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Member You - RFID System Planning – A Simple Overview
Pssst, want a stock tip that will make you rich? Okay, here it is: phone a public corporation and ask to speak with the CEO.If a secretary tells you that the CEO expects to be busy in meetings for the next six hundred years, call your broker and sell the stock short. Any company unable to manage an activity that should last an hour is on its way down the financial tubes.Although it’s true that senior executives spend much of their time in meetings, you can bet that a business is in trouble if their meetings are out of control.Surveys show companies waste an average of 20% of their payroll on bad meetings. And that’s just the beginning of the problem. Meetings keep people away from the tasks they were hired to perform -- tasks that make money for the company and keep the business ahead of the competition.Since bad meetings are so wasteful, you may wonder why anyone tolerates them. Unfortunately, many business leaders think that their meetings are just fine. They even believe that they’re experts at holding effective meetings.For example, when I phone companies to ask if they would be interested in improving their meetings, I sometimes encounter an assistant who assures me that the executives believe that they hold wonderful meetings. Then the assistant snickers, coughs softly, and regains enough composure to state that they don’t need my services. At this point the assistant sounds like someone on a sinking ship who is throwing a life jacket into the water.And that must make you wonder: why any intelligent person would hold a meeting that wastes everyone’s time and produces nothing.There are easy answers such as 1) they don’t know that their meetings could be effective, 2) they don’t know what an effective meeting is like, or 3) they don’t know how to
What next?
RFID does not need to be as complicated or as daunting as some of the industry players would have you believe. Just because the technology exists it does not need to be used to maximum capacity throughout all supply chains. The following factors are considered to be key when moving forward:
• Do not overcomplicate the technology; use what is suitable to meet your objectives.
• Ensure the correct partner (system integrator / provider) is engaged from the outset.
• Ensure that the systems chosen can move with technology
• The pilot scheme is just that - it will need development
RFID system planning is crucial to its success but can on its own be a major task. This combined with the fact that you may have little or no RFID expertise internally can prevent you from taking your first steps to deciding if RFID is suitable to you and your business. Gideon Hillman Consulting can assist you with knowledge and experienced based RFID system planning and help you design a project plan with specific focus on:
-Project Objectives & Scope
-Resource Requirements
-Project Stages and Timescale
-Project Milestones
-Integrator / Supplier Choice
-Regular Technical Reviews
Investment into planning and consultative project management at the outset can negate over investment and additional cost in the longer term.
RFID Terminology:
ASN – Advanced Shipping Notice – notification between vendor and customer of parts due or
to be delivered.
Agile reader - An RFID reader that can read tags operating at different frequencies or
different communication protocols.
Air interface protoc
Throughout the past decade, workplace diversity issues have allowed organizations to adjust their policies in response to the need for workplace equality in all aspects. As a result of the dynamic political, social and economic changes, some companies have willingly become more inclusive, integrating women, people of color, gays/lesbians, and individuals with disabilities into their workforce at all levels of their organizations. However, others have failed to make this paradigm shift. The Federal government has failed to see the benefits of a diverse workforce, which is evident by the lack of diversity of the people it serves. Research by the Center for Creative Leadership (2002), show women in business have been required to adapt to a well established hierarchal system built around the strengths of its majority of male players. As women have entered the workplace, they initially try to create only a modest variant in a male dominated workplace. Gender diversity could be very beneficial to the Federal government, causing greater creativity in group decision-making and improved task performance.Leadership is usually considered to be predominantly a male prerogative in corporate, political, military, and other sectors of our society. This might explain why, although women have gained increased access to supervisory and middle management positions, they remain underrepresented in leadership positions. Throughout history, women have been contributors to society, helped shaped America, and exercised their power and their abilities through various interests. But the recognition as leaders is still slow to come.Women are still confronted by an invisible barrier preventing their rise into leadership ranks the “glass ceiling.” However, studies indicate that women are inching through the glass ceiling that has prevented t
It is recognised that RFID will enable, (and already has in some cases), a new era of business optimisation, managing and increasing efficiencies throughout the supply chain. However knowing that it can assist your business, and understanding how it will do so, are different enough, let alone knowing how to actually implement a system that provides a sound return on the investment, whilst meeting your objectives.
The potential final cost of a fully integrated RFID supply chain operation would suggest that well planned objectives and a Pilot Scheme within part of the supply chain would be the prudent route to take. This ensures that a final system properly specified and implemented will actually produce the results that you both want and expect.
