RFID And Logistics Management

Logistics assets that have a circular flow are an essential part of the distribution network of any business. These assets are often reusable such as totes, racks, bins and roll cages, shipping containers, gas containers etc. used to transport goods from one place to another. Procuring, maintaining and managing these assets often forms a significant part of a company?s annual expenses. Since theft, damage and replacement erode asset productivity, these assets have to be managed in such a way as to minimize loss as possible. That is when RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Devices) and logistics management comes into effect.

Using RFID to Manage Assets:

Businesses have resorted to using radio frequency identification devices come in handy. These devices or tags are helpful in locating these reusable assets as well as have control over them. This greatly reduces loss due to theft as well as misplacements. It is also useful in locating particular containers containing specific products etc. Their use has greatly reduced costs such as replacement costs as well as avoiding shrinkage. It has also helped reduce capital costs, increase customer satisfaction, as well as ensuring the assets are in the correct place at the right time. An added advantage is the reusability of these tags, so companies, which want greater control over assets and their management, have opted to use RFID and logistics management techniques. Using RFID and logistics management strategies will serve to improve capital utilization lower the total operational costs as well as improve the availability of assets. The use of these asset management techniques has improved customer retention significantly. This technique will help improve visibility of assets in transit, availability management of much needed assets, transportation management etc. these techniques have to be reviewed periodically to ascertain if they have effected a significant change as also to take necessary action where required.

The use of RFID and logistic management techniques are especially useful for manufacturers, where parts bins feed parts in an automated plant, since the placement of the right part in the right place is critical. The company can use these techniques in areas where they have expertise whereas professional help can be sought for areas where they lack control such as transportation, delivery, pick up etc.

Companies should consider implementing RFID and logistics management techniques, as they will greatly benefit from it. It will reduce cost, increase control and availability, decrease chances of loss of assets due to various factors as well as prove to be very economical. Most of them are currently using manual techniques, which is not as efficient as RFID. They have to understand that asset management will be a key factor in improving customer satisfaction as well as help in customer retention.

Many firms offer professional help as well as products to run a business efficiently and effectively.

Alexander Gordon is a writer for http://www.smallbusinessconsulting.com - The Small Business Consulting Community. Sign-up for the free success steps newsletter and get our booklet valued at $24.95 for free as a special bonus. The newsletter provides daily strategies on starting and significantly growing a business.

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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 Pharmaceutical Services

RFID Technology also enters in the world of Pharmaceutical companies, distributors, and hospitals to discourage drug counterfeiting. The report of The World Health Organization shows between 5 to 8 percent of global pharmaceuticals is counterfeit. In some countries, It is higher and between 25 to 40 percent.

In the fight against counterfeit drugs RFID have it?s own additional benefits. The pharmaceutical industry runs on the data information of throughout the process of drug trials, manufacturing, distribution and retail sale. RFID is known for it?s tremendous ability to uniquely identify each item and securely capture date without during whole supply chain. Pharmaceutical industry is blessed by RFID technology:

? Supply Chain: RFID has ability to deep insight, visibility and efficiency during the supply chain. RFID present a good chance to provide 100 percent visibility of inventory, making it easier and quicker to handle goods transaction to the right place in the right channel. The technology improves productivity in shipping and receiving, reduce touch labor, increase the assurance of shipping and providing accuracy, and expanding product availability at the retail store, thus reducing customer complaints and charge backs.

? Pharmaceutical responsibility and Brand Protection: Technology helps to reduce the responsibility at every point of supply chain, reduces the inventory losses. Every year 6-10 percent of retail inventory is stolen and diverted. Benefit of the new technology is presented when returns are properly shipped from right manufacturer, at proper price. RFID also helps to prevent "gray market" distribution, which costs companies and their customers hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

? Pharmaceutical Product: RFID provides Safety, Recalls, and Regulatory Requirements. RFID take care about the expiration dates and improving expiration management. The technology can store preliminary information that satisfying regulatory requirement. RFID reduce the time spent to identifying products targeted for recall and reducing the likelihood of a mass-market recall of branded products by zeroing individual items and capturing manufacturing data.

RFID technology improves the drug usage tracking during whole clinical-phase testing. Technology Improve the reliability and speed of the United States Food and Drug Administration to drug approval process by improved tracking and accountability. So the use of RFID is going to be standard for pharmaceutical companies.

RFID solution implemented for many more different fields:

? Corporate Security

? Fraud Prevention

? Legal & Regulatory Affairs

? Loss Prevention

? RFID Technology

? Security Operations

? Supply Chain

? Transportation & Distribution

RFID made data maintenance easier. Data Capturing, managing, and reviewing data anywhere and anytime affect your business directly or indirectly. Dynamic maintenance of your huge data and any kind of asset provides you better flexibility.

find more- RFID solutions

Asset tracking with RFID technology:

RFID technology adds a new chapter in asset tracking technology. Now a day when large amount of valuable data, asset and people are needed for big projects, basic need of effective and efficient tracking system is increasing day by day. In this situation RFID technical solutions are being so effective.

