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Not-for-profit standards organisation GS1 is heading up a global consortium, with members including Nestlé and British Telecom, to prepare industry for using RFID in supply chains.

The Building Radio Frequency Identification Solutions for the Global Environment (BRIDGE) programme is based on GS1’s EPCglobal standards. It is being part-financed with €7.5m from the European Union.
The BRIDGE consortium’s 31 members range from retailers and consumer goods manufacturers to technology firms and universities.

The three-year initiative aims to get participating companies focusing on business-based research, provision of information services and the development of RFID software and hardware.

Knowledge and developments garnered from the scheme will be available for use by any company considering RFID. GS1 hopes the programme will lead to more companies piloting RFID and technological advances.

Henri Barthel, EPCglobal technical director and BRIDGE project co-ordinator, said: “Since its inception, RFID has been hailed as the panacea for a more sophisticated and efficient global supply chain, but there are many questions to answer before this is realised.”