RFID
101
For many of our current clients and most
prospective new clients, we are now doing a
brief introduction on RIFD.
We thought it would be helpful to share some of
that high level information on our webpage.
If you have been reading industry publications,
attending trade shows, or talking with your
peers in other companies, you are beginning to
realize the hottest topic in material handling
today is RFID. If you are a
major supplier to Wal-Mart or DOD, you are
already scrambling to meet their deadline to
supply RFID tags on pallets and cases by January
2005. That is less than a
year away and there are still a lot of
unanswered questions! Even with some serious
issues to be resolved the momentum is building.
Target announced last week that they
also will require pallet and case tagging by
spring of 2005 and even smaller suppliers to
Wal-Mart ‘voluntarily’ attended the RFID meeting
with top suppliers to see if they could gain a
competitive advantage by implementing RFID
sooner than required.
RFID, or radio
frequency technology, is part of the family of
automatic data collection (ADC) technologies.
Similar to bar coding, it uses wireless
radio communications. But it
differs from bar coding because RFID does not
require a direct line of sight to read the RFID
tag. Therefore tags or
transponders can be placed inside of containers
where they are protected from weather, wear and
harsh manufacturing processes.
Depending on the container’s construction
material, the RFID tag can then be easily read
through the container.
Another major difference is that RFID
transponders carry data and updated data can be
written on the tag as different events occur.
This data can then be used later for
analysis and tracking.
Besides the transponder, the RFID system
consists of a handheld or mounted reader,
antennas and some system software.
Transponders
represent one of the most significant costs in
implementing RIFD. They can
cost between 40 cents to several dollars each.
Typically the low value-high volume
retailer can not justify these current costs.
Industry transponder suppliers are
working furiously to drive this cost down.
Besides
transponders, there are several other obstacles
to implementing a major RFID solution today.
These include:
·
Absence of a standard
numbering scheme for the tags.
·
Difficulties in reading
tags on metal containers, containing liquids,
and cases that are inside a pallet.
·
Unacceptable accuracy
levels in reading tags on high speed conveyors.
·
Reading ‘non-desirable’
adjacent tags to the targeted area.
Most analysts
agree that RFID will have a significant impact
on the supply chain and most also agree that
RFID and bar coding will both co-exist together.
We recommend you first map your desired
supply chain process and then determine how to
best match your product movements with data
collection in real time. For
many distributors, we feel the initial interim
step in achieving this critical goal is a
warehouse management system.
Then an RFID implementation is the next logical
step that will follow when some of these
obstacles have been resolved.
Examples
of low frequency transponders from Texas
Instruments