Forgetting the thing is the common nature of human being but some times, this nature brought a dreadful condition. But to remember each and every thing is not possible. Asset tracking system helps you to track your important and valuable assets. For this reason there are many products and tracking systems are in the market.

Radio Frequency Identification is a groundbreaking technology for this field. Now there is no need to store whole history and full description about them every time. RFID tags are the simpler way to track them. Every tagged asset can be tracked by interpreting the upcoming radio signals from each tag.

RFID software solutions are used to track the particular server down in a huge data center. To identify and locate the packages in warehouse, warehouse manager add video with the all time favorite RFID intelligent tags.

Supply chain management, manufacturing and retailing are major area where long- range RFID solutions will be available in near future. The Forrester Research, provocatively entitled "BI Vendors Are Sleeping Through RFID's Arrival," by Keith Gile and Philip Russom which includes Cognos, SAS, Business objects (Profile, Product, Articles) and application vendors such as SAP- showed till now, there is no any application specific solution for interpreting RFID data and it may not be possible until 2010.

Asset tracking system with pioneering RFID technology is not so far away from you. At agilesense.com, you can find long range of RFID technical solutions for all kind of your asset tracking needs.

Diana

The heart of RFID System

RFID, Radio Frequency Identification System consists of a tag, a reader and a host system. Host system takes care about the flow of information, sending and receiving to and from the reader and tag. Air interface or Radio Frequency is the medium for data transmission. There are two types of RFID Systems: Near field and far field. Near-field systems are that in which inductive coupling of the tag employ to the reactive energy circulating around the reader antenna, and far-field systems that couple to the real energy contained in propagating electromagnetic plane waves.

The reader contains a radio frequency module, a signal processing and micro controller unit, a coupling element and the interface to a host system. There are many different kinds of readers on the market, such as desktop, hand-held, tunnel or gate/gantry style readers. The host system controls the data flow between the readers and tags. It can be as simple as a personal computer connected to the reader by an RS-232 serial cable.

RFID systems bring a revolution in UPC or EAN barcodes systems. RFID technology has many important advantages over existing barcode systems. ? The ability to scan or read a product without line of sight, ? Multiple product reads in one pass and ? Being able to store a larger amount of information are all key advantages over barcodes.

Diana Heyden

RFID Market in China continues Growth at 8.55% during Q4 2005

Intel has signed a deal with the Sample group located in Nanjing, to establish its only RFID center for research and development in China.

The RFID research and development center will primarily do research and promotion of RFID industry applications. These applications include intelligent communications management system, aviation luggage management system, warehouse management system, and container positioning management systems.

Intel RFID Centers throughout the world are supposed to interact closely with the Center at China, so that Intel can leverage the Sample Group?s expertise in custom logistics segment to its advantage. Intel is eager to use RFID solutions for quality business decisions and production management.

In its latest published report ?RFID: Outlook China?, the market research firm RNCOS stated that the RFID market in China sustained its modest growth ratio of 8.55% in Q4 of 2005. It further indicated that the manufacturing segment should be prospective entry field for the RFID industry.

The report reveals that the size of the RFID market in China grew from RMB 568 million in the third quarter to RMB 617 million in the fourth quarter in 2005, exhibiting 8.55% rate of growth.

The experts at RNCOS are of the opinion that the exhibited rate of growth is moderate and the market still holds the potential. The report also tells that in the Q4 the RFID market was busy with the launch of 2G ID cards, and implementations in fields where it is already applied on a large scale, such as public transportation, campus management, property/residential area management, etc.

The report further elaborates that China has a great future in the manufacturing sector. There is a large application of logistics and availability of a substantial working capital in manufacturing procedures. Manufacturing companies can bring down their expenditures and boost efficiency through the effective use of RFID implementations to acquire precise logistics data and realize specialized production.

After assessing the challenges and prospects before the RFID industry, experts at RNCOS believe that there are certain limitations to the implementation of RFID in the manufacturing sector. The conformation to international standards and the prohibitive costs are the impediments to the growth of the RFID industry in China.

The RFID technology has been drawing a lot of attention from the industry as well as the government after having established its vast potential in China. Commercial application of RFID will be implemented this year.

As is evident from the latest events, the main factors behind the phenomenal success of the Chinese RFID industry are the support and promotion of the Chinese government and the private sector. This fact is further established, when the Haidian District City Planning Administration confirms, that it is only through the effective implementation of RFID technology, that the municipal facilities and public institutions can be properly managed. They intend to make further use of RFID in the city in the future.


