Radio Frequency Identification technology, abbreviated as RFID, was used as far back as WWII. The first commercial patents for RFID Tagsdate from the 1970-s. Since then the technology has come a long way.
Today theRFID technologyis used in a multitude of industries including retail, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, security, agriculture, automotive, logistics as well as tracking livestock and pets. RFID has brought the most value in improving tracking efficiency. RFID inventory management and RFID asset tracking may be found in virtually all industries globally. Here is how this come to be:
How Does RFID Technology Work?
Every RFID system consists of a transponder, a transceiver, and an antenna. When the latter two are combined they are commonly referred to as RFID readers. The RFID reader emits radio waves, which activate the RFID tag (which houses the transponder). When activated the RFID tag sends back a wave to the RFID reader, which is then converted to data. This data is unique to the asset which carries it.
The production of RFID tags used to be a highly specialised process. This is no longer so. Today the so-called “smart labels”, which incorporate an RFID tag, may be printed easily using RFID printers. The printers encode the tags which have been previously built in the smart labels. These RFID printers not only write information on the RFID tag but also print barcodes and alpha-numeric human-readable information on the smart label. This can now be treated as any other RFID tag and the information read from a distance.
Each of the components of the RFID system is useless without the remaining components. All of them work in unison to achieve the results required by them.
Improving Asset Tracking Efficiency
All utilisations of RFID boil down to asset tracking. The RFID technology makes asset tracking highly efficient in many ways:
● Getting Rid Of Human Labor And Mistakes
Prior to the incorporation of the RFID technology for asset tracking, humans used to do this manually. This, of course, made the process tedious, slow, and prone to human mistakes. The RFID technology not only rid human workers of this tiresome task but also eradicated all mistakes from the asset tracking process.
● Saving Both Time And Money Through Automation
The automation of the asset tracking process gave the opportunity for quick error-free scaling up of all production and logistic processes. Thus the RFID greatly reduces both the time needed and the costs for production and shipping, by automating processes and making them much more efficient.
● Multiple Scanning
The RFID technology not only gets rid of human inconsistencies but also does tasks that were impossible for human labor. The RFID reader can simultaneously read information from numerous RFID tags. This greatly increases the efficiency, enhances the speed of the process, and reduces the costs for executing it.
● Improving The Process Of Asset Tracking
The RFID technology has fewer requirements than any other system – manual or barcode. Just by getting the reader close to the assets which are being tracked, the operator immediately has the full information in his hand. No additional scanning, movement of assets, or other physical maneuvers are necessary. This improves the asset tracking process and makes it much more efficient.
● Automated Use Of Information
The RFID technology not only automates the asset tracking process. It also automates the data collection and management process. Today we can monitor and track any single courier shipment online all along its route, only with the help of RFID asset tracking. As the asset, which is being tracked, passes by the readers the asset data is automatically gathered, processed, and displayed for the information of any beneficiary.
● Improving The Data Quality
With the incorporation of the RFID technology into a process, the collected data is not only error-free but can now be much more thorough – what assets were sold today, which shipments left port, what did they include, what do we need to stock up. The list of uses for better data quality is extensive. All of these greatly increase the efficiency not only of the asset tracking (which of course is big) but of the whole production or logistic process.
● Superior Production Control
Asset tracking provides many direct efficiencies. However, it also creates many indirect opportunities to raise efficiency. Precise asset tracking makes many of the best-practices production control systems really deliver the promised results. “Just in time” gets a boost from RFID technologies. This further leads to reduced costs and speeding up production.
● Preventing Shortages And Managing Inventory
By placing the RFID readers strategically in the warehouse, we are able to easily monitor inventories and prevent any type of shortages. The management of inventories becomes much more efficient with the help of RFID.
● Improving Quality
By strategically placing the RFID readers, production managers can now monitor the full production process. She will know exactly which parts were incorporated in the final product as well as the sequence of production and quality controls. All of these will enhance quality by adding efficiency to the asset tracking process.
The above list is a general one for efficiencies stemming from RFID asset tracking. However, there are many industries or even process-centric uses of the technology which provide segment-specific efficiency. Specialised RFID companies develop such RFID solutions which boost efficiency in only one specific industry or process.
The future of RFID technology is just as strong as the recent past. RFID systems are being increasingly used to facilitate the deployment of the IoT (Internet of Things). The future is really near when the information of the milk leaving your fridge and the empty milk tank entering the garbage bin will be transmitted wirelessly both to your grocery and your garbage collector.
Another bright future for the technology is the increase of the components of the RFID system by adding additional sensors and/or incorporating GPS technology. In this way, the geolocation of any monitored asset may be accurately determined, as well as its movement, temperature, and the results of the data provided by other sensors.