Business Drivers
The key driver for any investment of this type is the cost savings it will yield. However RFID technology provides additional advantages of real time and faster data capture, with a reduced human error factor. Unlike bar code-based systems, an RFID system can read the information on multiple tags without necessarily requiring line of sight and without the need for a particular orientation. The main business drivers throughout most sectors are as follows:
• Optimise asset and resource utilisation
• Optimise operational process & Manage supply chain exceptions
• Reduce transportation costs
• Reduce theft, wastage and loss
• Increase financial return on investments
• Optimise the labour force
• Manage KPIs and benchmarking
• Avoid congestion of assets and bottlenecks in the supply chain
• To reduce overall supply chain costs
• To assist in making informed decisions in respect of the logistics “loop"
Where do you start?
The range of technologies, standards and options for RFID systems are too numerous to list here, and there is a danger of over specifying the technology required.
Providing that the system objective is not forgotten during the specification and implementation stage, then a suitable system integrator will ensure that there is not an over investment, or too much needless information being produced. It is therefore crucial that the functionality requirements and objectives are well thought out and defined in advance of partnering with a suitable System Integrator, specifically in relation to the management information you wish to extract from the system.
It is widely acknowledged by all who have conducted pilot schemes and RFID implementation that the most crucial factor is to conduct a pilot scheme with partners that have a proven track record, and are not learning as they go along. Therefore a System Integrator with relevant industry sector experience is vital.
From experience it is preferable, in the early planning stages, to have an independent project co-ordinator / facilitator assisting your project team. This individual should be separate from the Integrator and individual system / hardware suppliers working together on the project, and not part of any individual departments within your business that may bias the direction and objectives of the team.
Your RFID project team should be kept as small as possible to reduce management time, training needs, misinformation, over analysis and to remain focused to the project objectives. Team members should then feed back to their own local departments and teams to facilitate the actions and objectives of the project team.
What are your hardware requirements?
The functional requirements of the system will dictate the hardware and software specifications, for example the read / write capabilities of the RFID tags will ultimately be dictated by the business objectives.
With the ability to write tags comes the ability to change data. This is considered by some to be a very important feature of RFID, specifically when it relates to the retail and warehousing industry where it is not just pallets and boxes, but also individual product items being tracked and replenished. These business operations, information needs, standards, customer requirements and other variables can all change rapidly over a relatively short period of time.
The RFID readers will be able to read tags at a rate of several dozen tags per second; however the speed at which that data is processed into the system is limited and dependent on the network and database. The amount of data held on a tag will affect the read rates. This therefore means that the middleware, back end processing and management reporting systems must be wholly compatible with the tags and readers supplied in terms of speed and capability.
It will be the results of the Pilot scheme that facilitate the specific “roll out” requirements for the full system. The exact specifications of the hardware requirements for the pilot scheme are to be specified during the site survey and process analysis by the system integrator. What are your system software requirements?
A key area for concern is handling the sheer volume and speed of data produced by an RFID system.
If you were to implement an RFID system by directly hooking RFID readers to the backend management and ERP systems, the results will be disastrous due to the massive volume of data directly entering the system.
What’s needed is the right system architecture, not only to maintain data accuracy and authenticity, but to make meaning of the vast volumes of data delivered by the RFID readers. Some estimates are that pallet, tote and item-level tracking, combined with data generated by RFID readers as items move within the enterprise, will increase the volume of data by 100 to 1,000 times today’s levels in most supply chains (source: RFID Journal).
Effective RFID implementations should follow the architectural principles developed for financial trading systems, process control and large-scale network management. Like RFID systems, these systems process huge volumes of data, correct errors in real time, correlate events, detect trends and patterns, re-organise and cleanse data and recover from faults – all in real time.
A role of the system integrator is to develop and implement an operational data management architecture that captures events at the “edge” of the enterprise, where operational activity occurs, rather than in the centre, where business-oriented transaction processing occurs. To achieve manageable data then the architecture will comprise of data concentrators and pipelines to route relevant data to the specific user systems that require it, thus not overloading any individual back end management system. For example:- container / pallet data to the asset management system, product and stock data to the ERP and MRP systems cost data to the financial management systems and so on…….
System compatibility in a Global Supply Chain is important, not necessarily for the pilot scheme, but if it is to facilitate a successful roll out across the whole supply chain. Global standards are progressing with the new systems created in compliance with the EPCglobal Generation 2 (Gen 2) standard.
