Following on a November 2010 announcement of the availability of its Air Transport Association (ATA) Spec 2000-compliant RFID Asset Tracking Solution, OATSystems, a division of Checkpoint Systems, Inc., announced Parker Hannifin as the latest customer to adopt the ATA Spec 2000 solution as a starting point for its adoption of RFID.

Parker Hannifin is an $11-billion manufacturer, supplying motion and control technologies and systems to leading commercial aerospace OEMs and defense contractors. The company is tagging and tracking component parts to be installed in Airbus A350 XWB aircraft at the point of manufacture in accordance with ATA Spec2000. OATSystems provided Parker Hannifin with the complete solution (hardware, software, training and support) to generate a unique birth record for each part, and to capture the part manufacturing details and ongoing history on a high-memory RFID tag, which will be attached to the part through its useful life.

"We selected OATSystems because of the breadth and depth of its experience in providing solutions for a number of leading aerospace and defense manufacturers," said Everett DeGraaf, technology team leader, Parker Hannifin. "OAT stands out for its experience in component tracking, work-in-process and part marking in A&D, along with the integration expertise needed to enrich enterprise systems with real-time data. We're very confident in the OAT solution's ability to meet our needs both for ATA 2000 and in streamlining our internal operations."

"We are proud to welcome Parker Hannifin to our growing list of customers that have turned to us for our ATA Spec 2000-compliant solution as the starting point in their RFID adoption" said Prasad Putta, general manager, OATSystems. "This is a time of rapid change in the aerospace industry, leading to dramatic improvements in operating efficiency, cost reduction and safety. We look forward to working closely with Parker Hannifin and our other A&D customers to help them deploy RFID solutions to gain visibility into their assets, enhance traceability and streamline operations."