Innovation:
At Smurfit-Stone, innovation is not just about new ideas or technologies; it’s also about the people that work with you to share collective experiences, best practices and insights to improve your processes and to manage and grow your business.
What is RFID?
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a method of identifying unique items using radio waves. A RFID system consists of one or more antennas and a transceiver, which reads the radio frequency and transfers the information to a processing device, and a transponder, or tag, which is an integrated circuit containing the radio frequency circuitry and information to be transmitted.
RFID tags, microchips or smart labels that can have a barcode printed on it, are mounted inside a carton or embedded in plastic and emit radio waves and receive signals back from the antenna. The tag contains a unique serial number, but may have other information, such as a customer’s account number.
RFID is used in enterprise supply chain management to improve the efficiency of inventory tracking and management. End results are increased efficiencies, theft prevention and reduced costs for corporations and end consumers. The downside from the consumer’s perspective is privacy invasion. Manufacturers and retailers counter this argument by pointing out that the tag is useless beyond the store shelf.
At Smurfit-Stone, SmartDisplay™ is the RFID product offering that provides item-level tracking and inventory management at the retail level. SmartDisplay™ records when consumers pick up and return products to the shelf, measures how consumers respond to a promotion, display or placement within a store plus provides real-time inventory data. The computer link can be set to automatically place an order for additional inventory as stock runs low either by informing an employee to retrieve more products from storage or by notifying the distribution center that another shipment is needed. Our RFID Packaging Lab offers customers the opportunity to test radio frequency (RF) identification packaging solutions in a simulated environment for initial compliance and development of large-scale implementations.
