Pittsburgh, PA, May 7, 2024 – AIM, the leading industry association with over 50 years of innovation, standards, and solutions in automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) technologies, is thrilled to announce the winners of its highly anticipated 2024 Case Study Competition. This annual event recognizes trailblazing individuals and organizations that have developed groundbreaking solutions contributing to the advancement of digital identification technologies worldwide.

The winners, chosen from a pool of exceptional submissions, represent the pinnacle of innovation and excellence in their respective categories. Each case study exemplifies the transformative impact these technologies have in diverse industries, showcasing real-world applications that drive efficiency, sustainability, and customer satisfaction.  This year’s winners are RFID Brasil, Wiliot, iTRACE Technologies, and SAIT. These companies were selected based on the categories of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Internet of Things (IoT), Automatic Identification & Data Capture (AIDC) and Blockchain respectively.

RFID Category Winner: RFID Brasil – Their winning project focuses on revolutionizing PET bottle recycling through the strategic implementation of RFID technology. By leveraging RFID tags on PET bottle bales, the project enhances traceability, transparency, and accountability throughout the recycling journey. This innovative approach significantly improves recycling efficiency, reduces waste, and promotes resource optimization, aligning with global sustainability goals.

IoT Category Winner: Wiliot – They emerged as the winner in the IoT category with their groundbreaking ambient IoT Visibility Platform. The platform addresses misshipment challenges for an online retailer, delivering real-time tracking and eliminating manual scanning errors through battery-free IoT Pixels affixed to shipping boxes.

AIDC Category Winner: iTRACE Technologies, a two-time winner, claimed victory in the AIDC category with their exceptional project in collaboration with Rolls-Royce Aerospace. The project addresses the critical challenge of safeguarding the aerospace and defense supply chain from counterfeit parts. Employing a unique, secure identifier resistant to cloning, iTRACE seamlessly integrated this technology into Rolls-Royce’s manufacturing process. After rigorous testing from the Rolls-Royce cyber security team, the iTRACE 2DMI® Two-Dimensional Marking Identifier proved highly effective with authentication tests consistently identifying genuine parts and rejecting clones and copies. Additionally, iTRACE successfully implemented the 2DMI® marks on production dot peen machines, ensuring comprehensive protection throughout the supply chain against counterfeit parts and components.

Blockchain Category Winner: SAIT – also a two-time winner, served up SAIT’s Wineability™ integrated solution in the Blockchain category for addressing challenges faced by wineries, including bottle distribution tracking and compliance with labeling legislation. By utilizing RFID technology and QR codes, Wineability™ facilitates comprehensive traceability from the winery to customer tables, enhancing transparency and value throughout the supply chain.

“These outstanding case studies exemplify the power of innovation and collaboration in driving positive change within the industry,” said Mary Lou Bosco, Chief Executive Officer of AIM Global. “We congratulate the winners for their exceptional achievements and their contributions to advancing technology and sustainability.”

Winners will be honored at industry events later this year and will have the opportunity to present their winning case studies to industry peers. To learn more about the winning case studies and download them, visit the Case Study Competition web page.

For media inquiries or further information, please contact AIM’s headquarters by email at info@aimglobal.org or call +1.724.742.4470.

About AIM

AIM is the trusted worldwide industry association for the automatic identification industry. For over half a century, AIM has provided unbiased information, educational resources, and standards to providers and users of AIDC technologies. AIM membership offers access to insider perspectives on trends and opportunities, advocacy, and community engagement. Visit www.aimglobal.org for more information.

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AIM Welcomes New Board Members

Honeywell and BlueStar Designate New Appointees

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | April 30, 2024 | AIM, the leading industry association and global authority for more than 50 years in innovation, standards, and solutions in barcode, biometrics, IoT, NFC, RFID, RTLS, and RAIN, proudly announces the appointment of two new board members.

 The newly appointed board members bring a blend of seasoned leadership, rich experience, and diverse perspectives to the forefront. With their varied skills and backgrounds, they are poised to make significant contributions to the board. Their terms officially kicked off the first quarter of this year.

Kelley Wood, Honeywell

Kelley Wood, an industry researcher and the senior global marketing manager for Productivity Solutions and Services at Honeywell. With more than 20 years of experience in marketing strategy, customer experience design, and process optimization, Wood is well-known for her ability to provide customers with actionable insights, resources, and solutions to optimize work processes and improve customer experiences. Her focus is on helping businesses enhance customer service and increase worker productivity through Honeywell’s industry leading solutions. Several industry publications and papers have cited her work on labor experience and management.

Mark Fraker, BlueStar

Mark Fraker, Chief Technology Officer of BlueStar, leads the company’s global innovation strategy, leveraging external partnerships across all technologies and business verticals. He is responsible for the short and long-term strategic planning for technology, product, and data solutions roadmaps supporting BlueStar’s global business goals and objectives. Since joining BlueStar in 1999, Mr. Fraker has held several positions, including 18 years as the Global VP of Marketing, and led the company’s global marketing strategies; he was responsible for the integrated strategy and development of BlueStar’s public relations, channel product marketing, marketing intelligence and research in developing into a solutions-based distributor. Mr. Fraker is BlueStar’s Global Executive Team member and serves on the BlueStar Board of Directors. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA) for six years and Chairman of the Board of Directors.

“We welcome the addition of two new members to our board, each offering a unique blend of expertise and perspectives,” stated Mary Lou Bosco, CEO of AIM, Inc. “Our commitment to assembling a diverse board and leadership team, reflective of various industry insights, remains steadfast, and our latest board appointments exemplify this dedication.”

