The agreement, signed in Tegucigalpa on July 22, covers a three-and-a-half-year rollout that aims to replace the provisional paper permits that hundreds of thousands of Honduran drivers have been forced to rely on since 2023. A backlog of more than one million plates had built up in the country, leaving motorists without permanent metal registration.

Juan Carlos García, Minister of the Presidency and head of the Instituto de la Propiedad, signed on behalf of the Honduran government, while Lucía Mausen, Sales Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, represented Tönnjes. President Nasry Asfura and German Ambassador Daniela Vogl attended the ceremony as guests.

The project goes well beyond simply manufacturing plates. Tönnjes will construct a dedicated production facility in Honduras and deliver RFID security stickers alongside the plates themselves. These stickers, sometimes referred to as a “third plate,” are designed for windscreens on cars and headlamps on two-wheelers, providing an additional layer of vehicle authentication.

Each smart plate uses embedded RFID technology combined with digital authentication to allow real-time vehicle identification. A central digital platform will give authorities instant access to vehicle information, helping to combat counterfeiting and improve road safety. The technology is particularly well suited to countries tackling large-scale registration backlogs, where manual verification systems struggle to keep pace.

For Tönnjes, the Honduras contract reinforces the company’s growing presence in the Latin American market. The firm operates more than 50 locations worldwide, employs roughly 2,000 people, and works with governments in over 120 countries on secure vehicle identification systems. RFID-enabled licence plates have become a cornerstone of its product range, offering governments a way to digitise vehicle registries and reduce fraud.

The deal also highlights a broader trend across emerging markets, where governments are turning to RFID and smart plate technology to modernise ageing vehicle registration infrastructure. With nearly three million plates to produce and deploy, the Honduras project will be one of the most closely watched implementations in the sector over the coming years.

Read more at https://www.toennjes.com/en/news/honduras-introduces-smart-vehicle-licence-plates-from-toennjes/

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The brand, which operates more than 30 stores across Spain and works with manufacturers in both Asia and the Iberian Peninsula, had long struggled with the limitations of manual stock management. Receiving errors, shipping mistakes and a lack of real-time visibility into inventory levels were creating bottlenecks that held back growth.

The solution starts at the factory floor. Dipole supplies RFID web labels in roll format, organised by item, and manages the printing and encoding process. These labels are shipped directly to manufacturers, where they are applied to garment hangtags before the products ever leave the production line. This means every item enters the supply chain with a unique RFID identity from the very first stage, giving Algo Bonito full traceability from source to shelf.

At the company’s central distribution hub, Dipole’s Cubic reading system handles three key logistics tasks automatically. Goods receiving is verified without manual counting, store shipments are validated to ensure accuracy, and inventory counts are carried out quickly without disrupting day-to-day warehouse operations.

In-store, staff use PDA readers to receive incoming stock, run inventory counts and locate specific items on the sales floor in seconds. The system was integrated with Algo Bonito’s existing PowerSoft Operating System, and the company says the process was completed without any issues.

Ramiro Vega, General Manager of Algo Bonito, said the RFID rollout has been transformative. “Implementing RFID with Dipole has been a major improvement in our inventory management. Today we have much better stock visibility across our entire store network and we have drastically reduced the time dedicated to inventory counts.”

The headline results speak for themselves: inventory accuracy now exceeds 99%, time spent on stock counts has dropped by 80%, the business has real-time visibility into stock levels across every location, and stock shortages have been significantly reduced.

The project highlights how RFID technology is becoming essential infrastructure for mid-sized fashion retailers looking to compete on operational efficiency. With traceability built into the supply chain from the point of manufacture, brands like Algo Bonito can respond faster to demand, reduce waste and keep shelves stocked with the right products.

Read more at https://www.dipolerfid.com/en/rfid-blog/rfid-success-story-fashion-retail-algobonito-inventory-accuracy

The post Algo Bonito optimises its supply chain with RFID and gains +99% inventory accuracy and 80% less inventory time first appeared on RFID News.

