Industry Need

The Health Industry Business Communications Council and the American National Standards Institute have developed the ANSI/HIBC standards for packed and item level bar coding for the health care industry. Bar code technology is a proven valuable tool for reducing labor costs, human error and automating data to improve the quality of patient care. Standards for proper identification can be found at https://www.hibcc.org.  Analytical diagnosis begins with specimen analysis in laboratories that submit samples to extreme conditions such as centrifugal separation, cryogenic freezing or autoclave sterilization.

Extreme applications have been at the core of Intermec’s business since the development of the bar code, with solutions ranging from pharmaceutical clean rooms designed for temporary ID to durable military code applications for transcontinental deployment.

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Finding and calculating the value of automated data capture technology at small and medium businesses

Introduction

Any business that would benefit by holding less inventory, decreasing mis-shipments and reducing errors should seriously consider implementing bar code systems and other forms of automated data collection (ADC) technology. Companies of all sizes apply bar code and wireless data collection systems to save labor, increase efficiency and cut operations costs. ADC is a proven productivity enhancer, and advancements in the technology have made such systems affordable and practical for more businesses than ever before.

Common errors and inefficiencies don’t have to be part of business as usual. This paper exposes some of the hidden expenses that hamper profitability, and how accurate data collection can eliminate them. The examples and techniques presented show the link between quality information and efficient operations. When investing in ADC, small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) can earn a full and rapid return on investment through reduced expenses and increased productivity. This white paper will help show how by presenting ADC cost-justification guidelines and strategies.

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Minimize short-term disruptions to gain the agility needed to take on long-term disruptions

Executive Summary

In an uncertain world, investing in mobile computing will enhance your short-term flexibility in order to gain long-term confidence. The traditional instinct of individuals in the face of uncertainty is to sit tight and wait out the situation. The world moves too fast and is too interconnected today, making that approach outmoded.

To be a leader in the future, you will have to accept uncertainty, and minimize it everywhere you possibly can. Uncertainty is not going away any time soon, so the way to handle it is to use effective technology that minimizes the effects of uncertainty.

Remember: By minimizing short-term disruptions, you gain the confidence and agility needed to take on long-term disruptions.

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Enabling Security, Compliance, and Efficiency

Identity management and verification depend on trusted credentialing technologies. U.S. federal, state and local governments and private enterprises alike are seeking ways to improve security, not just for facility access, but also for single-sign-on into cyberspace. Furthermore, non-federal issuers of identity cards demand cost-effective, compliant methods to produce identity cards that interoperate with federal government Personal Identity Verification (PIV) and PIV-Interoperable (PIV-I) systems.

Beyond government applications, the private sector also stands to gain from secure credentialing standards and technologies. The PIV-I card is a non-federally issued credential designed for use by state and regional employees, including first responders. The PIV-I card meets all FIPS 201 standards and is recognized and trusted by the federal government. PIV-I cards can provide states, local jurisdictions, and enterprises a single, interoperable, and secure credential usable across multiple application areas. The result is a more secure infrastructure, and better services for employees, contractors, businesses, and consumers.

This white paper provides an overview of FIPS 201-compliant smart ID cards and shows the significant benefits the technology enables. The paper also shows how to produce PIV-I compliant access cards that contain tamperresistant coatings, radio frequency identification (RFID), and other features using the latest printing technologies.

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Make the Switch from Vinyl with Confidence

Medical centers worldwide are switching to bar coded wristbands to improve the safety and quality of care while meeting industry mandates. However, nurses in maternity wards are concerned that the switch from vinyl to new materials may not be suitable for infants. Tried and tested for decades, vinyl is non-abrasive, hypoallergenic, and does not damage the delicate skin of babies and premature infants. In fact, infants are the hardest patients to create wristbands for, and few adequate solutions exist that support this need.

Fortunately, bar coded wristband solutions now offer soft nylon material that is perfect for the delicate skin of a tiny infant. Even with the right material, the information provided on the wristband must afford easy readability, and deliver the right information in the right way. Due to the small size of an infant’s wrist, little room exists on the wristband to contain all the information required for effective bar coding.

The purpose of this white paper is to provide maternity ward staff the information they need to make the right decisions when it comes to bar coded infant wristbands. Durable, supple wristbands that deliver the full benefits of bar coding make it easier for nurses to perform infant care tasks, and help eliminate workarounds. The result is improved efficiency and quality of care. Medical staff is more productive, there are fewer chances for errors, and nurses can provide more focused attention to infants in their care.

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An alternative to IT solutions for managing item-level tagging

Item-level radio frequency identification (RFID) using standard Electronic Product Codes (EPCs) is rapidly becoming a key factor in improving retail inventory management. The main driver for adoption is quite simple—taking inventory with RFID is 25 times faster than with bar codes. RFID is faster for two reasons. First, it does not require line of sight access to the tag. Second, the person operating the reader does not have to ensure that they only scanned each tag once.

