Health and hygiene brand manufacturer Kimberly-Clark Corp. has selected the Alien ALR-9800 Enterprise RFID (radio frequency identification) Reader as part of its logistics program to comply with retail industry mandates requiring the use of RFID technology in the supply chain, Sdcexec reported.

Kimberly-Clark, which makes such brands as Kleenex, Scott and Huggies, chose the multi-protocol Alien ALR-9800 after conducting an extensive evaluation of EPC Class 1 Gen2 RFID readers at the company's EPCglobal-accredited RFID research lab, which is certified by standards-body EPCglobal Inc. for testing RFID technology in supply chains.

"As we continue to move toward fully implementing RFID technology throughout our supply chain operations, it is mission-critical that we have the right RFID hardware equipment in place to meet our needs," said Mike O'Shea, director, Auto-ID Sensing Technologies of Kimberly-Clark. "We chose the Alien ALR-9800 for its exceptional read performance and scalability, easy-to-manage data collection and its potential for low total cost-of-ownership."

Kimberly-Clark will deploy Alien ALR-9800 Readers initially in key manufacturing and transport locations across North America. The ALR-9800's will be located on conveyors and stretch-wrappers to automatically capture data from RFID-tagged packaged products, cartons and pallets, thus providing information on the movement of products through the supply chain that can be used by the company and its retail customers.

"Kimberly-Clark is well-known for its commitment to innovation and technology and for partnering with its retailers to enhance their mutual operations," said Keith McDonald, senior vice president, Sales & Marketing, Alien Technology. "Hence we are extremely pleased that the ALR-9800 Enterprise Reader has been singled out by Kimberly-Clark for use in its own facilities, particularly after such a thorough and rigorous competitive evaluation under real-world conditions in an EPCglobal-accredited lab."