Gillette pioneers large scale RFID technology

Personal hygiene products manufacturer Gillette is to begin the first truly large-scale testing of ultra low cost RFID (radio frequency identification) tag technology developed by researchers at the Auto-ID Centre at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Starting shortly with certain retail customers, Gillette is to begin testing the technology through its supply chain by placing the tiny RFID tags in selected products for the US market. If it’s successful, up to half a billion tags could be placed on Gillette products over the next few years. And if that happens, RFID could finally take off for product tracking and replenishment management across the world’s supply chains, as tag production rates ramp up and prices fall. RFID tags make it possible to track products easily, with non-contact sensing not only through their production life cycle, but all the way from manufacturing to retail point of sale. The expectation is that this technology will enable businesses not only to reduce losses resulting from out-of-stock, stolen or lost products, but also to improve efficiencies across their operations by monitoring status and location of products accurately, in detail and in real time. The tags will be used with Smart Shelf technology, also developed for Gillette by the Auto-ID Centre and MIT, the testing of which is starting in stores in the US and UK now. That system uses the technology to monitor status of products on display, providing automatic alerts for retail staff when stocks become low or are being stolen, and re-ordering automatically. Gillette vice president Dick Cantwell, who is leading the initiative, says: “We are proud to be at the forefront of the introduction of Auto-ID technology and we hope our leadership will help enable the wider consumer packaged goods industry to open a new era in its relationship with retail customers.” The tags are being manufactured and supplied by Alien Technology Corp in California. CEO Stav Prodromou, says: “This is a landmark agreement that signals the commercial production of RFID tags at an affordable price point.”