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