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March 29, 2005 Successful Field Test Deployed for SYSCO Corporation, North America's Largest Food Service Marketing and Distribution Organization, Demonstrates Capability of RFID to Transform the Monitoring of Temperature and Environmental Conditions During Food Transport with Huge Strides in Documentation for Food Quality and Safety3PL Solutions and Alien Technology® today announced early deployment of a breakthrough RFID and Sensor-enabled system for cold chain management following successful field testing with SYSCO Corporation, North America's largest food service marketing and distribution organization. The 3PL Solutions Distribution Access eXception (DAX) system was developed and tested to address the need for verification and documentation of product quality, shipment integrity and security for food products in transit. The integrated system includes 3PL developed applications software built on Alien®'s Battery Assisted Passive (BAP) RFID technology, multi-point sensors, as well as options for IrDA communications, GPS, and integrated RFID data capture. The DAX pilot program field testing was conducted by Alien Technology, 3PL Solutions and SYSCO in the SYSCO Frozen Foods and Produce supply chains and addressed dedicated, LTL, and inter-modal shipments. The RFID and Sensor-enabled system provides cost-effective "Chain of Evidence" documentation for food shipments, addressing anticipated regulatory requirements for better documentation of quality & safety control in food shipments, as well as improving methods to avoid waste and spoilage losses. Today, when food products leave the controlled environment of a well regulated distribution center, there are few cost effective mechanisms to insure and document continuous environmental control and access control as the products are transported through the supply chain. "The multi-point, multi-sensor type data capture and recording capability, including temperature, humidity and more, combined with the unique ability to accurately capture container accesses makes this a breakthrough solution in the cold chain management arena," said Rick Clemons, Vice President Engineering at 3PL Solutions. "We could not think of a more exacting customer than SYSCO Corporation in the cold chain management arena, and were fortunate to have their support and attention to detail in all phases of the field testing." "The field test demonstrated the viability of many potentially exciting applications for battery-assisted RFID and sensor-enabled systems. In environmentally sensitive supply chains, time relative and event driven data capture that monitors factors affecting shelf-life stability and cargo security has tremendous value," said Mark McDonald, Director of Product Marketing, Alien Technology. "Alien's battery assisted passive RFID technology is a flexible and scaleable platform to address emerging markets and applications for RFID." The DAX system was built using Alien's long-range, high performance 2450 MHz (microwave) frequency Battery Assisted Passive (BAP) system, including the ALR-2850 Reader and the ALB 2484 tags, which features the ability to record sensor inputs for later wireless retrieval. The tag can be interfaced with any external sensor such as temperature sensors, tamper indicators, or shock sensors. Because it uses low power backscatter technology, a small battery provides many years of operation. A key feature of the DAX system is a low cost means to develop an electronic bill of lading, the DAX Electronic Manifest, which provides essential records for producers, carriers and shippers of environmentally sensitive products. Based on user input during the field test, 3PL Solutions and Alien Technology developed a unique IrDA (Infrared Data Association) query functionality for the DAX Container Integrity Tag (DAX-CIT) via a common Palm Pilot or similar low cost IrDA enabled device. This functionality supplements the longer-range, RFID-based query capability, providing multiple methods for the receiving dock to interrogate the DAX-CIT for both environmental compliance and potentially unauthorized accesses during shipment. With this ability, operations personnel can redirect a shipment away from the facility for closer examination prior to the onset of off-loading activity. The DAX system incorporates a user controlled number and type of sensors deployed on a per-load basis which incorporates shipment details in the DAX sensor platform, and provides real-time point-of-receipt "chain of evidence" documentation which can be immediately reviewed and communicated as needed. This is a key difference from current systems where the unit must be shipped back to owner to have the data downloaded. About 3PL Solutions 3PL Solutions, Inc. supplies the Commercial Warehousing and Supply Chain Management Industry with products and services for the Third Party Logistics Industry with a Commercial and Public Distribution Services focus. In close coordination with affiliate, Geometric Solutions, Inc., 3PL systems and services help manage millions of SKUs for thousands of manufacturers across the country. 3PL Solutions staff is comprised of seasoned professionals with a mandatory combination of skills encompassing Information Systems, Business Practices, and floor Operations. With years of hands-on experience in virtually all major product families flowing through the nations' supply lines, 3PL Solutions cross-pollinates best practices from one industry focus to another, and enables customers to meld the best of all worlds into cost effective and unusually efficient and profitable operations. 3PL Solutions is the sole authorized distributor of Geometric Solutions' Supply Chain Management (SCM) System. About Alien Technology Alien Technology Corporation is a leading provider of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) products for global customers in government, retail, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, transportation, and other industries. Using its patented manufacturing process, Fluidic Self Assembly (FSA®), Alien manufactures EPC tags in very high-volumes and at low cost. The company provides a family of RFID readers for a variety of applications including supply chain management, logistics, and anti-counterfeiting, to improve inventory management and reduce operating costs. Alien is an active member of EPCglobal. More information about Alien Technology Corporation can be found on the Company's website at www.alientechnology.com. Alien, Alien Technology, the Alien logo, and FSA are trademarks or registered trademarks of Alien Technology Corporation in the United States and other countries. Copyright 2005 Alien Technology Corporation. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2004 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. |
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