For more information, biography, or photos, contact AIM’s headquarters by email or call +1.724.742.4470.

When PTS heard from The Twig, a not-for-profit on Florida’s Gulf Coast, we were inspired by their mission to help kids in need—so much so that we teamed up with our hardware partner Zebra Technologies to give the Florida-based charity tools to help them do their important work.

The Twig has been empowering foster children since 2016 by providing them with a stylish clothes-shopping experience that is completely free of charge. This life-changing organization has its roots in the vision of Dianne Weed, a mother of four who adopted her youngest daughter out of the foster care system as a baby.

As The Twig’s Director of Development Nicole Britton tells it, “When that baby turned into a teenager and she started buying her all those things you buy teenagers, she started to think:  What would her life be like if we didn’t adopt her? If she was still in foster care, who would be buying these clothes for her? Who would be pouring love and encouragement into her life?”

Weed started looking into what was available for foster children and discovered that, while some organizations provided basic necessities, the options often fell short when it came to offering their young clients dignity.

Weed founded The Twig to provide foster kids with an experience that was more inspiring than rummaging through boxes of other people’s leftovers—a place that, in Britton’s words, “looked like a regular fun, bright, children’s store but everything is free and it’s only for kids in foster care.”

The Challenges of Scaling Up the Vision

In its first month of operation, The Twig served eight children. Today, with strong community support, it serves over 400 children a month, from newborns to youth who have aged out of foster care, up to the age of 21.

Britton, who became The Twig’s first full-time hire in 2017, describes the experience of growing out of The Twig’s first location as “kiddos, strollers, foster parents everywhere.” But shop space wasn’t the only challenge The Twig faced as its mission flourished.

“We started with sorting and prepping our clothes in our store or in Diane’s living room,” adds Twig Marketing Director Shannon Campbell, who is also one of founder Dianne Weed’s four daughters. Later, The Twig was given use of a 7,000-square-foot warehouse, where volunteers could sort clothes and prepare them for delivery to the two locations now maintained in Venice and Bradenton, Florida.

The Twig needs to divide inventory between these two locations and deliver items according to need. As Campbell puts it, “We might need a lot of toddler clothes this week in Venice, but they may need youth/boy clothes in Bradenton. We need a way to keep track of what we’re low on in the stores, and what we have in the warehouse—so as we ask people for donations, we know what to request, we know what to send volunteers and staff shopping for, and how to get those items to both of those locations effectively and efficiently.”

As The Twig grew, these needs became increasingly hard to deal with using the methods The Twig had used from the start. “We’re very blessed to have a lot of volunteers,” says Britton, “but we had them literally writing down our inventories in our stores on clipboards—counting how many shirts we had in different sizes, how many shirts, and so on, to see what we were low on.”

Campbell emphasizes that “that was happening every week—every week we were writing it all down on pieces of paper!”

On the warehouse side, Britton describes how The Twig’s volunteers and staff had to rely on visual guesswork—”Looks like we have plenty of 2T clothes; looks like we’re very low on size-10 shoes….”

The Twig’s old system was time-consuming, cumbersome, and imprecise. For a business, that’s a problem; for a charity that’s doing such important work, it’s an impediment to doing the vital work of empowering kids. Portable Technology Solutions knew that TracerPlus and the PTS Cloud could make things much easier, and help The Twig focus on its core mission.

TracerPlus Brings Precision to The Twig’s Inventory

A couple of years ago, The Twig found a solution. On the way back from the NRF [National Retail Federation] convention, a couple of The Twig’s employees had a chance encounter with a representative from Zebra. When the rep heard about The Twig’s needs, they took the story back to Zebra, which was able to connect The Twig with PTS. As Britton describes it, it’s “been a huge blessing to be able to connect with PTS and Zebra to solve our problems.”

When PTS and Zebra learned more about The Twig’s work and needs, we knew we could help. Zebra donated its ET40 Tablets with DS8178s attached for use in The Twig’s retail locations, and TC57 Tablets for the warehouse—all loaded with TracerPlus software donated by PTS and configured in consultation with The Twig. PTS also donated the use of the PTS Cloud to support The Twig’s database.

“It’s great now to have a system that actually shows us, from the boutique, ‘I know that we are low on 2T clothes—I wonder if we have any at the warehouse…’—and then we can just look on the database and see how much we have there,” says Britton.

 “It also brings hard numbers to fundraising,” she adds. “Now when I appear before a group that is going to do a collection for us, I have real, raw numbers. I can tell them exactly how many, for example, shoes we gave out in one month—and that, by holding a shoe collection, this is the gap you’re filling for us.”

“I can tell them an actual, for-sure amount—because I can see in our database how much is at the warehouse, how much is in Bradenton, how much is in Venice—and not just be guesstimating based on someone’s ‘look’ at the inventory.”

Giving and Getting Value

The reliable inventory data that The Twig now gets from TracerPlus has also helped it make better use of donated funds. “We work hard to get good value for our donors,” Britton stresses.

The Twig uses shoppers to fill inevitable gaps between week-to-week needs and incoming clothing donations. Now, with the reliable data made possible with TracerPlus, those shoppers are able to take full advantage of discounts and sales they may encounter. “If they see something marked down,” Britton says, “they no longer have to just rely on their memory of what was in the warehouse—they can take advantage of an opportunity when it arises.”

It all comes down, Britton says, to “being able to see where needs are in real-time.” And that helps The Twig help the foster kids at the heart of what they do, and be “good stewards for our donors.”

The Twig says its mission is “to inspire and encourage foster families by meeting their needs.” Portable Technology Solutions is proud to be working with Zebra Technologies to make that mission a little bit easier.