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Companies create testing center for new supply-chain
technology
Virginia Business
April
2005
Two of the world’s largest buyers
of packaged goods — Wal-Mart and the Department
of Defense — are ordering suppliers to start using
a technology that relies on radio waves to track goods
as they move through the supply chain. And now two Richmond
companies are teaming up in hopes of grabbing a share
of that growing market.
Software maker CapTech Ventures and
Richmond Cold Storage last fall opened an RFID (radio
frequency identification) testing center, where companies
could test the placement of RFID tags and CapTech’s
new Tagsware software. The technology uses tiny tags
with transmitters that can be attached to all types
of products. As products move from suppliers to final
points of destination, the tags transmit information.
CapTech CEO Sandy Williamson says his firm hopes to
sell its software to some of Richmond Cold Storage’s
customers in the food industry. The company has a dozen
warehouse complexes in the mid-Atlantic region. “They
were willing to let us set up a lab in their facility
so they could show their clients that they were forward-thinking
about RFID,” Williamson says. “And as their
clients turn toward RFID, we can give them sort of a
turnkey solution.” CapTech is also targeting defense
contractors, who are trying to meet Department of Defense
mandates to put radio frequency identification tags
on the $24 billion in packaged goods it buys annually.
The challenge for suppliers is to figure out what types
of tags to use and how to place them on merchandise.
Suppliers also have to adapt to new software and hardware
for tracking their products. Williamson says CapTech
and Richmond Cold Storage helped Richmond-based Hamil-ton
Beach/Proctor-Silex figure out where to place RFID tags
on its home appliances to meet Wal-Mart’s requirements.
“That’s why we need a lab,” he says.
CapTech is going into a very competitive market against
much larger firms, but Williamson is confident. Clients
initially may be smaller firms, but he hopes to eventually
attract major companies too. “We’re competing
with the big boys, offering all the stuff they do,”
Williamson says. “I think the field’s wide
open.”
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