DaytonDailyNews.com

SPRINGBORO — Leaders across the world are seeing what Wal-Mart managers have long known: Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology can help keep track of nearly everything.

City leaders in Pendik, Turkey, announced last month that they are using Alien Technology Corp. RFID tags to track employee vehicles.

Alien is getting attention close to home, too. Dick Cantwell, chairman of the Electronic Product Code Global board of governors, has called the company — which has a presence off Springboro Pike — a "cutting-edge vendor."

Sparking and sustaining enthusiasm for the technology is a reason Alien opened the RFID Solutions Center last year in Springboro, within easy reach of partners like NCR and Paxar Corp.

"They (Alien) needed an accelerator," said Damon Bramble, the center's general manager. "How do we get the market moving faster?"

One way is to teach customers, end-users and vendors exactly how RFID works.

For that, the center on West Tech Boulevard across from Wright Brothers Airport is ready and willing.

Tour the 23,000-square-foot facility and you see classrooms and something else — a mock distribution center complete with a conveyor belt that moves up to 660 feet per minute, faster than conveyors in most case-level distribution environments, Bramble said.

Also on hand are storage racks, forklifts, a Lantech shrink-wrap machine and even a mock store with a pharmacy and a check-out lane.

"No shopping," quips Robert Zielinksi, a center marketing director, as he takes visitors through the "store."

Few potential customers leave the facility doubting the effectiveness of RFID technology, Bramble said.

"It's sort of an eye-opening experience for them," he said.

The facility wasn't cheap. Although Bramble would not give exact figures, he said Alien has invested "millions" here, and that doesn't count government assistance or donations from partners. The conveyor alone lists at a million dollars, he said.

Bramble believes the future is bright. Cantwell told Forbes.com that he foresees the day when RFID tags could be as inexpensive as 5 cents each — maybe in a few years.

"For us, it's getting more interesting," Bramble said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@DaytonDailyNews.com.