Gen 2 creates a foundation on which to build interoperable RFID products and systems that will improve inventory management, logistics and retail operations around the world. However there will be significant performance and capability differences among Gen 2 compliant equipment. Gen 2 is a standard, and standards specify minimum performance requirements and will therefore not accommodate all systems, as standard –based equipment will not provide a standard performance.
Gen 2 specifies basic RFID communications performance required for common supply chain business processes. However, although companies within the same sector have similar information needs as their competitors and have comparable business practices, usage environments will be very different depending on age and design of the assembly / manufacturing facility, geography and culture. Gen 2 or any RFID technology won't provide exactly the same performance at any two facilities. That is why it is important to understand the difference between what Gen 2 specifies and the range of performance that Gen 2 compliant products can provide.
What next?
RFID does not need to be as complicated or as daunting as some of the industry players would have you believe. Just because the technology exists it does not need to be used to maximum capacity throughout all supply chains. The following factors are considered to be key when moving forward:
• Do not overcomplicate the technology; use what is suitable to meet your objectives.
• Ensure the correct partner (system integrator / provider) is engaged from the outset.
• Ensure that the systems chosen can move with technology
• The pilot scheme is just that - it will need development
RFID system planning is crucial to its success but can on its own be a major task. This combined with the fact that you may have little or no RFID expertise internally can prevent you from taking your first steps to deciding if RFID is suitable to you and your business. Gideon Hillman Consulting can assist you with knowledge and experienced based RFID system planning and help you design a project plan with specific focus on:
-Project Objectives & Scope
-Resource Requirements
-Project Stages and Timescale
-Project Milestones
-Integrator / Supplier Choice
-Regular Technical Reviews
Investment into planning and consultative project management at the outset can negate over investment and additional cost in the longer term.
RFID Terminology:
ASN – Advanced Shipping Notice – notification between vendor and customer of parts due or
to be delivered.
Agile reader - An RFID reader that can read tags operating at different frequencies or
different communication protocols.
Air interface protoco
Do you want to make some extra money? If you do, then you might want to invest in some vending machines. Those who invest in these machines usually have to either rent or buy them, and then have someone supply what they need to fill them up. The profit will be the rest of the money you make above those expenses. In this kind of business, the more of these you have, the more money you are going to make. You can put these machines in a variety of places, but there might be a need to pay a fee to place them in certain places.In this present day and age, vending machines have more than just soda in them. If you can find the right machines, then you can get bottles of water and juices. Some vending machines are full of snacks and other food items that are usually eaten in the middle of the day. However, many people are now turning away from machines that are full of sugary drinks and high calorie snacks to help keep their children in better shape. - You should consider offering up healthy fare for the students if you want to have vending machines in schools. You will find that the schools may be more welcoming if you offer healthy snacks for their students. School authorities want their students to have healthy drinks and snacks because healthy snacks for kids are becoming harder to come by these days.However, some people may argue that this is not the best way to deal with vending machines in schools. Some of them even think that these machines should be banned altogether, but I do not agree with their opinion. The students will not go somewhere else for something that might not be the best choice if they can get something right in their school that is good for them.You can make more money if you place vending machines in certain places. For instance, hotels charge a lot more for a machine than having a machine pl
• Manage KPIs and benchmarking
• Avoid congestion of assets and bottlenecks in the supply chain
• To reduce overall supply chain costs
• To assist in making informed decisions in respect of the logistics “loop"
Where do you start?
The range of technologies, standards and options for RFID systems are too numerous to list here, and there is a danger of over specifying the technology required.
Providing that the system objective is not forgotten during the specification and implementation stage, then a suitable system integrator will ensure that there is not an over investment, or too much needless information being produced. It is therefore crucial that the functionality requirements and objectives are well thought out and defined in advance of partnering with a suitable System Integrator, specifically in relation to the management information you wish to extract from the system.
It is widely acknowledged by all who have conducted pilot schemes and RFID implementation that the most crucial factor is to conduct a pilot scheme with partners that have a proven track record, and are not learning as they go along. Therefore a System Integrator with relevant industry sector experience is vital.
From experience it is preferable, in the early planning stages, to have an independent project co-ordinator / facilitator assisting your project team. This individual should be separate from the Integrator and individual system / hardware suppliers working together on the project, and not part of any individual departments within your business that may bias the direction and objectives of the team.
