In the past, upfront investment cost has been a deterrent to RFID adoption. But now, with the benefits of RFID data collection more visible and better understood, the upfront cost has become less of a restraint and more of a trusted investment in the company’s future.
Inaccurate or late deliveries and the costs that accompany those mistakes leave your company at a disadvantage. The fees incurred as a result of late deliveries quickly add up and could be the factor that is holding back your company from reaching its highest potential.
There are many ways in which RFID data collection can save your company money, time and labor. Tagged items provide electronic proof of delivery and decrease the time required for inspection. A more automatic and streamlined inspection and inventory process means that all the raw materials delivered to your facility are immediately processed and accounted for.
Another way is by shipping merchandise less often. With RFID data collection, packing and shipping processes become more accurate and reliable. This means that with a more integrated and streamlined supply chain process, you can have a higher level of trust that your product is getting to where it needs to go; resulting is a decreased volume of returns and more satisfied customers. RFID capabilities are helping companies gain visibility into their supply chains, ship less often, and ship more accurately. Automating the RFID data collection with fixed readers eliminates the human element of scanning the wrong thing or, more commonly, forgetting to scan at all.
Both RFID infrastructure and tag technology have advanced significantly in the past decade. There are a wide array of proven implementations and that increased volume has translated to much lower cost of deployment. With lower costs to implement and proven results, RFID should be considered and evaluated by all warehouses and manufacturers.
According to the US Government Bureau of Labor Statistics, labor productivity rose in 77 percent of the 57 detailed manufacturing industries during 20141. So the mandate from the boss is to increase output.
“Oh, and by the way, you can’t hire anyone new and overtime is not an option” your boss adds while turning to walk away.
“What do you want me to do?”, you respond.
“You’ll just have to get more efficient like all those other companies”, your boss responds.
Adoption rates for passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID have been a disappointment to anyone with any knowledge of the industry. To understand why that is the case, let’s take a look at one of the most rapid and successful product introductions of any consumer electronics technology in history—the video transition from VHS tapes for VCRs to DVD disks—and alter it to resemble the RFID buying experience.
It has been commonly believed, and widely repeated, that the barrier to passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID adoption is the cost of the tags. Deeper investigation and critical thinking indicates that while price is a contributing factor in certain applications, there are other problems that the industry must address in order to accelerate the technology’s adoption. I believe that there are four challenges limiting RFID adoption: tag cost; industry fragmentation and segmentation; cost of software infrastructure replacement; and environmental dependence of the technology.
Congratulations to Jack Romaine as he joins AIDC 100. AIDC 100 is an invitation-only, non-profit association of automatic identification/data capture (AIDC) professionals who, over an extended period of time, have significantly contributed to the growth and advancement of the industry. Membership is limited to 100 Active Members worldwide, so this is a significant honor. The organization is a technical and business resource — with emphasis on education — whose primary goal is to enlarge the global business community’s knowledge and understanding of AIDC.
In the past, upfront investment cost has been a deterrent to RFID adoption. But now, with the benefits of RFID data collection more visible and better understood, the upfront cost has become less of a restraint and more of a trusted investment in the company’s future.
