RFID Experts Group to tackle international implementation issues

A group of RFID (radio frequency identification) expert advisors initially chartered by the U.S. Department of  Defense will become an expert advisory group within AIM Global, the industry trade association for RFID and the automatic identification industry said today.

The group, known as the RFID Experts Group (REG), has been working with the Defense Department to address implementation issues related to supply chain adoption of RFID systems. The Department and a number of global retailers are beginning to require suppliers to implement RFID automatic data identification systems to track cases and pallets of goods.

 "The Defense Department recognized that issues such as tag/label issues, reader operations, and bar code back-up data structures reach beyond its own RFID initiatives and are, in fact, common to all companies implementing RFID," said AIM Global President Dan Mullen. "AIM, as the industry trade association for RFID and other automatic
identification and data collection technologies, was the logical home for the REG." REG membership currently includes early implementers, technology vendors, integrators and research institutions. Many REG members also are members of AIM.

Craig K. Harmon, president, QED Systems, who brought the REG together in February, 2004, said the REG is making progress on a number of projects on its agenda and that several projects are already nearing completion. "There are many organizations out there who regularly hype the technology of RFID," Harmon said. "REG was formed to address the tough issues, providing a foundation of realistic expectations. With the ever-growing applications of RFID, the group's transition from the Defense Department to AIM provides a logical path for continuing this work."