Cross-Siemens Initiative Focused on Customer Solutions
ATLANTA (September 17, 2004) – In a move to lower customer warehousing costs, improve supply chain visibility, and enhance tracking and tracing applications, Siemens Energy & Automation will expand its RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) systems offering into the UHF range in mid 2005. The new RFID system family, for 860 to 956 megahertz frequencies (the UHF range), will consist of stationary and handheld reader designs with corresponding tags for various environmental conditions. The RFID systems’ functionality corresponds to EPC Global and ISO/IEC 18000-6 standards. The readers will communicate via TCP/IP with PC or SIMATIC controllers as servers.
The readers will allow for remote engineering, according to customer requirements, via the Internet and will also perform diagnostics using a remote control unit.
A Cross-Siemens Initiative
Three Siemens businesses have combined their product, information technology and services expertise as part of the expansion. Siemens Automation & Drives (operating as Siemens Energy & Automation in the United States), Siemens Logistics and Assembly Systems, and Siemens Business Services, are working together to provide industrial and retail customers with comprehensive RFID enabled solutions for supply chain improvement. These activities range from manufacturing to warehousing to complete end-to-end customer solutions. According to Alex Stuebler, business manager of factory automation sensors at Siemens Energy & Automation, RFID is a tried-and-trusted Siemens technology.
“For more than 20 years Siemens has supplied RFID technology and delivered significant productivity to key industries, including Automotive production,” Stuebler said. “We have more than a quarter of a million read/write devices installed worldwide. Our RFID portfolio, marketed under the Moby name, consists of a variety of systems for numerous applications in production, logistics and distribution. Some examples include automotive production, airports, security gates and parking garages.” Siemens has developed and deployed RFID technology in more than a dozen large logistics projects for companies including Airbus, Kaufhof Warenhaus AG and Otto-Versand.
Since July, 2004, Siemens has also participated in the “Future Store Initiative” of the Metro Group, which includes IBM, Intel and SAP, and others as members. The Metro Group tests new technologies and ideas in practical applications in order to develop RFID standards for commercial use. In the U.S., Siemens has also been working on standards development as a member of the EPC Global Panel.
Commercial release is expected to coincide with the availability of EPC Gen2 tags in the middle of 2005 following the pilot customer phase currently underway. “UHF technology allows increased distances between readers and tags at relatively low costs,” said Stuebler. “We anticipate that the technology will grow in popularity among industrial customers, including automotive and pharmaceutical, as well as retail customers and their suppliers, because of improving standards and lower tag prices.”
About Siemens
Siemens AG (NYSE:SI) is a leading global electronics and engineering company with reported worldwide sales of $80.5 billion in fiscal 2003.
With its United States corporate headquarters in New York City, Siemens in the U.S. has sales of $16.6 billion and employs 65,000 people throughout all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Eleven of Siemens' worldwide businesses are based in the United States.
With its global headquarters in Munich, Siemens AG and its subsidiaries employ 417,000 people in 192 countries.
For more information on Siemens in the U.S.: www.usa.siemens.com .Siemens Energy & Automation Inc. is one of Siemens’ operating companies in the U.S.
Headquartered in the Atlanta suburb of Alpharetta, Ga., Siemens Energy & Automation manufactures and markets one of the world’s broadest ranges of electrical and electronic products, systems and services to industrial and construction market customers. Its technologies range from circuit protection and energy management systems to process control, industrial software and totally integrated automation solutions.
The company also has expertise in systems integration, technical services and turnkey industrial systems.For more information: www.sea.siemens.com .
