Safety concerns, competitive pressures and regulatory requirements are creating demand for more traceability in the foodservice industry than ever before. Meeting the challenge does not have to be a burden on your business. Bar code and radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies can provide traceability and real-time control to meet customer and regulatory requirements while actually improving efficiency and profitability. More extensive use of bar coding would produce $847 million in annual foodservice supply chain cost savings according to a report by the Efficient Foodservice Response (EFR), an initiative sponsored by six industry trade and standards organizations. An earlier EFR study found that improved item identification would provide the foundation for logistics optimization, electronic commerce, inventory reduction and other improved business processes that could drive $14.3 billion in non value-added costs from the foodservice supply chain. These savings are accomplished via accurate identification and data capture at all packaging levels wherever the information is needed in the supply chain to serve changing business process needs. To help you learn how to gain these benefits, this white paper will: * Demonstrate how improved product identification from bar code, RFID and related systems can create efficiencies and cost savings; * Introduce standards and technology options for item, inner pack, case, pallet and returnable container identification; * Describe how to take advantage of labeling and identification technologies to improve inventory, warehouse, distribution, returns, recall and route accounting operations.

Reprinted with Permission from Zebra Technologies