RF-iT provides RFID technology services for fashion companies

October 30, 2007

Soon RFID technology will be used not only to label jeans and everyday wear but also textile products designed to meet high demands. Northland is the newest company to join the EU project BRIDGE “Building Radio Frequency IDentification for the Global Environment”.

Together with the Graz, Austriabased software and technology consultant RF-iT Solutions, Northland is entering a trial period to investigate how the use of radio tags on clothing is able to improve the efficiency of the entire logistics chain and shop process as well as to optimize handling.

RF-iT Solutions currently supplies RFID software and extensive technology consulting services to all of the fashion companies participating in the BRIDGE project, including, besides Northland, Galeria Kaufhof (a retail brand belonging to the METRO group) and gardeur AG.

By means of expert knowledge and a specially developed software platform, the Graz-based firm ensures that project partners are quickly able to implement global RFID solutions with the required technical expertise, thus allowing clients to focus on optimizing their value-adding processes. Telekom Austria, one of RF-iT’s strategic partners in solutions for the fashion industry, is also involved in the Northland project by providing the infrastructure.


RFID renders electronic product codes even more secure
The current BRIDGE project, initiated in 2006, represents a step in continued development of global applications for EPC, the electronic product code used in uniquely label objects. The initiative, which is supported by the European Commission, is being spearheaded by the international standardization organization GS1. BRIDGE is an empirical study with the aim of developing a model open standard, to be used in practice, for tracking products or logistic units throughout the supply chain.

This standard, based on EPC (electronic product codes) and EPC information services (EPCIS), defines the uniform use of EPC RFID labels by all of the companies involved in the supply chain. Specifically, investigation is aimed at rendering RFID even more reliable, secure and user-friendly when used by companies active in textile production, logistics or retailing.

For an integration platform, all of the practical trials rely on the scalable You-R OPEN OPerating ENvironment by RF-iT Solutions. This application offers various communications modules for data exchange with lower-level systems such as SAP Navision, PC databases and files, in addition to EPCIS. This makes RF-iT Solutions the pioneer in EPCIS-enabled solutions for the fashion industry.

Northland comes to rely on RFID
Northland, Austrian outdoor experts specializing in selected textiles for the mountaineering segment, is the newest firm to join the research project. This Austrian company offers shop-in-shop concepts as well as franchise chains in 36 countries. In China and South America, Northland ranks amongst the best-selling outdoor brands.

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