What Is a Discovery Workshop?

A discovery workshop is a structured, collaborative session that brings together key stakeholders from across your business to explore how RFID technology can solve real operational problems. It typically lasts one to two days and is facilitated by your RFID vendor or systems integrator. The goal is not to sell you hardware. The goal is to understand your processes, your pain points, and your ambitions before a single line of specification is written.

Think of it as the blueprint stage. You would not build a house without architectural drawings, and you should not deploy RFID without a proper discovery phase.

What Happens During Discovery?

A well-run workshop covers four core areas.

First, stakeholder alignment. RFID projects touch multiple departments, from warehouse operations and IT to finance and compliance. Discovery gets everyone in the same room, speaking the same language and agreeing on shared objectives. Without this alignment, projects stall or deliver results that only serve one team.

Second, process mapping. The facilitator will walk through your current workflows in detail, whether that involves goods-in, pick and pack, asset tracking, or work-in-progress. The aim is to document how items move through your operation today, where manual steps create bottlenecks, and where visibility gaps exist. This mapping exercise often reveals inefficiencies that the business has simply learned to live with.

Third, technical feasibility. Not every environment is straightforward for RF. Metal, liquids, dense product stacking, and legacy infrastructure all present challenges. A good vendor will assess read ranges, tag placement options, frequency suitability (whether UHF, HF, or NFC fits your use case), and integration requirements with your existing WMS, ERP, or MES platforms. This is where experience matters. Seasoned integrators know how to spot potential issues early and design around them.

Fourth, quick wins identification. Not every RFID project needs to be a multi-year transformation programme. Discovery should highlight areas where you can achieve measurable ROI quickly. Perhaps it is automating a receiving process that currently relies on manual barcode scanning, or introducing real-time asset visibility in a single facility. These early wins build internal confidence and create momentum for broader rollout.

How Good Vendors Run Discovery

The best RFID vendors treat discovery as a partnership, not a sales exercise. They will challenge your assumptions, push back where timelines are unrealistic, and be honest about what RFID can and cannot do. They will leave you with a clear report that includes process flow diagrams, a recommended technology stack, a phased implementation roadmap, and a realistic budget envelope.

If a vendor skips discovery and jumps straight to quoting, that is a red flag. RFID is not plug-and-play. The technology works brilliantly when it is designed around your operation, and it fails when it is forced into one.

The Bottom Line

A discovery workshop is a small investment that protects a much larger one. It reduces project risk, shortens deployment timelines, and ensures the solution you build is the solution you actually need. If you are considering RFID, start here.

The post The RFID Discovery Workshop: What It Is and Why You Need One first appeared on RFID News.

The announcement, made on July 3, 2026, marks a new chapter for the France-headquartered secure identification and smart technology company, which operates across the Transport, e-ID, Payment, and Track and Trace sectors.

Lagios is no stranger to the business. He joined Paragon ID in 2018 as Chief Commercial Officer, where he was responsible for shaping commercial strategy and driving growth across the company’s portfolio of RFID, NFC, IoT, and SaaS solutions. His promotion to the top job comes after nearly three decades of leadership experience in secure technologies and identification.

Before joining Paragon ID, Lagios spent 17 years in senior positions at AUSTRIACARD Group (now AUSTRIACARD Holdings), building deep expertise in secure document production and smart card technology. He holds an MBA from Strathclyde Business School in Glasgow.

Under Rogers’ leadership, Paragon ID underwent a significant transformation. The company completed its transition to private ownership under Grenadier Holdings and used that stability to invest heavily in innovation, strengthen its operational capabilities, and push further into international markets. Rogers will continue to contribute to the wider group in his new role at Grenadier.

Paragon ID’s technology portfolio spans several critical sectors. In Transport and Smart Cities, the company supplies RFID and NFC-enabled ticketing and access solutions. Its Track and Trace division serves logistics and supply chain customers, while the e-ID business produces secure identification documents. The Payment arm delivers contactless payment solutions for financial institutions and transit operators.

