RFID Solutions for Library Systems

Institutional (academic) libraries and public libraries face growing challenges in managing the assets of their collection and maintaining or improving service levels to patrons.

Over the past twenty years, libraries have grown their services to their patrons from simply offering books and periodicals to now adding multi-media items such as videos, CDs and DVDs. Add to this the fact that many libraries provide patrons computers to access the Internet as another source for information. Throughout this growth in material resources offered by libraries there are also growing concerns on the security of the collection assets and maintaining (or improving) service levels to the patrons. Throughout this time, many municipalities and institutions who manage our library systems have sought ways to reduce operating budgets (cut staff) to offset the growing capital costs of the multi-media resources and computer hardware.

For the concerns that library managers face each day, RFID technology brings solutions that magnetic stripe or barcode technology simply cannot deliver as effectively. The RFID tag is assigned and attached to the asset in similar ways, depending on the material, paper, plastics, etc. The advantages of RFID tags over barcode or magnetic stripe are as follows:

Faster scanning of the data stored on the RFID tag,

Simple and easy way for patrons to self-checking for material loans and returns,

Superior detection rates,

Significantly reduce the number of false alarms at the exit sensors (up to 75% less)

High speed inventory - reducing time to by staff for 'shelf-reading' and other inventory activities,

Automated return of materials that speeds up sorting of materials and re-shelving for the next patron to access and

A longer lifecycle than a barcode.

A GAO RFID Solution:

Each library system is unique and therefore the challenges you face are unique. We make the effort to understand your circumstance and with this knowledge we assist you in finding the most cost-effective ways to develop RFID technology in your library systems to improve productivity of staff, reduce capital budgets and provide a better experience and service to the library patrons. For more information on how GAO RFID can assist your library system, please write to us at info@gaorfid.com or call us at (416) 292-0038, ext. 601.

WOWGAO Technology solutions team WowGao Inc. 601 Milner Ave, 2nd Floor Toronto , Ontario M1B 1M8 Phone: 1-416-292-0038 ext. 812 Media@wowgao.com http://www.wowgao.com

Nissan Chooses WhereNet Locatable Active RFID System

Nissan North America, Inc. announced earlier that it will be using WhereNet Locatable real-time locating system (RTLS) technology to automate both its inbound supply chain and outbound delivery chain.

The automaker partners with WhereNet Corp., a leader of wireless solutions, to strengthen continuous improvement initiative at its four-million square foot assembly plant in Canton, Mississippi. Said partnership is aimed at improving the North American vehicle production, labor productivity, and auto parts Nissan quality.

"Amidst soaring demand and several new model introductions each year, the WhereNet system gives Nissan the agility to manage its inbound supply chain on a just-in-time basis to support flexible manufacturing processes. In addition, WhereNet assists on the outbound side by automating predelivery processes to bring more new vehicles to the marketplace faster," said Chantal Polsonetti, vice president of manufacturing advisory services for ARC Advisory Group.

The Canton assembly plant of the automaker is capable of producing 400,000 vehicles annually. It assembles Nissan Maxima auto parts and other significant vehicles of the automaker. Nissan Altima sedan, Armada and Infiniti QX56 SUVs, Quest minivan, and Titan full-size pickup truck are also produced in said plant.

"As one of the most efficient vehicle manufacturers in North America -- according to the 2006 Harbour Report -- Nissan is setting the standard for manufacturing by embracing new technologies like WhereNet to continuously improve processes," said Tom Bacon, vice president of the automotive division for WhereNet. "WhereNet's locatable active RFID system provides a critical foundation for flexible manufacturing as it enables automakers to manage multiple models with meticulous precision, ensuring that the right part is delivered to the assembly line just in time. In addition to helping manufacturers maintain a lean inbound supply chain, WhereNet also drives efficiency on the outbound side, accelerating delivery of new vehicles to dealers through our industry-first, automated VTMS solution."

In the partnership with WhereNet, Nissan also expects to reduce labor cost, on-site dwell time for parts and vehicles, improve responsiveness to customers, and to produce high-quality vehicles as ensured by the system. This is because the system also immediately detects quality defects in vehicles hence; rework costs will be prevented.

As a manager of one of the largest auto store in Springfield,Massachusetts, Sarah has extensive expertise on auto parts and automotives in general. This 42 year old is a certified car enthusiast.

