Solutions combo puts new spin on RFID data

The challenge for Salt Lake City-based Schiff Nutrition International was how to meet the Wal-Mart RFID mandate for tagging cases and pallets of vitamins, nutritional supplements, and bars without making extra work for employees who move cases to pallets in preparation for shrink-wrapping and shipment.

"We knew we had to spend the money, but we couldn't afford to fail. We did a lot of research with the IBM Global Business Services team and the IBM RFID test lab facility in Raleigh [North Carolina], and came up with a solution that worked well for our unique requirements," says Rod Farrimond, manager of business analysis.

The novel solution: put the RFID reader next to the pallet spinner used in shrink-wrapping, take readings as the pallet spun, and then marry the case readings with the pallet tag to create the shipment pedigree.

Based on performance results, Schiff chose Alien Technology readers and EPC Gen2 Squiggle tags for both cases and pallets; a Printronix RFID printer/coder; IBM's WebSphere Premises Server; and OATSystems' OATXpress RFID data filtering software.