Business

For Immediate Release

Australian businesses demonstrate the case for RFID

“A clear way forward for all Australian organisations looking to adopt EPC/RFID”

Sydney, 20 June 2007 – A consortium of Australian businesses today announced that they achieved
guaranteed visibility of assets along their entire supply chain, as well as paperless delivery, ePOD, and
improved inventory management by integrating EPC/RFID technology into existing business systems.

The pilot, called the National EPC Network™ Demonstrator Project Extension (or NDP Extension) was
launched at the SMART 2007 Conference today by consortium representatives CHEP, MasterFoods and GS1
Australia.

This ground-breaking pilot was co-managed by GS1 Australia and RMIT University with Telstra and Retriever
Communications as the service providers. It was also supported by the Australian Government through the
Information Technology Online (ITOL) program of the Department of Communications, Information, Technology
and the Arts (DCITA).

“There is an incredible amount of interest in EPC/RFID but much of it is still behind the scenes as Australian
businesses build up their knowledge and confidence in this new area. This pilot provides many answers to
questions we’ve been asked and shows a clear way forward for all Australian organisations looking to adopt
EPC/RFID.” said Maria Palazzolo, CEO of GS1 Australia.

Pilot results demonstrated significant benefits for all parties in the process and members of the consortium
confirm that their involvement has deepened their understanding of this technology and provided invaluable first
hand experience of the electronic proof of delivery (ePOD) process.

As a focus for the pilot, the consortium chose to examine how EPC/RFID could improve the management of
returnable assets such as pallets – with the concepts proven being transferable to other supply chain items
such as logistics units, trade items and other assets.

Pallets were supplied by CHEP Asia-Pacific and NEC Australia. With pallet customers being ACCO Australia,
Capilano Honey, Franklins/Westgate Logistics, Procter & Gamble/Linfox, and MasterFoods.

The consortium achieved EPC/RFID tag read rates of 100 per cent and customers in the group reported
productivity gains of 14.3 per cent and 22.2 per cent when comparing old processes to new EPC/RFID-enabled
processes.

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At the conclusion of the NDP Extension, consortium members leave equipped with adequate information to
introduce EPC/RFID within their organisations. Pilot outcomes included:
• Using Six Sigma Kaizem analysis, CHEP estimates found that 28 per cent of end to end processing
time could be saved per pallet delivery journey.
• ePOD and paperless delivery eliminated five manual steps from each of the pallet receiving, hire and
de-hire processes, benefiting both the customer and the supplier
• EPC/RFID allowed total visibility of assets throughout the supply chain. This enabled trading partners to
immediately track pallet orders, adding value to an improved customer service
• Adherence to EPCglobal standards facilitates interoperability of RFID systems from different technology
suppliers, which reduces acquisition and deployment costs, thus providing a viable option for all supply
chain partners, including small to medium enterprises (SMEs) considering EPC/RFID adoption
• Leasing options for RFID infrastructure and use of managed services will allow SMEs to adopt
EPC/RFID easily

The NDP Extension was presented today at the SMART 2007 Conference.
Free copies of the report are available from GS1 Australia (www.gs1au.org)

ENDS

Media contact: Morag Milne, GS1 Australia

T: +61 (0)3 9550 3409 / M: 0419 528 442 / morag.milne@gs1au.org

GS1 Australia is the not-for-profit organisation that locally administers the GS1 System, incorporating
EPCglobal standards. GS1 Australia was created to help Australian business enterprises become more
efficient. Their fundamental role is to administer and maintain internationally accepted trading standards for the
automatic identification and communication of products, services, assets and locations. This, in turn, allows
Australian organisations to adopt world's best practice supply chain management techniques. Today, well over
a million organisations across 145 countries use GS1 Standards as part of their daily business communications.
GS1 Australia is the only organisation authorised by GS1 Global to allocate and administer GS1 BarCode
numbers in Australia.