The key difference is that RFID uses radio waves to count large numbers of tags simultaneously, even if a stack of garments covers the tags or if they are inside a box. During the inventory process, readers often scan each tag several times. For this reason, accurate counts are only possible if each tag carries a unique serial number. In addition to rapid counting, serialization enables the tracking and tracing of individual items throughout the product lifecycle—an additional benefit for some product categories.

As major retailers like Walmart, J. C. Penney, and Macy’s roll out item-level RFID, brand owners must find a low-cost, reliable way to implement serialization. Because serialization is new for most apparel suppliers, it has the potential to be disruptive to existing packaging and labeling business processes. Chip-based serialization is a way to avoid disruption by IT projects, constrained supply chains, and extra serialization costs.

Serialization can be regarded as an IT problem that requires an enterprise software solution to allocate and distribute serial numbers, but it doesn’t have to be. Chip-based serialization is a non-IT alternative that preserves sourcing flexibility and uses the existing business process for tagging and ticketing. To help retailers understand serialization, this paper overviews EPC concepts for item-level RFID, reviews IT-based approaches to serialization, and introduces chip-based serialization as an attractive solution.

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In the early days of bar coding, an Efficient Foodservice Response (EFR) study identified $847 million in savings potentially available by expanding bar coding within the food supply chain. Since then, the U.S. Bioterrorism Act, European Union Food Law, and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) requirements mandate improved product identification and traceability. Today, technologies, techniques, and standards exist to help organizations throughout the food supply chain gain complete traceability for safety, compliance, and business process improvement.

Momentum is growing to implement whole-chain traceability, which includes internal and external visibility, from the grower, through the distributor, to the retailer. A key industry effort is the Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI), which strives to achieve supply chain-wide adoption of electronic traceability of every case of produce by 2012. Once fully adopted, PTI will improve the effectiveness of current trace-back procedures while enabling common standards for future traceability systems.

This white paper examines how the food industry can take advantage of bar code and radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies to improve safety, reduce operating expenses, meet compliance requirements, and improve efficiency. It covers:

• • How bar code and RFID support compliance with regulations such as the Bioterrorism Act , EU Food Law, and The Food Safety Enhancement Act (H.R. 2749)

• • Traditional uses and advantages of bar code data collection

• • Emerging technologies and standards, including Reduced Space Symbology (RSS) bar codes, Electronic Product Code (EPC) RFID technology, and the GS1 Global Traceability Standard (GS1 DataBar).

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Direct thermal printing dates back to the 1960s and was originally designed for copiers and fax machines that utilize chemically coated paper. It has since been transformed into a highly successful print technology for bar coding.

Direct thermal media is essentially a self-contained printing system. It is manufactured by applying surface coatings to the media with a chemical formula that includes colorless dyes and developers. When the media goes through a thermal printer, heat (thermal energy) from the thermal printhead causes the dye and developer to activate and form a high-definition image. The thermal printhead consists of many heating elements distributed along its printing width. Each element is electronically controlled to deliver the correct amount of energy to an exact location for an exact amount of time. Those individual elements are strobed by the printer to form the final image—text, graphics, and bar codes. Fully saturating or imaging direct thermal chemistry is key to obtaining the most durable direct thermal image. Producing a less than fully saturated image will reduce the image life when exposed to various contaminants or environmental conditions.

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Secure the Campus While Providing Essential Services

From universities to primary schools, a revolution in technology is taking shape. The days when mundane tasks such as registration, book purchases, and meal programs required an army of administrators to manage piles of paperwork is but a digital page in today’s history e-books. Twenty-first-century innovation is bringing automation— and a chance to improve security—to the campus.

With education costs skyrocketing, departments at all levels are looking for ways to do more with less—trimming expenses while maximizing staff productivity. Add the looming threats to campus security, and educators must make decisions that balance quality of education with protecting our students. In fact, the 2011 Campus Safety magazine’s “How Safe Is Your Campus?” report revealed that 52 percent of faculty said their institutions fail to dedicate sufficient resources to campus safety and security.

The simple answer relies on the same technology that corporations use—secure smart ID cards. Embedded with “smart” features such as radio frequency identification (RFID) and tamper-resistant laminates, education campuses can realize a wide range of benefits, from tightening security, to streamlining admission, to improving paid services. Read on to find out how you can benefit from smart cards, and learn how your school district can do more with less.

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Zebra Technologies introduced the first integrated, on-demand radio frequency identification (RFID) smart label printer/encoder in 2001, and since then we have worked with hundreds of customers around the world who use different RFID protocols, frequencies, inlay designs, and standards. This experience has taught us several best practices that are applicable to any smart label printing operation.

Accurate RFID encoding is critical to every deployment. If the printer/encoder does not perform the tag data and item association correctly, the errors can propagate throughout the entire supply chain. Following the tips described in this white paper can help you get more from your smart label printing system by improving reliability, minimizing operator intervention, reducing wasted labels, preventing encoding and printing errors, and yielding more usable labels per media roll.

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