RFID Remodels Supply Chain Management

Can you imagine 100% visibility of product in a Supply Chain with RFID tags to whole warehouse? RFID is major advancement in supply chain management. Although large range of applications supported by the radio-frequency identification technology, now supply chain management is on it?s focus. RFID is taught as the ultimate Supply Chain solution that will drive millions if not billions of savings throughout the supply chain and other areas. The question in the air is: Does RFID really has this ?healing? power? From the ordinary process, such as moving goods through loading docks, to the complex, such as managing huge amount of data as information about goods is collected in real time makes RFID as an ultimate supply chain solution.

The way we handle products in the Supply Chain will radically change the transformational RFID technology. It brings transparency in supply chain by cut out-of-stocks, counterfeit and shrinkage. Manpower savings is one of the most important features of the RFID supply chain management system. It is flexible for all kind of applications; range will grow when RFID combined with other sensors.

Initially RFID is used to manage the large amount of goods like pallet and cartoon labels, identification. So RFID tags must have unique serial identifier for each batch of the product at the lading time, on the bill. It makes the less possibility of redundant data entry by scanning the RFID tag. The reason is RFID tag reader can scan many tags during a 1-second period.

There are 2 types of RFID tags: passive and active. When reader reads the passive tag, Reader received the energy through tag?s antenna and transmits the data in the form of energy back. The main reason of widely used passive tags is its low cost.

Active tag uses own power supplies mostly battery and transmit data to the reader. Battery is also used with other devices. For e.g. Active tags may be used with some kind of unpreserved goods that have thermometers to ensure the goods are kept at an acceptable temperature. It is very difficult to standardize the encoding information on RFID intelligent tags for supply chain management for bar codes.

The standards for basic product information is encoded in RFID chips and standard to manage UPC information in bar codes are presented by EPCglobal Inc.

The entire standard for information passing from RFID readers to other applications and from application to application, in supply chain are established by EPCglobal.

These standards becomes useful when goods are ship from one company to company in terms of electronic transaction that will occur in between organization?s enterprise resource planning systems. These standards maintain every time when middleware handles data scanned by an RFID reader as goods enter a warehouse and will pass the data to an enterprise application.

On the other hand it includes costs to the supply chain. But the investment in front of good ROI is not matter in case of RFID solutions.

you can find better RFID supply chain managment system at http://www.agilesense.com

RFID buzz creates market for more secure services

RFID or Radio Frequency Identification for a layman is all about collecting data at the physical level using RFID readers and tags and then using that data for business applications.

RFID number plates are expected to bring in a revolutionary transformation in the traffic monitoring system. Those gazing surveillance cameras on the roads are soon going to be outdated with the introduction of these hi-tech number plates.

Only 5-6 sectors are utilizing this technology at present. The areas where this technology has already made its place include Security & Access Control where RFID is used for authentication of products, documents & asset management, validation & verification of vehicles and people & attendance check etc.

Besides installing RFID number plates to watch the movement of vehicles on the road, the transportation sector also employs the RFID technology to collect taxes with contact-less cards and keep an eye on public and cargo vehicles.

RFID plays a major role in health care services equipments such as mobile diagnostic equipments or RFID patient wristband. Quality checks in retail & consignment tracking, point of sale terminals, luggage handing and other areas of commercial services also use RFID technology.

Besides assisting the suppliers in meeting the requirements of the retailers, the inclusion of RFID system in supply chain management has also broadened the marketing scope for service providers.

As per a latest research report published by RNCOS named ?RFID: Outlook China? predicts that the application of RFID in the shipment system of China's Ministry of Railway will save more than $ 36Mn, i.e. 300Mn Yuan, during the current financial year.

The report also offers statistical information of the RFID market in China. As per the report, the RFID market in China that was worth $150 Mn in 2004, which is expected to cross $621 Mn by the year 2009 at a CAGR (Cumulative Annual Growth Rate) of 32%.


As per the analysts, China is becoming the latest center of this technology with RFID-based systems being included in Shanghai and Guangzhou?s subways and several buses are also equipped with card reader in Beijing.

As per the report ?RFID: Outlook China?, RFID has entered in every sphere of the Chinese Market. The 2G identity cards cover approximately 50%, whereas each of the sectors such as e-ticketing, expressway toll taxation, university campuses & community services on an average adds to 6% of the RFID market with public transport and subways making a contribution of 10%.

