Most companies today want to simplify the process of tracking goods and managing supply chains. If you deal with thousands of items which are available in hundreds of types, you really need to be sure that you haven’t accidentally lost or misplaced a few hundred of them, costing you steeply in terms of money and the time spent in recovering the lost goods.
Companies need a system by which they can accurately track all goods that enter or leave their premises, without any risk of duplicate entries. Also, most companies would do anything to avoid data having to be keyed in by staff, because of the vast amounts of time it takes and the increased possibility of error.
This is one of the uses that radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies are currently being put to. RFID is a system of identification that relies on variations in radio frequencies to identify and track items. An RFID tracking system has two basic parts. One is the RFID tag or transponder, which comprises a microchip containing a serial number or any other information, which is attached to an antenna that can transmit signals. The RFID tag is what is attached to the object we want to track. Most tags available today are the size of a book, but the smallest available are only a few millimeters in size.
The other part is the reader or interrogator—a device which can identify the presence of RFID tags nearby. The reader can also pick up any information that is stored in the tag and, with the help of the necessary hardware or software, convert this information into digital format, allowing it to be used by computer systems. This has effectively resolved the issue of data entry. RFID tags are currently used by Wal-Mart and Tesco to track their goods.
There are lots of automatic ID systems in the market today that are all aimed at saving time. These include bar codes, smart cards, and magnetic strips on credit cards, voice recognition, retinal scans and optical character recognition.
The trouble with most of this is that they are line-of-sight technologies that require careful alignment with the reader/scanner. Aligning items with no obstructions in between takes time, and means that only one item can be scanned at a time. On the other hand, RFID readers can ‘see through’ objects and read the information on a tag, as long as it is within range of a reader. Bar codes present other issues as well. If the label with the bar code printed on it gets damaged, it becomes impossible to read the item. Also, bar codes typically identify only the manufacturer and the product, with no way of uniquely tracking an item, while RFID tags allow for unique identification.
Read-only and read-write tags are also available, meaning the information stored on them may or may not be modified after it has been entered once, depending on what sort of use the tag is going to be put to.
Using RFID tags, companies can keep track of their physical assets. RFID readers can process hundreds of packages an hour, and can process multiple items at the same time, greatly reducing the amount of time it takes simply to count everything in a company’s warehouse. RFID leads to improved efficiency in supply chain planning and execution. You don’t have to worry about theft or misplacement so much when all your goods are uniquely tagged. It’s also less likely that you will end up supplying the wrong items to a customer when you have everything automatically and accurately entered into a database.
The recent reduction in the size and cost of RFID tags has led to their being used in a wide variety of industries. Apart from supply chain management, RFID technology may also be used to ensure product authenticity and integrity, and facilitate warranty services. It may function as a means of identification for people, for instance, in the travel industry, and for baggage monitoring. It can be used for tracking livestock, or controlling access to buildings. RFID may also allow for patient history to be verified quickly in order to prevent any misdiagnoses or surgical errors in hospitals.
But it also comes with its own set of issues regarding privacy and security. People can misuse the technology to get access to private information, simply by installing a tag nearby. While such potential issues are yet to be sorted out through clear legislation that will apply to the RFID industry, there is no doubt that the technology has and will continue to change the way businesses operate worldwide.