Chairman Patrick J. Crean praised the appointment, noting that Lagios combines deep industry knowledge with strategic vision and a thorough understanding of both the business and its people.

For his part, Lagios expressed enthusiasm about leading Paragon ID into its next phase of growth, pointing to the company’s market-leading technologies and strong customer relationships as key foundations for the future.

The appointment positions Paragon ID to accelerate its strategy in secure identification and connected ecosystems at a time when demand for RFID, NFC, and IoT-based solutions continues to grow across government, transport, and enterprise markets worldwide.

Read more at https://www.paragon-id.com/en/inspiration/paragon-id-appoints-konstantinos-lagios-as-chief-executive-officer

The post Paragon ID Appoints Konstantinos Lagios as Chief Executive Officer first appeared on RFID News.

Until recently, tracking these samples relied on barcode scanning at fixed checkpoints. Staff had to manually scan each cassette and slide as it moved between workstations, embedding baths, microtomes, and staining lines. The system could tell you where a sample had been, but not where it was right now. With human error factored in, samples occasionally slipped through the gaps.

The solution came from within the department itself. Dil Rathore, a Biomedical Scientist and Pathology Innovation Lead at the Trust, developed a purpose-built RFID tracking system designed to survive the harsh conditions of histological processing. Custom UHF RFID tags are embedded into tissue cassettes, and a network of antennas and readers installed throughout the laboratory provides continuous, real-time location data for every sample in the workflow.

This is a significant departure from conventional barcode systems. UHF RFID does not require line-of-sight scanning, and multiple tagged cassettes can be read simultaneously as they move through processing stages. There is no need for staff to stop and scan each item individually. The system logs every movement automatically, recording which block moved, when, where it went, and which member of staff was handling it at the time.

The benefits for patient safety are substantial. Chain of custody is maintained digitally from the moment a specimen arrives in the lab until the final diagnostic slide reaches the pathologist. If a block is misplaced or moves to an unexpected location, the system flags it immediately rather than hours or days later. This drastically reduces the risk of sample mix-ups, which in cancer diagnostics could lead to misdiagnosis or incorrect treatment plans.

From an operational perspective, the gains are equally compelling. The lab has seen measurable improvements in processing efficiency, with less time spent searching for misplaced specimens and fewer workflow interruptions. Staff can focus on the skilled analytical work that actually requires their expertise, rather than manual tracking tasks. Early data from similar RFID implementations in anatomical pathology suggests processing time reductions of around 20%, alongside a dramatic fall in labelling errors.

The financial case is hard to ignore as well. Lost or misidentified specimens cost the NHS an estimated 157 million pounds annually in clinical negligence claims. A system that virtually eliminates sample loss has clear potential to reduce that figure significantly.

What makes the Leeds project particularly noteworthy is its scalability. The UHF RFID infrastructure can be adapted to other hospital pathology departments regardless of size, and the Trust is actively seeking commercial partners to bring the technology to a wider market. For laboratories still relying on manual barcode scanning, this case study offers a practical blueprint for modernisation that puts patient safety at the centre.

The post Case Study: Leeds Teaching Hospitals – RFID for Cancer Sample Tracking first appeared on RFID News.

Myth 1: RFID Is Too Expensive

This was a fair criticism fifteen years ago when passive UHF tags cost well over a dollar each. Today, the picture looks very different. The RAIN Alliance reported 52.8 billion UHF RAIN tag chips shipped in 2024, a 17% year-on-year increase. That volume has driven bulk inlay prices down near the $0.05 mark, making item-level tagging viable even in lower-margin sectors like grocery and automotive parts. Factor in the labour savings from automated scanning and the reduction in stock discrepancies, and RFID frequently pays for itself within the first year.