The report offers a complete overview of the current trends and activities in the RFID Market in China. The international exhibition of RFID technology called RFID CONNECT CHINA 2006 event is also discussed in this report.

To purchase your copy: http://www.rncos.com/Report/COM27.htm
For more information please visit www.rncos.com

RFID in libraries guide

A technology that was originally developed for the military during World War II, and has now encompassed all walks of life by making its foray into retail, medical, education, automotives, fast food, travel industry, and so on, is RFID or Radio Frequency Identification.

RFID is basically one of the automatic identification systems like bar codes, smart cards, etc. which helps machines in identifying objects. It consists of a transponder or a tag which has an embedded integrated circuit and an antenna. The IC is encrypted with a unique electronic product code. The antenna allows the tag to receive and respond to radio frequency queries from an RFID transceiver. It thus, transmits the data stored in its IC to the receiver which in turn sends it to a central computer for processing.

New uses of RFID are being discovered every day. Using them in libraries is just one among them. Currently, approximately 120 million media and books in about 500 libraries worldwide are already attached with RFID labels, and this number is still progressing. With the introduction of RFID, the management of libraries is improving drastically. In libraries RFID plays a crucial role in checking the catalogues and allowing the customers to pass by card readers that automatically updates the computer system by synchronizing the ID information on patron's library card with the book and indicating that the book has been checked out. Thus, it ensures higher degree of accuracy in record keeping which is a very significant aspect of library management.

Moreover, it is expected that the new technology will help in reducing the costs and improve the tracking of library material as it moves in and out of the shelves. Thus, it will enable the library's staff to catch anyone who tries to take any material out from the library without their consent. Some of the latest RFID products designed specifically for libraries possess some powerful features such as providing real time information on returned and new items, fast sorting and return of popular items, providing self checkout of materials and allowing web based monitoring. In addition to this these systems can even notify the library staff by e-mail when a printer paper is low, and offer customers a choice of either a paper or e-mail receipt at checkout. RFID system will also meet the demand of complex IT and information research inquiries, such as tracing e-books and electronic journals and creating links to digital materials.

However, like any other new technology RFID has its own share of shortcomings. The most common of these drawbacks is its cost. Like most of the new technologies, RFID equipment such as RFID readers and tags are very expensive. Hence, it is financially impractical for the smaller and not so famous libraries to implement it. Moreover, RFID has some security issues attached to it as it violates citizen's privacy by tracking them and creating a database of their habits and activities.

However, despite all these drawbacks RFID is a very helpful tool for the libraries to streamline their management.

Mansi gupta recommends that you visit RFID in libraries for more information

Abandoned Anchor Retrieval RFID System

There will be times when an anchored ship in the US Military needs to move fast and go after a rapidly increasing situation and task which must be accomplished immediately. If the anchors are deployed then they need a capacity to drop the rest of the chain and leave the anchor there. With a backup anchor on-board.

The anchor, which is left will be fitted with an RFID homing tracking device and it can be retrieved at a later date by specially fitted UUV underwater unmanned vehicle. The UUV will pick up the chain via a cable it attaches and bring that cable up to the ship which will then hoist the cable and anchor chain up until which time the actual anchor clears the ocean bottom.

Perhaps a study should be to determine how much time could be saved if the anchor system retrieval was not an issue? Could the ship, which was already running, move fast and be gone saving ten minutes or more? If so, ten minutes in a high stress situation could be of major value indeed.

There maybe other uses for this technology for other vessels and uses and an RFID retrieval system makes sense for anyone involved in UUV or ROVs also. In fact there are many ways this technology can be used for other things that can also become a huge concern. So we need to be thinking here and consider all this in 2006

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington

How RFID Technology Will Invade Your Life

With RFID technology a store owner knows everything about the item you take to the checkout including price, color size etc.

The USA now wants to put this technology into passports which would allow people to be mass processed through custom control, without having to form queues. You know what it is like when you arrive home late and there is a queue of 200 people in front of you at the Passport desk.So a convenience would be faster people handling.

Credit card companies would be able to read your card simply by you waving it near a reading device. So we face a revolution in the use of RFID technology.But security on terrorist activity may be compromised because he could alter his passport to get though without an official actually seeing the falsified document.

