As the world of radio frequency identification (RFID) evolves quickly these days, the same is true of organizations involved with the technology. The latest such group, EPCglobal (www.uc-council.org/epcglobal), is a joint venture of the Uniform Code Council in the U.S. and European-based EAN International. Its mission is to "develop and oversee standards for the Electronic Product Code (EPC) network," and will operate as a "neutral, consensus-based, not-for-profit standards organization."

The EPC Network, which is in early stages of development, uses RFID to give companies real-time, global visibility of inventory in their supply chain. Each unit of inventory tracked carries a unique identification number called the electronic product code. That data resides in an RFID tag that communicates with the network, sharing information. In turn, the network communicates that real-time data to companies tracking shipments.