Myth 2: It’s Only for Big Companies

Enterprise retailers like Zara and Decathlon grabbed the headlines when they rolled out RFID, which left many smaller businesses assuming the technology was out of reach. In reality, scalable cloud-based RFID platforms and affordable handheld readers have brought the barrier to entry down significantly. A small boutique tracking a few thousand SKUs can deploy a basic UHF RFID system for a modest outlay and see immediate improvements in stock accuracy and replenishment speed.

Myth 3: RFID Is a Privacy Nightmare

This concern tends to surface whenever consumers hear that a product contains an RFID tag. The reality is far less dramatic. Passive tags, which make up the vast majority of deployments, have no battery and no GPS. They can only be read at short range by a compatible reader, and the data stored on them is typically just a serial number. Without access to the retailer’s database, that number is meaningless. Comparing a passive RFID inlay to a tracking device is like comparing a library barcode to a surveillance camera.

Myth 4: RFID Will Replace Barcodes Entirely

RFID and barcodes serve different purposes, and both have strengths. Barcodes are cheap, universally adopted, and work perfectly well for point-of-sale scanning where items are presented one at a time. RFID excels when you need to read hundreds of items simultaneously, track goods through a supply chain without line of sight, or perform rapid cycle counts. In most operations, the two technologies complement each other rather than compete. The GS1 standard even supports encoding the same product identifier on both a barcode and an RFID tag, allowing businesses to transition gradually.

Myth 5: RFID Guarantees a 100% Read Rate

No identification technology delivers perfection in every scenario, and RFID is no exception. Real-world read rates depend on tag placement, the materials involved, reader positioning, and environmental factors like metal surfaces or liquid proximity. A well-designed UHF system in a controlled environment can achieve read rates above 99%, but placing tags on metal packaging or stacking items tightly will reduce performance. The key is proper system design: choosing the right tag for the application, positioning antennas correctly, and testing under realistic conditions. Expecting a plug-and-play 100% read rate will lead to disappointment, but a thoughtfully engineered deployment will dramatically outperform manual processes.

The Bottom Line

RFID is not a magic wand, but it is also not the expensive, privacy-invading, barcode-killing technology that some still believe. Approached with realistic expectations and sensible planning, it delivers genuine operational value for businesses of all sizes.

The post RFID Myths Debunked: Separating Fact From Fiction first appeared on RFID News.

The solution is a structured evaluation framework that forces consistency across every vendor response.

Standardise What You Ask For

Before you can compare proposals fairly, you need to control what comes back. Issue a detailed Request for Proposal (RFP) that prescribes the format of responses. Specify the reader, antenna, and tag types you want quoted. Require vendors to break out hardware, software licensing, professional services, and ongoing support as separate line items. If one vendor bundles everything into a single number while another itemises each component, meaningful comparison becomes impossible.

Include a compliance matrix that vendors must complete. This simple table of requirements with “compliant,” “partial,” or “non-compliant” responses makes the first round of filtering straightforward and fast.

Build a Weighted Scoring Model

Not every criterion matters equally. A retail inventory project will weight read accuracy and speed differently from an asset tracking deployment in a hospital. Assign percentage weights to each evaluation category before you open a single proposal. A practical starting point:

• Technical fit: 35%
• Total cost of ownership: 25%
• Vendor experience and references: 20%
• Support and SLA commitments: 10%
• Integration and scalability: 10%

Score each vendor against these categories using a simple three-point scale: exceeds requirements, meets requirements, or falls below. Avoid bloated ten-point scales that introduce subjectivity and slow down consensus.

CapEx vs OpEx: Compare the Real Cost

RFID proposals increasingly arrive in two flavours. Traditional capital expenditure models put hardware and licensing costs upfront, while SaaS and managed-service models spread costs monthly. Comparing these directly is misleading.

Convert everything to a five-year total cost of ownership (TCO). Include hardware refresh cycles, software updates, support contracts, and any per-tag or per-read transaction fees. A SaaS model may look cheaper in year one but cost significantly more over time, or vice versa. The only honest comparison is a like-for-like TCO calculation.