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

Integrating RFID Into Your Packaging

Market forces such as the RFID mandates from Target, Wal-Mart, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) have many manufacturers and suppliers focused on RFID simply as a compliance tool, overlooking the significant additional benefits of automatic identification technology.

In fact, by design, RFID enables superior supply chain efficiency and inventory management, resulting in increased productivity and accountability, decreased shrinkage, and a more robust bottom line.

A packaging supplier who is knowledgeable about evolving RFID technology and applications is a valuable resource to help you maximize ROI with your RFID integration.

RFID systems are completely customizable with infinite combinations of hardware and software. Each system is comprised of a transponder, a reader and software. (Click here to read RFID: A Smart Tag Primer for a complete explanation of RFID technology.) In this article we compare several forms of the RFID transponder and discuss possible applications of each.

RFID transponders are available in a variety of mediums, including:

 

Smart tags

Chipless tags

Smart labels

Conductive ink

Traceless taggants

 

A smart tag is a microchip RFID transponder, which includes an integrated circuit (IC) and an antenna, encased in a protective coating. Smart tags most commonly contain a silicon-based IC and a copper coil antenna, although demand for less expensive tags has spurred the development of organic alternatives and chipless tags.

Smart tags can be applied to pallets, cases or item-level units at any point in the supply chain, or integrated into the product packaging at the point of production. They are readable through most materials (except liquid and metal) and many smart tag systems include anti-collision software, to enable multiple tags to be read simultaneously.

A basic smart tag offers a 96-bit EPC, which provides more than enough data storage capacity to track-and-trace items from point of manufacture to point of sale. Gen 2 tags offer a 256-bit EPC code, appropriate for specialized applications that require extensive data storage, such as the prescription drug pedigree.

Smart tags can be applied either externally to product packaging or imbedded within the package or case. They are unobtrusive and do not interfere with graphic design elements, making them an easy addition to most consumer goods packaging.

Smart tags can also be implanted in key chain fobs or rigid plastic cards. Automobile keyless entry and Mobil Speed Pass are two well-known examples.

A chipless tag is an RFID tag that transmits data via either a conductive polymer or a reflective material instead of an IC microchip. Conductive polymer tags operate the same way as RFID smart tags do, differing only in component material.

Reflective tags return a radio wave image to a computer that compares it with the identifying image on file for that item. A positive match means the item is correctly identified. Tags with RF reflecting fibers can be woven into paper or fabric for specialized applications.

Although chipless tags typically cost less than silicon-based tags, their use in supply chain management is limited by their inability to read multiple tags at one time.

A smart label is simply a label with an RFID tag integrated into it. An RFID microchip is sandwiched between a paper substrate and an adhesive, resulting in an RFID transponder that can be printed and applied like a traditional label.

Smart labels are frequently used for “slap and ship”, which is the term for affixing an RFID label to a case or pallet just before it is shipped from the supplier to the retailer. Because the label is applied externally (to the case or pallet) as the final step before shipping, benefits of “slap and ship” have generally been limited to compliance with retailer requirements.

However, if you think of a smart label as a flexible, printable RFID device, it is easy to imagine creative ways to incorporate it into individually packaged products.

Conductive ink, also called RFID ink, is considered by many to be the most exciting recent development in the printing industry. Precisia and Parelec are two of the companies that have developed conductive metal-based inks.

So far, conductive inks have been limited to printing RFID antennas directly onto labels and packaging through conventional printing methods. Research is ongoing to devise a method of printing the IC with RFID ink.

Use of conductive ink significantly lowers the cost of RFID tagging, and offers smart tag security with exceptional application flexibility.

The newest form of RFID tag is Creo’s Traceless® taggant. Traceless® is a powder that is mixed with ink or other fluid and applied to product packaging during manufacturing. Suspending the powder particles in fluid allows them to form a random pattern known as the “taggant image signature”. A computer records/retains this signature as the item’s unique identifier, like the EPC of traditional RFID.

When the item passes by a Traceless® reader, the reader first confirms the presence of the taggant powder (the pass/fail portion of the security test), and then matches the “taggant image signature” with the one on file for that item.

What really distinguishes Traceless® is that it is undetectable, making it virtually impossible to counterfeit or tamper with. Using proprietary methods, Creo mixes a ratio of taggant in solution that is too small to be perceived visually or chemically, and is detectable only by Traceless® readers.

From inventory management to anti-theft control to pharmaceutical pedigrees, RFID technology is revolutionizing the packaging industry. Awareness and education are the keys to maximizing your ROI with RFID.

Dennis Bacchetta is the Marketing Manager at Diamond Packaging, a leading folding carton and contract packaging supplier. He frequently writes on a variety of topics, including industry news and emerging technologies.

You may contact him at dbacchetta@diamondpkg.com or visit the Diamond Packaging website