. Wine manufacturers can also use RFID tags with sensor technology to monitor changes in the temperature of the environment where wine barrels can affect the quality of wine.
The application of labels in wine products and aquatic products seems to be stronger than any other food and beverage market demand. Harvard Business School Jonathan Byrnes believes that the cost-benefit ratio of using RFID on low-value department stores is too high. However, for beverages, the return on investment of using RFID is much higher, because the price of the label is much higher than that of other department stores.
The market structure of the US wine industry also shows the importance of using RFID tags on wine bottles. If US$7 per bottle is used as the tipping point for high-priced and low-priced wines, then the sales of low-priced wines account for 70%, while 62% of the profits of winemakers come from the sales of high-priced wines. Therefore, wine manufacturers want to promote the use of labels in high-priced products in consideration of higher safety, better control, and market value.
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