Few emerging technologies have the potential to impact such a wide array of businesses within the food industry supply chain as radio frequency identification (RFID).

The EU General Food Law Regulation (178 / 2002) was introduced some 18 months ago, billed as one of the most comprehensive pieces of legislation to affect the supply chain. The bill stated that companies involved in the food supply chain must be able to identify and track every ingredient and food that they handle ‘on demand’.

RFID is not legally necessary for traceability but, as requirements get more stringent, it may become a key tool to ensure compliance in the future. For those fresh produce manufacturers who want to meet these traceability requirements using an RFID solution, this has meant that it is no longer a matter of if they introduce RFID, but when.

Analysts estimate that around £2.3bn will be spent on RFID technologies by 2008. The larger retailers are driving the adoption of the technology and, in order to comply with RFID demands, many food manufacturers will suffer huge costs, tightening margins that are already squeezed to next to nothing.

With any large investment, ROI and business benefits will always be in the spotlight. While the larger retailers have a clear framework of benefits, the ROI for manufacturers and other supply chain partners is less clear.

Many retailers seem to be marching ahead without consulting the manufacturers who supply their goods and without considering the wider supply chain issues that come into play when implementing an RFID scheme. Retailers need manufacturers to comply with RFID in order for it to work but many smaller food manufacturers don’t have the resources or technology at this stage to do so.

To avoid reaching RFID stalemate and to ensure that they don’t miss out on the potential benefits RFID can bring to their own business and the supply chain as a whole, manufacturers need to consider the various issues surrounding RFID and work out how it can fit into the future plans of their organisation.

The fact that the concept of RFID has taken off in such a big way is mainly due to the business benefits that a successful RFID solution can bring. For food manufacturers, RFID will touch every part of the business allowing for more efficient forecasting, production and distribution operations. The new technology will give food manufacturers increased visibility of their business, allowing for greater control and transparency which is now all the more vital since the introduction of the traceability laws in January of this year. RFID really will revolutionise the supply chain for all parties involved.

So, with these benefits, what exactly is holding back the widespread adoption of RFID solutions and what do manufacturers need to consider before jumping in feet-first and choosing a solution?

Perhaps the most pressing concern for food manufacturers is the initial investment required to implement an RFID solution. Many manufacturers are faced with the high cost of the RFID solution itself as well as the cost of integrating RFID with existing product systems. Add to this the fact that around half of the test RFID projects that have been carried out so far have been abandoned, and you can see why many manufacturers are reticent to invest in RFID just yet.

Smaller manufacturers in particular often feel they are facing a no-win situation: they cannot afford to implement state-of-art RFID systems but, if they don’t, they fear losing partnerships with retailers who will require their suppliers to be RFID enabled.

Another issue that is worrying all supply chain members at the moment is the lack of uniform standards for RFID tagging. Many retailers are putting off asking suppliers and manufacturers to use RFID chips because of non-existent international tagging standards.

The fear of choosing the ‘wrong’ standard is preventing many companies from even launching any trial projects. At present, technology is developing at different rates in Europe and the US which has led to rumours of a possible VHS/Betamax situation, resulting in total incompatibility between both sides of the Atlantic.

However, steps are being taken to rectify this situation. The industry standards group, EPCglobal, which is a joint venture of the standards bodies EAN International and the Uniform Code Council, is currently considering four different protocol proposals. Although initially trialing RFID schemes, wise retailers are delaying the widespread implementation of RFID technologies until a uniform standard is agreed. Food manufacturers would be well-advised to do the same.

Food manufacturers in the UK and Europe are more fortunate than their US counterparts since UK retailers have realised that co-operation on RFID is paramount. For example, Tesco, which recently announced the roll out of RFID across its whole supply chain infrastructure, has maintained that, unlike Wal-Mart, it will not be mandatory for its suppliers to adopt the technology but it will encourage them to do so.

Many food manufacturers are feeling pressure that they will get left behind if they don’t sign up for RFID schemes immediately.However, this over-anxiousness could well lead to a false start.

What food manufacturers should be doing, regardless of their size, is discussing the various options open to them with the retailers that they supply. Retailers are reliant on their supply chain partners and manufacturers need not feel that they are at the mercy of the larger retailers, nor vice versa.

Ultimately, caution should be assumed. As with all emerging technologies, costs will fall as the desire to be the first to implement it dies down. Retailers have to bear this in mind. They have no choice but to recognise that all of their suppliers are by no means able to afford the latest RFID technology and by working in a collaborative manner, retailers and manufacturers can ensure that they invest in the most efficient, cost-effective solution on offer.

