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IHA - International Housewares Association: The Home Authority
Web: www.housewares.org | Ph: 847-292-4200 | Fax: 847-292-4211
Definition:
The Electronic Product Code (EPC) is a globally unique serial number that identifies
an item in the supply chain. It is an evolution on the UPC number, but
has a far greater potential for number combinations that expands the total
quantity of unique numbers in the system. The EPC is divided into numbers
that identify the manufacturer, product, version and serial number. But,
the EPC uses an extra set of digits, a serial number, to identify unique
items.
EPC numbers are issued once a company becomes a member
of EPCglobal Inc. |
How the Technology is Being Used:
EPC numbers are being used within the EPCglobal Network.
The EPCglobal Network is a system of identification and sharing
of data among computers, using the Internet, to obtain different
pieces of information about the product in the supply chain.
The EPC number and its related Network were conceived by
the Auto-ID Center (now known as Auto-ID Labs) at MIT. The
system uses Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) to transmit
the EPC number from its label, through the airwaves, to a
reader, then to a computer.
Online Resources of Information:
EPCglobal Inc. – for
information on the standards body and sponsored events
EPCglobal
U.S. 2006 Conference – conference information for their
October 2006 event
Auto-ID Labs – for research and archived white papers
Technology Suppliers:
None
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