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The Potential of RFID Technology in the Textile and Clothing Industry: Opportunities, Requirements and Challenges

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Unique Radio Innovation for the 21st Century

Abstract

In the current competitive environment, companies need to extensively exploit the use of advanced technologies in order to develop a sustainable advantage, enhance their operational efficiency and better serve customers. In this context, RFID technology has emerged as a valid support for the company progress and its value is becoming more and more apparent. In particular, the textile and clothing industry, characterised by short life-cycles , quick response production , fast distribution, erratic customer preferences and impulsive purchasing, is one of the sectors which can extensively benefit from the RFID technology. However, actual applications are still very limited, especially in the upstream side of the supply network. This chapter provides an insight into the main benefits and potentials of this technology and highlights the main issues which are currently inhibiting its large scale development in the textile and clothing industry. The experience of two industry-academia projects and the relative fallouts are reported.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Regione Lombardia for having funded the TAGGIE and the CLOTH projects. These projects have been backed to sustain the development of SMEs and local industrial zones.

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Correspondence to Elena Legnani .

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Legnani, E., Cavalieri, S., Pinto, R., Dotti, S. (2011). The Potential of RFID Technology in the Textile and Clothing Industry: Opportunities, Requirements and Challenges. In: Ranasinghe, D., Sheng, Q., Zeadally, S. (eds) Unique Radio Innovation for the 21st Century. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03462-6_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03462-6_14

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