Auburn University RFID Blog

The Auburn University RFID Lab has publicly announced the CHIP Project, a blockchain proof-of-concept for serialized data exchange in the Retail and Apparel supply chain. CHIP, an acronym for CHain Integration Pilot, will be the first of its kind in the industry, with the goal of integrating item-level data streams from various stakeholders into a blockchain solution, creating a common record of information jointly shared by trade partners that will enable end-to-end visibility and data-driven decision making throughout the value chain.

The Auburn University RFID Lab is excited to announce its new membership with Hyperledger, a global collaboration hosted by the Linux Foundation that focuses on the advancement of blockchain and DLT technologies. Hyperledger functions as a greenhouse for a series of open source blockchain frameworks with cross-industry applications, ranging from finance and banking to supply chain and logistics. As one of the largest working consortiums of its kind, Hyperledger is comprised of hundreds of contributing organizations such as Accenture, Deloitte, IBM, Intel, Oracle, JP Morgan, and many more.

Whether the brand buys the tags or the retailer subsidizes tagging, the cost will be absorbed into the cost of the item in the long run. We still have a few apparel retailers ask us about cost of goods increases for RFID tagged items. What many of them don't realize is that the per-item cost of apparel RFID is quickly becoming independent of whether or not the retailer actually has an RFID program. Unless it's an exclusive or private label item, retail RFID tagging is fast becoming a standard feature rather than a retailer requested option.

Auburn University RFID Lab Manager Eithne Field, spoke about an Open House on Friday, September 23rd, on WANI’s Auburn Opelika This Morning with Andy Burcham. Listen HERE.

Auburn University RFID Lab Director Justin Patton and the entire RFID lab staff will host an open house from 3PM-5PM on Friday, September 23^rd before the LSU game.

Lab demonstrations will be on display, including some new demos focused on football player tracking and ball tracking. These displays will be interactive and provide fun for everyone!

Additionally, a guided lab tour will take place at 3:30 p.m. and last approximately one hour. The event is open to the public and we'll be grilling burgers and hotdogs.

 In November 2005, the RFID Lab under the leadership of Dr. Bill Hardgrave, published the white paper that changed the way retail views inventory. The lab tackled the first deep investigation into RFID's impact on Out-of-Stocks in retail stores. 

Since the mid-2000s, RFID has rapidly increased in adoption among apparel retailers. Currently it is in use by over half of the apparel retailers in the United States, mainly in their stores to improve inventory accuracy. 

Today's small suppliers and retail stores have scores if not hundreds of Stock Keeping Units (SKU). Because of this large number, an automated approach to inventory tracking and reordering at the individual SKU level is particularly important to apparel distribution centers and retailers. Item level tagging using Radio Frequency ID (RFID) is an excellent way to achieve an automated inventory control system that is affordable and accurate.