| RFID technology is facilitating a major | | | | container level. Goods assembled in these |
| innovation to supply chain management. From | | | | vessels are then tracked in batches defined |
| an article by John Lorinc in the December, | | | | at the source. The benefits, here, are that |
| 2006 edition of the Globe & Mail Report on | | | | fewer tags are needed, since a single tag is |
| Business Magazine, "Every year, according to | | | | identified with a 'batch' of goods instead of |
| an expert cited by the Federal Trade | | | | the individual unit of product. Another |
| Commission, American merchants lose as much | | | | benefit of tagging the pallets and containers |
| as $300 billion (US) in revenues because | | | | is to continuously track the whereabouts of |
| they've lost track of goods somewhere on the | | | | these vessels used to move the goods and this |
| journey between factory and store shelf." | | | | helps to cut down these assets being lost in |
| Lost revenues are not the only concern in the | | | | the supply chain and needing to be replaced. |
| supply chain, improving the productivity in | | | | Another reason to start an RFID solution at |
| transporting goods and securing the source of | | | | the container level is because many |
| goods are also of concern to professionals | | | | individual products pose challenges for RFID |
| managing the supply chain. RFID technology | | | | technology by the way they are packaged. |
| delivers solutions to all these needs. | | | | Metal goods, goods that contain liquids and |
| | | | very small items pose a challenge to doing |
| Overview: | | | | individual item tracking. RFID solutions are |
| | | | available here, but the cost goes up |
| Where does an organization start to realize | | | | considerably. The direction of the technology |
| the benefits of RFID? To answer this, an | | | | is toward tracking all individual units of |
| overview on the technology is a good start. | | | | products. With advances in RFID technology, |
| The concept behind RFID is simple; an item | | | | costs per tag will be driven lower and this |
| (the product, or a pallet) has an RFID tag | | | | will allow more RFID tagging of individual |
| attached to it. The tag contains a small | | | | product units. |
| integrated circuit (IC) chip that contains a | | | | |
| unique ID and an antenna that allows it to | | | | Open Standards: |
| communicate to an RFID reader. When the tag | | | | |
| is attached to the product or pallet and then | | | | The realization of the benefits of RFID |
| 'read' by the RFID reader, that unique ID is | | | | technology is also very dependent on open |
| then associated with the product or pallet | | | | standards in the industry. Open standards |
| through your enterprise resource planning | | | | will allow manufacturers, distributors and |
| (ERP) system. This unique ID stays for the | | | | retailer to use a common type of tag(s) and |
| remaining part of product's journey from the | | | | reader(s) while allowing this hardware to |
| factory, right through the consumer's | | | | interact with their own ERP needs and deliver |
| purchase at the retailer. The RFID readers | | | | the efficiencies promised by RFID technology. |
| are then placed at all key junction | | | | EPCglobal Inc., the standards body that |
| | | | manages UPC (Universal Product Code) |
| GAO - G2HE RFID for metal surface | | | | information in bar codes, sets the standards |
| | | | for how basic product information is encoded |
| GAO 5700 GEN 2 portable reader/writer | | | | in the RFID chips. The standard set for |
| | | | supply chain management is referred to as |
| points in the supply chain. As the products | | | | "GEN 2". GEN 2 has brought significant |
| or pallets pass through these readers, your | | | | advantages over the previous evolving |
| ERP system is updated immediately on the flow | | | | standards of "Class 0" and "Gen 1" and these |
| of goods. This automation in the process | | | | include: |
| reduces time spent with manual entry and the | | | | |
| potential for human error of bill-of-lading | | | | (a) GEN 2 can write to tags multiple times, |
| details, provides real time updates on where | | | | |
| goods are, makes more secure the integrity of | | | | (b) GEN 2 has longer read ranges, |
| your product shipments and helps you address | | | | |
| bottlenecks in the system faster. | | | | (c) GEN 2 has greater data storage capacity |
| | | | and |
| A Starting Point: | | | | |
| | | | (d) GEN 2 has more reliable and faster read |
| Therefore a good starting point to deploy | | | | rates. |
| RFID technology is at the pallet or carton | | | | |