Check References Properly

Ask every shortlisted vendor for at least three reference sites operating in a similar environment to yours. Do not just collect names. Visit or call those references with a prepared list of questions covering system uptime, post-installation support quality, and whether the project was delivered on time and on budget. A vendor that cannot provide relevant references is a risk, regardless of how polished their proposal looks.

Make the Decision Transparent

Document your scores, your rationale, and your final recommendation. Share the framework with stakeholders before evaluation begins so that the criteria are agreed upon in advance. This approach eliminates politics from the process and gives your organisation confidence that the selected RFID partner was chosen on merit.

A disciplined evaluation process will not guarantee a perfect deployment, but it will dramatically reduce the chance of picking the wrong partner.

The post How to Evaluate RFID Proposals: Comparing Apples to Apples first appeared on RFID News.

The truth is straightforward. RFID deployments fail more often because of people than because of technology. A perfectly tuned UHF reader on the dock door means nothing if warehouse operatives bypass the scan zone or ignore alerts because nobody explained why the system matters.

Why staff push back

Resistance rarely comes from stubbornness. It comes from uncertainty. When a company rolls out RFID-enabled inventory management, workers may worry that automated reads will make their roles redundant. Others simply distrust what they do not understand. If leadership announces a new RFID system without context, the rumour mill fills the gap with worst-case scenarios.

Privacy concerns surface too, particularly in environments where RFID-tagged ID badges or wearables track movement. Without clear communication about what data is collected and how it is used, pushback is inevitable.

Training that actually sticks

Too many RFID training programmes amount to a one-hour slideshow followed by a printed quick-start guide. That approach checks a box but changes nothing. Effective training is hands-on and role-specific. A picker in a distribution centre needs to understand how HF or UHF inlays on cartons interact with portal readers along the conveyor. A retail associate needs to know how to use an RFID handheld for cycle counts. Different roles require different depth.

Scheduling multiple short sessions over several weeks beats a single marathon day. This gives staff time to practice, ask questions, and build confidence before go-live. Pairing new users with experienced colleagues during the first few weeks of live operation also smooths the transition.

Redesigning workflows, not just adding technology

A common mistake is layering RFID on top of existing barcode processes without rethinking the workflow. RFID reads happen at the speed of radio waves, not one scan at a time. If you still require staff to handle items individually just to trigger a read, you have wasted the core advantage of the technology.

Workflow redesign should involve the people who do the work. Frontline staff know where bottlenecks exist and what steps feel redundant. Involving them early creates ownership and surfaces practical issues that engineers miss.

Building a champion network

Identify enthusiastic early adopters across departments and give them a formal role. These RFID champions become the first point of contact when something confuses their team. They relay feedback upwards and translate technical updates into plain language. Research consistently shows that peer influence drives adoption faster than top-down mandates.

Champions also provide a feedback loop that keeps the project team honest. If a read point is failing or a process is clunky, the champion network surfaces it before frustration spreads.

The bottom line

Budget 15 to 20 percent of your RFID project cost for change management activities, including training, communication, and workflow redesign. The organisations that treat RFID as a people project supported by technology consistently outperform those that treat it the other way around.

The post Change Management for RFID: Getting Your Team on Board first appeared on RFID News.

When a PLA Pure spool is loaded into Bambu Lab’s Automatic Material System (AMS), the RFID tag communicates directly with the printer. Temperature settings, flow rates, retraction distances and other critical parameters are read from the tag and applied instantly. There is no need for the user to look up recommended settings, adjust slicer profiles or risk a failed print from incorrect configuration. The RFID tag handles it all.

This approach solves a genuine pain point in desktop 3D printing. Filament from different manufacturers, and even different batches from the same manufacturer, can require subtly different print settings. Getting those settings wrong leads to failed prints, wasted material and frustration. By encoding the correct parameters onto an RFID tag at the point of manufacture, Bambu Lab has effectively eliminated that guesswork.