The emerging standards will have an effect on the cost of RFID technologies as vendors vie with each other to offer the most competitive prices to their customers. The all important standards will drive down costs, improve the quality of technology on offer and increase the choice of vendors.

With regards to food manufacturers and retailers, a two-way partnership must always be the order of the day. The dawn of RFID brings with it its own retail revolution and food manufacturers must realise that by working closely with retailers and supply chain partners, they too can be revolutionaries, not just loyal followers of the retailers.

WHY BUSINESS INFORMATION MOBILITY IS KEY TO SURVIVAL IN TODAY’S INDUSTRY

Anglia Business Solutions has capitalised on what it sees as a niche in the mid-range market for packaged mobile real time applications, providing solutions to the differing needs of G’s Marketing and Nature’s Way

making information available on mobile devises is currently one of the fastest growth areas in the IT sector. This is driven by the speeding up of business coupled with the increase in numbers of the mobile workforce.

In today’s competitive environment, up-to-date information is becoming a vital tool in the quest to win new business and the retention of existing customers. However, the IT industry still faces significant challenges in meeting the new requirements for mobility in the mid-range business management sector.

Most people are now aware that today it is possible to access e-mails, calendar and contact information while on the move. Gaining secure mobile access to sensitive real-time customer and product information presents the industry with some formidable hurdles to overcome. The key issue is that modern business solutions have to be adaptable to meet the changing demands of the customers as they adapt to market conditions.

The technical problem is that changing the file layout in the core business system to meet a new requirement means that mobile applications have to be rapidly reworked to synchronise the files. Otherwise, they will stop working with potentially commercially damaging results.

This makes mobile business applications both difficult to implement and support without a new approach to the synchronisation issue. For this reason, suppliers of business management systems to the mid-range market have yet to provide packaged mobile real-time applications as part of their offerings.

The Microsoft.NET development tools provided Anglia with the base technology to begin to tackle the challenges of securely distributing business information to mobile end users. Development director Richard Jones explains: “Having the Microsoft Dynamics Navision based LINKFresh system available to automate the customers’ business process provided us with a superb foundation as it did all of the heavy lifting. We then just had to replicate the LINKFresh workflow files on the CE mobile devices using our extensive range of .NET components from our catalogue.

“However, this was extremely time-consuming in the early stages as each of the mobile tables had to be rebuilt when the core Navision solution was changed. Recognising that this would become a major resource and cost issue as the wave of applications grew, we stepped back to explore if there was a better way.”

Jones continues: “As a result, we made a significant investment in the design and development of a unique software utility called DataMaker. DataMaker automatically creates a structured .NET code that exactly matches the underlying business solution database. This has saved many man hours in the implementation of new mobile applications as well as facilitating rapid changes in existing solutions.”

While a number of these applications were successfully deployed in the wider commercial market, customers in the fresh produce sector were quick to spot the potential of this technology as a major competitive and productivity aid. For example, one of the UK’s largest growers and producers of fresh produce, G’s Marketing, has deployed the mobile technology to check the accuracy of its labelling processes.

Group systems manager Terry Potter says: “The LINKFresh LABELCheck solution has halved the time taken to carry out label checking activities as well as improving the accuracy of the process. This will greatly reduce the risk of EPWs. The system has also helped to significantly increase productivity in the despatch department.”

Natures Way, on the other hand, had different business issues where a mobile business application could make a significant commercial difference. The key requirement here was real time access to dynamic stock information. The LINKFresh suites, together with integrated mobile applications, were rapidly deployed to meet the need. The total solution provided real time information on all business operations. The mobile applications tracked all quality control and stock movement information as it happened.

The results to date have been impressive as Natures Way managing director Steve Barnes explains: “Having on-line access to live stock records with full lot traceability enables us to see what products come in and from where, who handled them, where it is now and where it went. This has given us total control over the movement of stock across the organisation. From a financial viewpoint, the system has enabled us to increase our gross margin by between four and five per cent.”

In summary, the new wave of business management systems can provide a degree of flexibility that is not possible with the older technologies. However, it is when live information from these modern applications are securely distributed to the mobile workforce that significant additional business benefits are gained.

The fresh produce sector is one of the most demanding and competitive supply chain industries in the world. It is here that the demand is strongest for real time information. The integration of dynamic mobile applications can satisfy that demand and can help to change everything.

Full details of the G’s Marketing and Natures Way solutions can be found on www.angliabs.com.