Domino launches new Integrated Solutions Group

With the launch of its Integrated Solutions Group, Domino Printing Sciences Plc has signaled its intention to win a significant share of the fast-expanding worldwide market for product and asset traceability systems, including RFID and other related coding technologies.

Operating on a worldwide basis, the Domino Integrated Solutions Group will provide manufacturers with a complete range of services to integrate track and trace technology into the supply chain, including total turnkey solutions combining RFID and composite coding with existing manufacturing and distribution systems.  The emphasis will be on helping companies assess what RFID and related technologies can offer them to deliver tailored solutions:  Domino Integrated Solutions Group customers will have access to consultancy, project scoping, definition, design and management, networking and data management, and hardware/software installation and support.

Through Domino's international network of subsidiaries and distributors, the Domino Integrated Solutions Group has a strong presence in all the leading markets for RFID and other coding solutions.

The group's offering has also been reinforced recently with the appointments of business development managers Gary Page in the US and Tony Walsh in Europe.

Domino has over 25 years' experience in designing and implementing total coding and marking solutions that incorporate not only RFID but also ink jet and laser technologies that apply variable data such as Data Matrix 2-D codes, linear barcodes and traceability codes to products from the pharmaceutical, food, beverage, and other industries.  The company also has alliances with leading providers of complementary technology.

Simon King, director of Domino's Integrated Solutions Group, believes that Domino is ‘ideally positioned’ to help customers with the rapid take-up of RFID and track and trace solutions: ‘RFID will revolutionize supply chain logistics,’ he said. ‘Among other things, it improves productivity, reduces costs, increases inventory control and combats counterfeiting.  These are huge benefits, and businesses are eager to embrace them.  It's no exaggeration to say that there has been an explosion of activity involving RFID and customers will hugely benefit from our expertise in integrating coding technologies on the production line combined with the consultancy level we are able to provide.’

According to some estimates, RFID activity in the retail sector is expected to impact over 200,000 manufacturers and suppliers globally. Studies by independent RFID research company IDTechEX indicate that by 2015 there will be over 400 billion RFID labels on consumer goods - part of a global RFID market worth $24.5 billion.

RFID is regarded as vital to the pharmaceutical industry's drive against drug counterfeiting - a sector in which Domino is already established and regards as a priority market for the Integrated Solutions Group.
Fuelled by the US Federal Drug Administration's requirement that the pharmaceutical industry employ RFID to fight counterfeiting, RFID hardware and software adoption is predicted to grow exponentially: a recent Frost & Sullivan report estimates that RFID revenues from the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries will rise six fold, from $370 million in 2004 to $2.3 billion in 2011.

‘These moves have created a lot of publicity, but they're really the tip of the RFID iceberg - the consequences have reverberated up and down the supply chain,’ said Simon King.

He added, however, that the resulting explosion of track and trace technologies presents manufacturers with serious challenges as they strive to come to terms with rapid change:  ‘The learning curve is very steep, and very intimidating.  When it comes to evaluating and introducing technologies such as RFID, the vast majority of manufacturers are still unclear as to how best to proceed.

‘At first sight, the market presents a confusing collection of technology providers, each apparently promoting a specific part of the total system requirement, and no single company owns all the technologies required.  There is also the important issue of developing global standards for RFID inter-operability.

‘In their haste to get on board the RFID bandwagon, companies can make expensive misjudgements - hence the need for systems integration capabilities to combine the myriad of technology offerings into a complete solution.  This is the role that the Domino Integrated Solutions Group will perform.’

King stresses that it is important for manufacturers to understand that RFID ‘typically represents only part of an organization’s complete coding and traceability system, and that product tracking often has to incorporate some form of linear or non-linear bar code and human-readable alpha/numeric information. 

‘It's rare that these identification formats are mutually exclusive, and this is certainly the case with emerging RFID technologies - increasingly the focus is turning towards the integration of RFID as part of an organization’s total architecture to provide complete product/asset traceability.’