RFID World Asia - Show Report
The seventh annual RFID World Asia event was held in Singapore from April 19-23. The exhibition hosted about 200 companies over 6,488 square meters of exhibition space.
Dieter Winder, director, Kora Packmat Asia, said, “We launching a new product – Linoprint. It allows small-to-medium sized companies to custom-print small amounts of packaging film. It can also print barcodes. We are aiming to market this machine to South East Asian countries, especially for the food and pharmaceuticals industries. This product was successfully launched in Europe in November 2009. We should be able to have a good idea of the level of acceptance for this product in Asia by Q4, 2010.”
LHT Holdings is a supplier of wooden pallets to industry sectors including electronics, petrochemical, pharmaceuticals and warehousing. May Yap, executive director said, “With RFID technology, we are able to keep track of the movements of the pallets which we rent out. Via the use of tags – each identified by a unique serial number – we can determine when the pallets move out from our customers’ premises and arrive at their retailer’s depot. We are also able to tell which pallets have been ‘de-hired’ and returned to us. This allows us to maintain a history and to manage the lifecycle of each pallet. It also helps us to minimize pallet loss.”
The company is currently operating in Singapore and Malaysia, and is moving into other markets such as Thailand and Middle East.
Bernd Tetyczka, marketing manager, tags & labels, PL tagging & authentication, NXP, said, “I believe that Asia is a trend setter in terms of the adoption of RFID technology. In the pharma clinical trials sector, our company’s I-code range of High Frequency (HF) RFID products allows the tagging of small items with the use of small transponders. Information such as patient and medication data are captured and stored, relieving doctors from administrative paper-work. The ideal scenario is to start tagging and tracking from the source (ie, the manufacturer) and throughout the entire supply chain to the pharmacy or hospital.”
The tracking however does not have to stop there. At the hospital, “Smart Storage” areas for medication can also be created to ensure that the correct medicine has been dispensed and administered to the right patient, by the right staff.
Stanley Chang, asst sales manager, Singapore Communications Equipment, said, “In Asia Pacific, we supply customized services for the tagging of customers’ incoming and outgoing pallets. We are also trying to move into the pharmaceuticals sector. Our company is serving the Hong Kong, China and Thailand markets, and we also have plans to move into Indonesia.”
