The pressure is on for companies to develop a supply chain strategy based on Auto-ID. Their work will get a lot easier with the September release of Electronic Product Code (EPC) Network specifications.

More than 2,000 people are expected in Chicago on September 15 for the opening of the Auto-ID Center's EPC Executive Symposium. Excitement has been building in the retail industry, because the symposium will formally launch the first platform of the Electronic Product Code (EPC) network developed by the Auto-ID Center.

Since Wal-Mart announced that it would require all its supplier product shipments to incorporate radio frequency identification (RFID) tags by January 1, 2005, companies have begun planning strategies for incorporating Auto-ID technology into their supply chain. The symposium will help accelerate those efforts by providing specifications and detailed suggestions about how the EPC Network can be integrated into the supply chain.

"The timing couldn't be better," says Markus Weber, a Sun iForce Center Auto-ID evangelist. "The pressure is on to transform the supply chain," Weber warns, so he advises retailers to "start slowly and stay focused on one certain area of your supply chain, but get started."

It All Starts with Standards

The Auto-ID Center has been developing four standards for the streamlined supply chain. The first to be released, EPC, will be stored in the RFID tags, allowing individual products to be identified, counted, and tracked in an automated, cost-effective fashion. An RFID reader emits radio waves that alert the tags to broadcast their individual EPCs.

The reader is connected to a computer system running the second standard, Savant software. Based on Java technology, Savant takes the information from the EPCs and enables companies to read or interpret the data so it can be passed along the IT infrastructure to databases or existing back-end or legacy systems.

The system then sends a query over the Internet to an Object Name Service (ONS) database—the third standard in development. "ONS is basically like DNS today," says Weber. "DNS translates a URL into an IP address, so you can find a server for the Web page you want to see. ONS works similarly, very similarly actually, by translating the unique EPC code of a product into an IP address." The ONS server matches the EPC number to the address of a server containing extensive information about the product. This data is available to, and can be augmented by, Savant systems around the world.

This second server uses the fourth standard, Physical Markup Language (PML), to deliver and present comprehensive data about manufacturers' products. Because it knows the location of the reader that sent the query, the system now also knows which plant produced the product. If an incident involving a defect or tampering arose, this information would make it easy to track the source of the problem—and recall the product in question.

"With these standards in place," says Weber, "companies can begin to map out their supply chain strategy."

Careful Planning Makes All the Difference

Although the momentum for Auto-ID is rapid, it will be a gradual transition. As Weber says, "The focus definitely will be on the supply chain first to make it more efficient on the pallet and case level. Pilots have been focused on these areas, and Wal-Mart's announcement is really only about the pallet level."

But there are always the back-end questions, Weber notes. "For instance, now that you've got all this data from the RFID readers, what can you do with it? How do you integrate it into an Oracle or SAP system, for example? Does it scale? If you suddenly have thousands of reads simultaneously, how do they pass through your whole IT infrastructure? Those questions come into play at the iForce Center as part of a traditional proof of concept we have been doing for many years now."

Sun has been involved with the Auto-ID center from the beginning, working on a variety of customer pilots. Because it is a manufacturer itself, Sun is working on its own Auto-ID pilot program as well. The company then passes on its expertise to companies looking to start—or accelerate—their own pilots.

Weber says that the key is to start with a pilot and determine how it works. "We encourage people to start very slowly—that's the general message—but have a well-defined plan and put a lot of effort into it," he explains. "We recommend having a dedicated team on the project. Typically, you want to start on a small scale and see how it works. Then, either scale up or scale sideways, vertically, or horizontally. If you see something that works in your manufacturing plant, for example, do the same thing in another area."

In addition to experience and expertise, Sun and its industry partners offer the technology needed for an Auto-ID environment.

"Everything you need from a software and a hardware perspective, we'll be able to provide by partnering with RFID device manufacturers, reader manufacturers, tag manufacturers, and others." Weber notes that Sun has been working with several companies to ensure that everything integrates easily, and he says that Sun's pilot and field trials have shown that "we're on the right track."

Once the EPC Network specifications are released in September, companies will have a great opportunity to advance their Auto-ID supply chain transition. As Weber warns, "Once it really takes off, you'd better be ready."

While all this is going on, the Auto-ID Center itself is undergoing a transition as well. It will soon operate under the auspices of EAN International, a global not-for-profit organization that creates, develops, and manages, jointly with the Uniform Code Council, open, global, multisector information standards—the EAN.UCC standards—based on best business practices. By driving their implementation, EAN International plays a leading role in supply and demand chain management improvement processes worldwide.

With all these developments, the future of Auto-ID appears to be in good hands.