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The UK's footwear industry offers some of the worlds best-known brands, and is worth £2.3 billion a year (ex-factory), and exports more than 90% of its production output. By RFID-enabling the process, the industry can save millions of pounds in its supply chain, according to RFID experts at OATSystems.

A collection of RFID players has now been formed to tackle growing demand for RFID technology specific to the footwear sector. Paxar EMEA, OATSystems, Supply Chain Connect, and Nordic ID have joined forces in a strategic alliance to form a footwear industry action group called "footprint". The aim of the group is to provide a complete RFID solution for the footwear industry, and to provide a forum for debate, bringing together leaders from the footwear and technology industries.

"RFID has the potential to have a major effect on the footwear industry, transforming manufacturing, distribution, and retail alike. Footwear industry leaders assure me that the need is real and that the time is now," said Cyrus Gilbert-Rolfe, managing director for OATSystems.

Displacing bar codes
RFID is already displacing bar code systems for many reasons: it doesn't require line of sight for counting; you can count hundreds of items simultaneously rather than one at a time; and you can apply unique serial numbers rather than generic product line identifiers.

According to OATSystems, many companies are beginning to move toward RFID supply chain enhancement to gain advantage by:

• Enhancing customer satisfaction by ensuring on-shelf availability;
   
• Facilitating electronic proof of delivery - no more loss or confusion due to disputed receipts
   
• Track and trace - visibility across entire chain exposes losses (shrink) and introductions (counterfeit) between manufacture and retail;
   
• Pallet x-ray allowing instant stock check for cross docking
   
• Increasing promotion effectiveness - better synchronise availability with in-store marketing spend.

"Turning our sights to the footwear sector, we believe this technology will provide a myriad of much-needed benefits. We look to the future growth of this niche area of the market with confidence," said Max Tatford, marketing manager for Paxar EMEA.

Skill sets
The four companies are bring their own unique skill sets to the group:

• OATSystems brings its experience, having completed hundreds of RFID projects including global RFID platform rollouts at Tesco, Hewlett-Packard and Gillette. The software layer in the footprint proposition will be built on the OAT Foundation Suite, which provides a proven turnkey RFID solution.
   
• Paxar EMEA, a member of EPCglobal, and the exclusive manufacturer for the supply of RFID tags for the ongoing Marks & Spencer trial, will provide a managed service of web-based Compliance Format Management programmes, format delivery, verification of data, compliance mandate specification and instigation, throughout the supply chain.
   
• Nordic ID, which designs and manufactures wireless handheld computers, will provide ergonomic, easy-to-use and efficient handheld terminals. These terminals can be configured with a laser scanner or an RFID engine, or both.
   
• Supply Chain Connect provides a fully hosted infrastructure over which clients and their supply chain partners can exchange real-time supply chain and RFID data - this includes retail stores, distribution locations, suppliers, contract manufacturers, logistics providers, and others. Supply Chain Connect enables RFID-derived data to be visible either as inventory within existing systems or via a web browser.

For additional information:
·  Visit Paxar EMEA at http://www.paxar-emea.com
·  Visit OATSystems at http://www.oatsystems.com
·  Visit Supply Chain Connect at http://www.supplychainconnect.com
·  Visit Nordic ID at http://www.nordicid.com

Source: Paxar EMEA