Traceability 2006 trade show proves successful

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Apr 13, 2006

The Traceability 2006 trade show, which was held in Paris in January, welcomed 190 exhibitors, 5,495 visitors (+7%), 503 delegates and 17 institutional partners.

The Traceability 2006 trade show, which was held in Paris in January, welcomed 190 exhibitors, 5,495 visitors (+7%), 503 delegates and 17 institutional partners.

The event was run in conjunction with the Solutions PGI trade show and also incorporated the Codexpo and RFID Forum trade shows, which both fitted perfectly into the event's theme.

Traceability 2006 was reorganised around four main themes - Identification, RFID, Software and Consultancy - to simplify the layout for visitors.

Exhibitors from a wide range of sectors were in attendance and visitors were able to meet specialists in data acquisition (RFID and Identification areas) and data analysis (Software area) as well as talk to publishers of manufacturing execution Systems (for controlling production), warehouse management Systems and collaborative platforms for inter-company Traceability.

Traceability is the leading French exhibition for RFID and for its present and future applications.

The RFID theme began on arrival at the show - visitors' badges carried an electronic label based on technology developed by Dag System, which displayed a personalised greeting (for example, "Hello, Mr Smith") on a plasma screen as each visitor passed under a detector equipped with an RFID antenna.

The three days of the trade show were also the opportunity for numerous exhibitors to unveil new RFID projects.

The Smart Tracing consortium (Sun MicroSystems, Valorfi, Aldata and Cipam) announced the launch of a new trial, performed in conjunction with System U Est, to ensure the Traceability of meat products from the abattoir to the butcher's counter.

The SME Day was this year's most popular conference, attracting over 200 registered delegates.

A year after EU Regulation 178/2002 came into force, SMEs in the food sector are continuing to integrate Traceability into their operations.

The feedback provided by their counterparts in the manufacturing sector, in addition to advice from institutional bodies such as ANIA and FEEF, was therefore extremely popular with delegates.

Today, 97% of SMEs code all their boxes, 36% code their pallets, 96% attach bar codes to their boxes and 52% bar-code their shipping units (source: Decodez l'actualite 2005/2 ndeg90 - GS1 France).

Every year, Traceability offers a snapshot of sectors for which Traceability is a central concern.

The sectors where activity has increased since 2005 include the electrical and electronics industry (12% of visitors compared to 10% in 2005), chemistry and cosmetics (6% against 5% in 2005), transport and logistics (7% against 6% in 2005) and the automotive and aerospace industries (5% against 4% in 2005).

There has also been a constant rise in the number of consultants attending the show, representing 9% of visitors in 2006 (6% in 2004).

This development underlines their role as key influencers in the implementation of Traceability Solutions.

In 2006, the incorporation of Solutions PGI helped to stimulate interEst as 40% of visitors to PGI in 2005 were SMEs.

The strong presence of SMEs at Traceability 2006 underlines the extent to which visitor profiles are in line with the strategies deployed by exhibitors - ERP software publishers - that are primarily aimed at SMEs.

Traceability still remains a major challenge for larger companies, which represented 44% of visitors.