SAP unveils first RFID-based supply chain package
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 2/1/2004 12:00:00 AM
SAP is the first large enterprise software supplier to release a supply chain management solution that works with RFID technology. The core of this product is a piece of middleware called the SAP Auto ID Infrastructure. This infrastructure includes a rule-based engine that evaluates data picked up by RFID readers and determines which business systems should receive the data.
SAP has packaged this middleware with several other SAP products, including the event-management component of its supply chain management package and the SAP enterprise portal. The rule-based engine was added following an SAP "store of tomorrow" RFID pilot that involved major European retailer Metro and several consumer goods companies, including Procter & Gamble.
"The rules engine can be configured so that customers can decide what they want to do with the various data they collect from RFID devices," says Christian Koch, an SAP director. "The system needed that flexibility."