The RFID integration also ties into broader material management. The AMS can identify which filament is loaded in each slot, track remaining material and alert users when a spool is running low. For users running multiple spools across long print jobs, this level of automated tracking is a significant workflow improvement.

From a technology perspective, this is a compelling example of RFID moving beyond traditional supply chain and retail applications. The tags here are not just tracking inventory or preventing counterfeiting. They are actively configuring hardware in real time, serving as a data carrier that bridges the gap between raw material and machine performance. It is a use case that highlights how passive RFID can add intelligence to consumer products without adding complexity for the end user.

On the filament side, PLA Pure is built around five ingredients, each certified under EU 10/2011 food-contact plastics regulations. The base resin is polylactic acid derived from corn and sugarcane, combined with an acrylic copolymer found in children’s toys, colour pigments used in baby tableware, EBS from food packaging films and asbestos-free talc used in biodegradable straws. Raw materials come from suppliers including TotalEnergies Corbion, Dow, Chemours and BASF.

The filament holds UL 2904 GREENGUARD certification for air quality and EN 71-3 certification for toy safety, confirming no harmful heavy metals are present. Bambu Lab says mechanical performance matches their existing PLA Basic line. Pricing sits at $24.99 with spool and $21.99 for refills.

For the RFID industry, this launch is worth watching. As 3D printing continues to grow in homes and small workshops, the demand for RFID-tagged consumables will grow with it. Bambu Lab is proving that RFID is not just for warehouses and shipping containers. It belongs wherever smart automation can replace manual effort.

Read more at https://blog.bambulab.com/introducing-bambu-lab-pla-pure-a-filament-made-for-printing-where-you-live/

The post Bambu Lab PLA Pure launch RFID powered filament printing first appeared on RFID News.

Meehan is widely recognized across the retail technology and asset protection industries for his leadership in RFID, operational intelligence, and emerging technology strategy. He currently serves as CEO of CONTROLTEK, where he oversees the company’s strategic direction spanning RFID, EAS, sensor fusion technologies, and connected enterprise solutions that support organizations worldwide.

“Tom’s experience leading large-scale RFID initiatives and connected retail deployments makes him an exceptional addition to our board,” said Larry Fox, CEO of ZFLO Technologies. “His expertise in deployment strategy, enterprise innovation, and intelligent tracking solutions aligns strongly with our vision for the future of connected commerce.”

ZFLO Technologies develops technology solutions focused on shipment verification, delivery intelligence, operational efficiency, and package tracking across retail, logistics, and enterprise environments. The addition of Meehan to the board is expected to accelerate the company’s efforts to bring greater visibility and accountability to the shipment journey.

As part of the broader relationship, ZFLO Technologies and CONTROLTEK plan to collaborate strategically. The goal is to help organizations gain deeper intelligence across the entire shipment lifecycle, from supply chain operations and fulfillment centers through to final delivery and customer receipt. CONTROLTEK’s expertise in RFID-enabled inventory and shipment tracking complements ZFLO Technologies’ focus on last-mile delivery intelligence and package verification technology.

“Organizations today need better data, stronger accountability, and real-time operational insight across every stage of fulfillment,” said Meehan. “By combining CONTROLTEK’s RFID expertise with ZFLO Technologies’ last-mile delivery intelligence, organizations can create a more connected and transparent view of the shipment journey from distribution to doorstep.”

The appointment reflects a growing trend across the RFID and IoT sectors where companies are bringing together complementary capabilities to address the increasingly complex challenges of modern supply chain management. With package theft continuing to rise and consumer expectations around delivery transparency growing, the collaboration between ZFLO Technologies and CONTROLTEK could position both companies to deliver more comprehensive solutions to retailers and logistics providers.

Read more at https://www.zflotechnologies.com/s/ZFLO-Technologies-Press-Release.pdf

The post Tom Meehan Joins ZFLO Technologies Board first appeared on RFID News.