Development of a national electronic product code network for the tracking of fast moving consumer goods

Electronic Product Code (EPC) is the global RFID standard for the exchange of product code data electronically throughout the supply chain. The National EPC Network Project (NDP) applied the EPC technology to share information securely in the EPC network, providing authentication of interacting parties and enabling the ability to track and trace movement of goods within the entire supply chain involving multiple enterprise transactions. The project explored the benefits and readiness of the technology to the Australian business community and captured the knowledge of applying EPC standard with an aim to simplify and reduce the operating costs of the Australian industry. This is the first EPC network implementation in the world conforming to the full EPCglobal standard for supporting intercompany transactions. This paper describes the development of the EPC network that supports the NDP. The issues arising from real intercompany transactions are summarised and the solutions implemented are reported.