GS1 EPCglobal RFID-Based Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) Guides Released By GS1
EPCglobal Inc., a subsidiary of the global not-for-profit standards organization GS1, recently announced the dissemination of the Strategic Overview Guide and Technical Implementation Guide for GS1 EPCglobal RFID-based Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) for reusable and disposable tags.
These guides address all relevant challenges and issues on how to implement an RFID-based EAS solution within a retail environment using existing GS1 and GS1 EPCglobal standards. RFID-based Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) is a technological method for deterring and detecting theft of consumer goods. RFID-based EAS tags, based on the GS1 EPCglobal Gen 2 standard, are fixed to an item's packaging or to the item itself.
These tags can be removed and/or disposed by consumers or sales associates after purchase. The goal of RFID-based EAS is to leverage the benefits of EPC (Electronic Product Code) and RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) for EAS functionality. These include increased visibility, improved inventory tracking, and process productivity along the supply chain extending to the retail sales floor with the advantages of EAS item-level theft deterrence, detection, and protection. Extending the value of EAS, RFID enables apparel and other retailers to know not only when a theft incident is occurring, but they can now know precisely what was stolen and re-stock the shelf accordingly, avoiding the high cost of missed sales opportunities due to out-of-stocks.
The RFID-based Electronic Article Surveillance also creates an opportunity for retailers and suppliers to take significant cost out of the supply chain in several ways, including one standardized inventory based on a single technology and a simplified tagging process. It provides the retail industry with the business benefits of specific product identification. RFID-based Electronic Article Surveillance will help drive the adoption of EPC item-level tagging while offsetting the cost, and it can be leveraged for other applications. It also improves the consumer shopping experience by providing increased product availability, speed and quality of service and consumer savings.
"By using RFID technology for multiple purposes, such as EAS and inventory visibility, we can further integrate supply chain processes and the potential to have distributed benefits for all partners involved is significantly enhanced." said Dr. Gerd Wolfram, Head of CIO-Office at METRO AG.
The Strategic Overview Guide and Technical Implementation Guide for GS1 EPCglobal RFID-based Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) were developed within the framework of the EPCglobal community, more specifically the RFID-based EAS Phase 2 Joint Requirement Group.
The members of this group gathered the requirements and scenarios to help understand the needs of an RFID-based EAS solution. Based on this input, the guides were developed to illustrate where EAS implementation is possible for reusable and disposable tags and approaches to enabling the business use cases outlined using existing GS1 and GS1 EPCglobal standards. The next phase of this effort will include updates to the technical standards to address tags that are embedded in products and applications and product categories that will involve these embedded tags (non-easily removable tags) that will require electronic deactivation or tag alteration.
GS1 EPCglobal continues to deploy EPC/RFID technology for EAS while respecting Consumer Privacy and adhering to the Guidelines on EPC for Consumer Products. The guides can be downloaded at no cost by accessing the following link: http://www.epcglobalinc.org/standards/implementation_guidelines/
"By combining the advantages of EAS and EPC/RFID technology, we potentially realize the benefits of visibility throughout the supply chain together with the capability of deterring and detecting theft." explained Brand L. Elverston, Director Asset Protection Systems and Analysis at Walmart Stores, Inc.
The partners participating in the EAS Phase 2 Joint Requirement Group include:
Accenture LLC; American Apparel & Footwear Association; Auto-ID Labs – Japan; Avery Dennison Corporation; AXWAY/formerly Cyclone; Best Buy Company, Inc.; C & A Europe SCS; Carrefour; Certus Warensichenrung-Sys GmbH; Checkpoint Systems, Inc.; Cisc Semiconductor Design and Consulting Gmbh; Conair CorporationETRI - Electronics & Telecommunication Research Institute; Gerry Weber International AG; GS1 Global Office; GS1 Member Organizations from Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, Taiwan, U.K., and U.S.A.; Innovision Research & Technology PLC, Intellident Ltd.; Invengo Information Technology Co.,Ltd.; Johnson & Johnson; MET Laboratories; METRO Group; Motorola, Inc.; Nedap; NXP Semiconductors; Packaging Corporation of America; RF-IT Solutions GmbH; Sirit Technologies Inc; STS Emniyet ve Bilisim Sistemleri AS; Tailorit GmbH; Sensormatic / ADT; University of Arkansas; UPM Raflatac; and Walmart Stores, Inc.
SOURCE: EPCglobal Inc.