RFID: From Regulatory Mandate to Commercial Advantage

Packaging traceability has moved from a compliance checkbox to a board-level priority. The EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), the phased rollout of Digital Product Passports, and equivalent rules in the US, India and beyond mean that packaging and logistics teams across every sector are now expected to know precisely where a product has been, and where it is going next. RFID sits at the centre of that shift. In this session, Dr Vlad Sljapic draws on live deployments across pharma, food and beverage, cosmetics, fashion, retail and automotive to show what RFIDenabled traceability looks like in practice, why leading brands are investing in it ahead of the regulatory deadline, and where the real barriers to deployment tend to sit. What delegates will take away ■ A clear, practical view of the regulatory drivers behind traceability, and what they mean for packaging and logistics decisions today ■ A realistic picture of how RFID improves inventory accuracy, reduces shrinkage and strengthens brand protection, and an honest look at where it earns its cost quickly versus where it does not ■ A grounded understanding of how RFID connects the packaging and logistics worlds, from item-level tagging in production through to warehouse visibility and goods-in-motion tracking ■ Insight into where deployments typically stall – tag and material selection, machine integration, data structure, read-rate reliability – and how a structured partnership approach resolves each of these before they become a project risk Closing the gap: from mandate to deployment Knowing that traceability is coming is one thing. Getting a reliable, production-ready RFID system onto the line is another. This is where the right label and packaging partner earns its place in the conversation. Businesses like Nordvalls run structured Connected Identity programmes precisely to close that gap – working with brand partners across three stages: Identity Creation (selecting the right tag, material and encoding for the product and its environment), Identity Application (integrating tagging reliably into existing production lines, machines and workflows), and Operational Intelligence (turning the resulting data into usable insight across the supply chain, from warehouse to shelf). Run well, this kind of ecosystem approach – spanning material science, converting, machine integration and software – is what takes a brand from a promising pilot to a dependable, scaled deployment, without the brand having to build all of that capability in-house. Who should attend Packaging, supply chain and logistics decision-makers, sustainability and compliance leads, and operations managers across food & beverage, pharma, cosmetics, consumer goods and ecommerce who want a clear-eyed view of where traceability technology is heading, and what it takes to deploy it successfully.