Transition to Gen2 in a Manufacturing environment

Prakash JethwaRFID, Product Marketing, Asia Pacific

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Objectives

• Introduction to Printronix

• Case Study: Electronics Manufacturing

• Summary

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Printronix: Leadership By Design

• Global leader: Integrated enterprise printing solutions for the supply chain

• Market symbol: PTNX (NASDAQ)

• Founded: 1974

• Employees: 760 worldwide

• Products: Line matrix, thermal, laser and RFID printers; network software

• Headquarters: Irvine, Calif.

• Global presence: 4 manufacturing locations

27 sales and support locations

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Printronix Global Presence

IRVINE

SINGAPORE

Market Support for EMEA

Manufacturing SiteMarket Support for Asia Pacific

MEXICO

CHINA

PTNX Sales Offices

PTNX Plants ISO 9001 Certified

RibbonManufacturing

RUSSIA

DUBAI

SPAIN

Corporate Headquarters

Manufacturing Site Market Support for

Americas

HOLLAND

KOREA

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Printronix: Leadership In UHF RFID

• Only Printer Manufacturer With Over 2 Years Of Practical Experience With UHF-EPC Implementations

• Founding Member Of EPC Global; Member of many Action Groups• UHF-EPC Printer Market Share Leader

First-To-Market With Key RFID Printing Solutions:

• UHF RFID Printer• Commercial UHF Multi-Protocol Printer• All-In-One UHF Printer Applicator• Commercial UHF Printer for Europe• Thermal printers upgradeable to RFID• Gen 2 support and upgrade

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RFID Printer Market Share Leader

Top companies select Printronix Worldwide

Source: VDC 2005

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

Printronix Others Zebra TEC Intermec Sato Datamax

Printronix

Others

Zebra

TEC

Intermec

Sato

Datamax

2004 Worldwide RFID UHF Thermal Vendor Revenue $4.52M

VDC Predicts:• $207 million in 2008• 73.6% CAGR from 2005 to 2008• 48,100 units in 2008

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Leading Brands Count on Printronix RFID

ElectronicsElectronics

FoodFood

ApparelApparel

Personal GoodsPersonal Goods

PackagingPackaging

Case Study: HP Manufacturing

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RFID Case Study: Electronics Manufacturing at HP

• Started actual pilot in Jan ‘04 for retail supply chain– Worked closely with several middleware partners to

integrate RFID into existing systems– RFID label printing partnership chosen:

• Printronix Smart Label Printer Applicator (SLPA7000)• Printronix Smart Label Desktop Printer (SL5000MP)

– Quickly acquired expertise in tags, tag placements, read ranges & automating RFID in production & distribution

• In May 2004, EPC tagged cases began shipping to Wal-Mart’s Dallas/FortWorth DC trial

• Today, all installations have smoothly upgraded to Gen2 capability without any hardware changes

• A mix of tag types and protocols continue to be used

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RFID Case Study: Electronics Manufacturing at HP

• RFID Challenges– Manufacturing & packaging done by contract

manufacturers spread over several locations– Any one facility produces a wide variety of products– One-to-one relationship packaging: one tag per

carton– Many-to-one relationship packaging: only master

carton is tagged– Pallet label: one pallet tag to formulate pallet/carton

association– Fast moving productions lines: automated encode-

print-and-apply processes

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RFID Case Study: Electronics Manufacturing at HP

• Printing Solutions Chosen On The Basis ….– Printronix SL5000MP (low volume case tagging & pallet

tags)• Reliable encoding of Rafsec, Omron & Alien tags

• Multi-Protocol to work with Class 0, 0+ & 1 tags (& now Gen2)

– Printronix SLPA7000 (high volume production labeling)• Ability to encode, verify, print & apply multiple label sizes

• Prevention of defective tags applied unto cases

• Different configuration setups to accommodate different– Case size changes– Product size variations– XY coordinate placement of labels (to maximize read rate)

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RFID Case Study: Electronics Manufacturing at HP

• How The System Works….– Step One

• Flat cartons formed by case erector & filled with product• Intended gap exists between product & location where RFID

will be placed to minimize interference problems• Cartons are taped & conventional barcode printed

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RFID Case Study: Electronics Manufacturing at HP

• How The System Works….– Step Two

• Sensors triggers an event in the SLPA7000 GPIO interface

• SLPA7000 receives EPC data from middleware, verifies tag, encodes, prints & applies the label

•Defective or ‘quiet’ tags are retracted, ‘black-out” printed for easy identification & bypassed into a re-winder reel.•Rejected tags are collected for later analysis•No stoppage or user intervention in the process•Conveyor runs at rated speed of 20 cases per minute

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RFID Case Study: Electronics Manufacturing at HP

• How The System Works….– Step Three

• Tagged cases are read by RFID reader to confirm tag presence, signal strength & read-range thresholds

• Rejected cases are diverted to a reject bin for rework (2nd run through conveyor)

•Good cases are stacked via robotic palletizer•SL5000MP encodes & prints Class 1, 4” x 6” pallet RFID label, then, manually applied•Advanced Shipping Notice is sent to Wal-Mart’s DC when pallet moves through final dock doors

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RFID Case Study: Electronics Manufacturing at HP

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• Conclusions & What’s Next …– Company sees increased supply chain visibility &

tracking of individual cases as they move from manufacturing to distribution to stores

– Near real time information flowing back enables better planning & forecasting, allowing the Company to shrink safety stock and inventory

– Will continue to expand applications, facilities and product categories as standards & capabilities continue to evolve

– Continue to look for further improvements in ROI via productivity improvements, inventory reductions and reduced shrinkage and utilising new Gen2 capabilities

RFID Case Study: Electronics Manufacturing at HP

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The Product - SL5000r MP2

• Delivers true Gen 2, certified, RFID encoding, while still being multi-protocol compliant

• Supports global frequency requirements

• Addresses the need for robust reliability with its solid industrial design

• Printronix encoded tags produce the best read rates in the industry

• Features RFID Smart Encoding Technology

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• Patented Multi-Position RF Coupling Device

– Works together with our Advanced RFID Tag Calibration, Profiling firmware

– Optimizes Performance for Broadest Range of Label Sizes and Inlay Positions

– 4 positions for 4”, 5 positions for 6” Color Indicator

MP2 Smart Encoding Technology

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Broadest range of UHF RFID Inlay Support

PRINTRONIX MP2 RFID Printers support more RFID inlays (40 currently) (www.printronix.com/rfid-label-specs.aspx) than any other RFID printer/encoder. Expect more to come….

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PRINTRONIX RFID Software

• PrintNet Enterprise Print Management

• Printer Emulations: ZPL, TEC, IPL, DPL, Sato

• XML Printing

• PXML Device Control and visibility

• RFID Software Alliances That Enables

Printing & Encoding Of RFID Labels

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PRINTRONIX RFID Summary

• PRINTRONIX RFID Printers, Printer Applicators and Labels Perform & Deliver

• PRINTRONIX is The Recognised Leader in the UHF RFID Printer Market

• We absolutely deliver On-Time to short lead times• We are flexible and easy to work with• We deploy Quick-Reaction Technical support

• If you want to put together a “Best of Breed” solution for your customers together with Symbol:

“CALL PRINTRONIX”

Prakash@printronix.com

Ph: (65)65484143 M: (65)96222719

www.printronix.com

THANK YOU ! !