And then there is the issue of personal privacy. You buy an item using RFID and for the rest of the day a scanner could pick up the fact you just bought it and how would this compromise you if you are holding a RFID credit card.

Also consider the supply chain structure. Now thieves could know what's being held in premises and what its value is.

There are some solutions for specific cases. So for example when you buy something, there should be a tear off section your ticket to remove the device. So you will not be readable after you have bought your items.

Credit cards are a different consideration.

What would be the diving line between being close enough for the scanner to pick you up but not close enough for a thief to scan the card in your handbag?

An unacceptable situation would be where thieves could wander around shopping centers and simply get close enough to your wallet to scan your card. Clearly there is some extra thinking to be done here and it may be some time before this is solved, where convenience is improved but your privacy is secure. Maybe aluminum wallets are the answer? Time will tell.

Counting devices
Client counting solution to the retail sector offers a system is aimed at providing pertinent management information on client visit habits and related transactions.The system comprises client movement logging hardware - deployed in-store and a software suite which would typically run within head office and provide web browser access to count statistics.

Benefits
o Sales to look into conversion rate analysis to ascertain sales effectiveness and help improve Average Transaction Value and Units
o Marketing to assess the effectiveness of advertising and marketing campaigns
o Operations to provide insight into the effectiveness of staffing levels
o Security and exceptions will note movements after-hours and differences between people entering and exiting the store
o Environment to look at through-store footfall to ensure appropriate floor layout andcustomer awareness of in-store departments
o Low impact and quick installation
 

Management information
A simple to use browser-based software suite provides immediate access to management information right across your enterprise.Integration with management data allows automated linking with transactional and staffing data so you can see how wisely or not you are spending you money.

Sales transaction data should be automatically imported on a daily basis and the system database should be queried by third party products for further integration/analysis as necessary. Client counting can improve your operational cost-effectiveness, improve your advertising impact on sales and enhance the customer experience by ensuring staffing levels are appropriate to customer flow.

Arthur Stoller advises customers on the use of retail technology. Find out how you can implement protection for your shop by visiting http://www.rto.com

RFID: AT90RF135602- Smallest RFID Reader

The AT90RF135602 definitely needs a nickname. Even in 8-point type it's too big a title for the world's smallest RFID reader!

AT90RF135602 (see what I mean?) is the latest RFID collaboration of California-based Atmel and UK-based Innovision Research & Technology. This single chip RFID reader is a mere 12mm by 12mm by 2mm. (For those of you who like to travel ultra-light, check out the scaled down 6mm by 8mm by 1.5mm version).

The AT90RF135602 reads and writes to 13.56 MHz RFID tags and smart labels, is optimised for a 2.8V battery operation, and is compliant to ISO/IEC 14443-A parts 2 & 3, making it especially suited for small, battery-powered handheld devices.

I can see how this smaller-than-dime-sized RFID reader may be helpful for NAVI (Navigation Assistance for the Visually Impaired) and other handheld applications. Smaller readers make handheld devices less obtrusive and more comfortable to carry. Good news for those using NAVI or taking self-guided museum or walking tours.

I can see how the AT90RF135602, priced at a relatively low $3 per unit (in quantities of 10,000) may be attractive to RFID managers trying to achieve maximum efficiency at minimum expense. It's inexpensive to operate, field programmable and upgradeable, so it's an investment that will grow with your operation.

I also see that as RFID readers become smaller they become more difficult to see. Easier to forget. Or never become aware of.

RFID tags continue to shrink, and in some cases have disappeared altogether, replaced by smart labels and smart inks. Too many consumers aren't even aware of RFID tags yet, and it's becoming more and more difficult to see them.

Technology naturally trends toward more power in a smaller footprint. That's one of the ways we measure progress.

As we trend toward ever-more progress, let us also trend toward ever-more citizen awareness. Let's make sure that we can look back on the AT90RF135602 as a really cool RFID reader that advanced our culture and improved the quality of our lives. And had a great nickname.

Sally Bacchetta - Freelance Writer is an award-winning freelance writer and sales trainer. She has published articles on a variety of topics, including RFID, selling skills, motivation, and pharmaceutical sales.

Visit her RFID blog for an exploration of the ethical and social considerations of RFID.