Kimberly-Clark Corp. uses Alien readers for supply chain visibility

Alien Technology has announced that Kimberly-Clark Corporation has selected the Alien ALR-9800 Enterprise RFID Reader as part of its logistics program to comply with retail industry mandates requiring the use of radio frequency identification technology in the supply chain. Kimberly-Clark chose the multi-protocol Alien ALR-9800 after conducting an extensive evaluation of EPC Class 1 Gen2 RFID readers at the company’s EPCglobal-accredited RFID research lab: the first end-user test lab to be certified by standards-body EPCglobal Inc. for testing RFID technology in supply chains.

‘As we continue to move toward fully implementing RFID technology throughout our supply chain operations, it is mission-critical that we have the right RFID hardware equipment in place to meet our needs,’ said Mike O’Shea, director, Auto-ID Sensing Technologies of Kimberly-Clark. ‘We chose the Alien ALR-9800 for its exceptional read performance and scalability, easy-to-manage data collection, and its potential for low total cost-of-ownership.’

Kimberly-Clark will deploy Alien ALR-9800 readers initially in key manufacturing and transport locations across North America. The ALR-9800’s will be located on conveyors and stretch-wrappers to automatically capture data from RFID-tagged packaged products, cartons and pallets, thus providing up-to-the-second information on the movement of products through the supply chain that can be leveraged by the company and its retail customers.

‘Kimberly-Clark is well-known for its commitment to innovation and technology and for partnering with its retailers to enhance their mutual operations,’ said Keith McDonald, Sr. V.P. sales & marketing, Alien Technology. ‘Hence we are extremely pleased that the ALR-9800 Enterprise Reader has been singled out by Kimberly-Clark for use in its own facilities, particularly after such a thorough and rigorous competitive evaluation under real-world conditions in an EPCglobal-accredited lab.’

Introduced in August 2005 and certified Gen2-compliant in September 2005, the Alien ALR-9800 is the first RFID reader based on the Alien Enterprise RFID Platform, and designed from the ground up for compliance with the EPC Class 1 Gen2 specification. The ALR-9800 sets new standards for RFID readers through its enterprise-scalable architecture, high performance read capability across EPC multiple protocols, and superior dense reader management.