Tag: IBM

DHL Innovation project wins RFID Journal Award 2007

Posted by | May 8, 2007 | |

The pilot project “temperature-monitored pharmaceutical logistics with RFID” conducted by the DHL Innovation Initiative was honored with the “RFID Journal Award 2007” at the congress “RFID Journal LIVE: Putting RFID to Work” (held from April 30 through May 2, 2007, in Orlando, Florida). The RFID application developed by DHL in cooperation with the innovation partners IBM and Infratab was nominated in the category “Best Use of RFID in a Service.”

Today’s pharmaceutical products generally consist of temperature-sensitive ingredients that can lose their effectiveness when they are placed in an environment that is too cold or too hot. The DHL Innovation Initiative developed an inventive solution to monitor temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical products during transport. RFID sensor tags made by the development partner Infratab monitor the temperature of pharmaceutical shipments. The stored measurement data can be read by a RFID reader without physical contact using radio waves. In the process, the shipment does not have to be opened. The link to the database is handled by solutions created by IBM, one of the global innovation partners of the DHL Innovation Initiative. Thanks to the new service, pharmaceutical companies can react to temperatures that exceed or fall below limits even while the shipment is still being transported.

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IBM Study: Multinational Companies Must Develop New Strategies to Tap China's Mass Markets

Posted by | Mar 28, 2007 | |

IBM announced the findings of a new study which concludes that in order for multinational companies to succeed in China they will need to develop strategies that focus more on China’s mass markets, and increasingly less on top-tier cities where the competition is fierce and the market potential is maturing. The study defines “mass markets” as a combination of smaller, emerging cities with fast growth, such as Fuzhou and Hefei, that represent nearly 40 percent of China’s urban population (234 million), and the rapidly growing consumer segment with household incomes between U.S. USD3,000-USD6,000 annually.
According to the study these “emerging” cities contribute up to 43 percent of China’s Gross Domestic Product, and more than 80 percent of them have household income levels falling within the U.S. USD3,000-USD6,000 mass market range, compared to only 50 percent of larger top-tier cities. Furthermore the Gross Domestic Product of these emerging cities is growing significantly. For example, the top 10 emerging cities are growing at 28 percent per year compared to only 18 percent for the top 10 prosperous cities.
IBM’s Institute for Business Value, in conjunction with the Economist Intelligence Unit, surveyed senior-level executives at more than 180 multinational companies in China in four industries (electronics, automotive, consumer packaged goods and retail) for the study. Additionally, IBM interviewed 50 international and Chinese executives with front-line China operations experience, and segmented more than 650 cities in China into six tiers based on a number of key demographic and economic variables including population, average annual salary and per capita Gross Domestic Product. The study, titled “Winning in China’s Mass Markets: New Business Models, New Operations for Profitable Growth,” underscores the need for multinational companies to transform their business models and operations to tap China’s mass market opportunities and effectively compete with domestic firms which typically excel in this segment.

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Deutsche Post World Net opens future lab DHL Innovation Center

Posted by | Mar 27, 2007 | |

Deutsche Post World Net opened the DHL Innovation Center in Troisdorf near Bonn today. The goal and mission of the DHL Innovation Center are to develop marketable, highly innovative products from logistics trends of the future. In addition, the laboratory of the future forms an umbrella organization for all areas of technical innovation management that the company has been exploring. The laboratory of the future plays a key role in the Group’s strategy, with which Deutsche Post World Net as the No. 1 company in the global logistics market intends to become the world’s most innovative logistics company.

The projects at the DHL Innovation Center are being conducted jointly with partners. The innovation partners from the business world include IBM, Intel and SAP. The DHL Innovation Center also maintains research partnerships with the logistics institutes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston and Zaragoza, and the German Fraunhofer institutes. About 20 permanent employees are working on innovation projects in the center. An additional 10 jobs are filled by employees from the innovation and research partners.

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IBM unveils new RFID software

Posted by | Dec 18, 2006 | |

IBM has announced new technology that more easily allows organisations securely share and analyse real-time data generated by radio frequency identification (RFID) tags.

The new WebSphere RFID Information Center technology is based on a recently completed EPCglobal RFID standard called EPCIS, which provides a standard way to securely communicate the data created by sensors and RFID tags.

Using the IBM platform, the data can also be integrated with existing business information and shared with trading partners.

The IBM WebSphere RFID Information Center platform has already been successfully deployed by Unilever, the e-customs project ITAIDE in Europe, and pharmaceutical distributor AmerisourceBergen.

Shay Reid, AmerisourceBergen vice-president for integrated solutions, said, “AmerisourceBergen sees tremendous potential in the IBM WebSphere RFID Information Center, which will be a key component to meeting track and trace regulatory requirements in California.”

Reid said the platform would become the data backbone in a pilot programme that will enable AmerisourceBergen to improve its service by quickly authenticating products and transactions through direct data exchange with pharmaceutical manufacturers.”

RFID Information Center receives data from RFID middleware, which aggregates, filters and interprets data directly from the readers.

RFID Information Center then stores, manages and enables sharing of all or portions of the data with various business applications across the enterprise, and with trading partners.

More information on the platform is available here: http://www.ibm.com/software/data/masterdata/rfid/

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DHL and IBM develop IT logistics platform for Karstadt

Posted by | Dec 5, 2006 | |

DHL Exel Supply Chain, the logistics specialist at Deutsche Post World Net, and the IBM business consulting firm Global Business Services have jointly developed a new IT-based warehouse-management solution for Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH. The value of the euro-denominated contract is in the double-digit range. Starting in mid-2008, 11 DHL locations will be equipped with the new solution, known as system platform logistics. Once the system goes into operation, Karstadt will profit from significantly improved logistics processes and falling costs.

In 2005, DHL took over responsibility for major portions of KarstadtQuelle’s logistics, including the distribution logistics for Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH. With the introduction of the new system platform Logistics, such core logistics processes as receiving goods, warehousing, picking, distributing and shipping goods will be modernized from the ground up. One single platform will administer and manage these processes. It will replace around 20 outdated systems, and provide enormous flexibility thanks to its modular design and guaranteed future. It will be initially used in all DHL locations where logistics services for Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH are provided.

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