Honda Italia Goes for RFID

MILAN, Italy -- Honda Italia Industriale, the Italian subsidiary of the Honda Motor Co. and leader in the 2 wheels worldwide market with more than 12.7 million PTW (powered two wheels) models sold in 2006(*), announced today that it has signed a contract with IBM (NYSE:IBM - News) to implement RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology and infrastructure to transform and innovate the production processes at its plant located in Atessa, Italy. The agreement will allow Honda Italy to achieve higher levels of efficiency and accuracy in managing its large motorcycle and scooter production in Italy.

IBM Global Business Services will support Honda Italia in the design and development of the RFID implementation, which will enable the real time, automatic identification of each vehicle along the entire production chain. The RFID tags will also be used on micro-lots of critical components, such as engines.

IBM Corp.