KeyTone and The FutureWorks Group leverage their strategic partnership to win US Air Force Unique ID

July 28, 2011 - PRLog -- KeyTone Technologies, a recognized leader in RFID solutions and The FutureWorks Group announced today that their strategic partnership combined with a complimenting UID traceability platform resulted in a significant win of US Air Force business.  

The FutureWorks Group’s Item Identity Management™, I2M™ , solution was originally developed by Boeing to provide a highly flexible, highly functional and affordable system for item identification and tracking for military aircraft parts.  The patented process and technology for serialized parts marking was refined into the Opportunistic Parts Marking concept through Boeing’s work with the Army.  The FutureWorks Group is a licensee of Boeing’s Opportunistic Parts Marking patent.  FutureWorks has worked collaboratively with Boeing, the US Army, and the US Air Force to develop the I2M™ system to support UID adoption by OEMs, suppliers, and DoD programs.

Item level traceability is a critical requirement for many manufacturers, distributors and government organizations in securing and tracking valuable assets and providing essential services.  UID provides a completely unique identification for each item using a data construct comprised of several discrete pieces of information. The UID can then be captured in an RFID tag that can be leveraged throughout the item’s product life cycle.  KeyTone’s visibility platforms fully support UID constructs in its solution implementations.  

“The UID market is a $200B opportunity which includes gaming, pharmaceuticals, luxury goods, electronics, food safety and other markets. Our partnership with The FutureWorks Group is focused on getting a significant share of these markets.” said Edwin Winder, executive vice president at KeyTone. “Our USAF win validates that our common platform has a proven value proposition in item level traceability and with FutureWorks, we are committed to delivering similar solutions to the government and commercial markets worldwide.”  

“Our primary focus is to combine the RFID value proposition provided by  KeyTone’s leading RFID management capabilities with our other automated information technology (AIT) solutions  to serve  multiple industry verticals regardless of whether the application requirements are closed loop or open.  KeyTone’s sensor-based visibility platforms are the ideal complement for our legacy barcode-based item management systems,” says Dr. Richard E. Goodwin, president of The FutureWorks Group.  “With recognized leadership in UID and RFID, our joint solutions, marketed under the I2M brand with the “powered by Keytone” logo will allow customers to realize the tremendous benefit afforded by this advanced technology.”

About The FutureWorks Group
Located in St. Louis, Missouri, the FutureWorks Group is a Managed Service Provider of UID, AIT, RFID and related business applications. FutureWorks’ UID and item tracking solution, Item Identity Management™ (I2M™) system is based on the Boeing Opportunistic Parts Marking (OPM) patent and supports Army and Air Force customers.  I2M is a fully web-based data management system providing a turnkey system to manage all aspects of your UID/RFID/AIT program: part selection, BOM management, labeling, part marking, verification and validation, registration, item lifecycle events, and simple legacy data systems integration using web-services.  FutureWorks’ tools and experience allow managers to save time and money while successfully implementing item traceability and lifecycle management programs.  For more information, please visit www.fwuid.com.

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About KeyTone Technologies
KeyTone is a recognized leader in RFID solutions for clients in Manufacturing, Distribution, Transportation & Logistics, & Aerospace & Defense. With in-depth experience and comprehensive solutions, KeyTone has distinguished itself as the company of choice for delivering real value while simplifying the adoption of RFID. Whether providing end-to-end visibility through all manufacturing and distribution processes or tracking material and human assets, KeyTone's solutions help create & sustain superior performance by improving visibility, agility and efficiency of operations.
Headquartered in Cupertino, California, KeyTone enjoys an impressive customer base including, Seagate, Micron, Wesco Aircraft, Surefire, Solyndra, & Cameron Oil. KeyTone also enjoys an equally strong partner community including Alcatel-Lucent, HCL, Motorola, Intermec, Alien Technology, Zebra Technologies, Intelleflex, and Arviem. For more information, please visit www.keytonetech.com.