Your RFID project team should be kept as small as possible to reduce management time, training needs, misinformation, over analysis and to remain focused to the project objectives. Team members should then feed back to their own local departments and teams to facilitate the actions and objectives of the project team.
What are your hardware requirements?
The functional requirements of the system will dictate the hardware and software specifications, for example the read / write capabilities of the RFID tags will ultimately be dictated by the business objectives.
With the ability to write tags comes the ability to change data. This is considered by some to be a very important feature of RFID, specifically when it relates to the retail and warehousing industry where it is not just pallets and boxes, but also individual product items being tracked and replenished. These business operations, information needs, standards, customer requirements and other variables can all change rapidly over a relatively short period of time.
The RFID readers will be able to read tags at a rate of several dozen tags per second; however the speed at which that data is processed into the system is limited and dependent on the network and database. The amount of data held on a tag will affect the read rates. This therefore means that the middleware, back end processing and management reporting systems must be wholly compatible with the tags and readers supplied in terms of speed and capability.
It will be the results of the Pilot scheme that facilitate the specific “roll out” requirements for the full system. The exact specifications of the hardware requirements for the pilot scheme are to be specified during the site survey and process analysis by the system integrator. What are your system software requirements?
A key area for concern is handling the sheer volume and speed of data produced by an RFID system.
If you were to implement an RFID system by directly hooking RFID readers to the backend management and ERP systems, the results will be disastrous due to the massive volume of data directly entering the system.
What’s needed is the right system architecture, not only to maintain data accuracy and authenticity, but to make meaning of the vast volumes of data delivered by the RFID readers. Some estimates are that pallet, tote and item-level tracking, combined with data generated by RFID readers as items move within the enterprise, will increase the volume of data by 100 to 1,000 times today’s levels in most supply chains (source: RFID Journal).
Effective RFID implementations should follow the architectural principles developed for financial trading systems, process control and large-scale network management. Like RFID systems, these systems process huge volumes of data, correct errors in real time, correlate events, detect trends and patterns, re-organise and cleanse data and recover from faults – all in real time.
A role of the system integrator is to develop and implement an operational data management architecture that captures events at the “edge” of the enterprise, where operational activity occurs, rather than in the centre, where business-oriented transaction processing occurs. To achieve manageable data then the architecture will comprise of data concentrators and pipelines to route relevant data to the specific user systems that require it, thus not overloading any individual back end management system. For example:- container / pallet data to the asset management system, product and stock data to the ERP and MRP systems cost data to the financial management systems and so on…….
System compatibility in a Global Supply Chain is important, not necessarily for the pilot scheme, but if it is to facilitate a successful roll out across the whole supply chain. Global standards are progressing with the new systems created in compliance with the EPCglobal Generation 2 (Gen 2) standard.
Gen 2 creates a foundation on which to build interoperable RFID products and systems that will improve inventory management, logistics and retail operations around the world. However there will be significant performance and capability differences among Gen 2 compliant equipment. Gen 2 is a standard, and standards specify minimum performance requirements and will therefore not accommodate all systems, as standard –based equipment will not provide a standard performance.
Gen 2 specifies basic RFID communications performance required for common supply chain business processes. However, although companies within the same sector have similar information needs as their competitors and have comparable business practices, usage environments will be very different depending on age and design of the assembly / manufacturing facility, geography and culture. Gen 2 or any RFID technology won't provide exactly the same performance at any two facilities. That is why it is important to understand the difference between what Gen 2 specifies and the range of performance that Gen 2 compliant products can provide.
What next?
RFID does not need to be as complicated or as daunting as some of the industry players would have you believe. Just because the technology exists it does not need to be used to maximum capacity throughout all supply chains. The following factors are considered to be key when moving forward:
• Do not overcomplicate the technology; use what is suitable to meet your objectives.
• Ensure the correct partner (system integrator / provider) is engaged from the outset.
• Ensure that the systems chosen can move with technology
• The pilot scheme is just that - it will need development
RFID system planning is crucial to its success but can on its own be a major task. This combined with the fact that you may have little or no RFID expertise internally can prevent you from taking your first steps to deciding if RFID is suitable to you and your business. Gideon Hillman Consulting can assist you with knowledge and experienced based RFID system planning and help you design a project plan with specific focus on:
-Project Objectives & Scope
-Resource Requirements
-Project Stages and Timescale
-Project Milestones
-Integrator / Supplier Choice
-Regular Technical Reviews
Investment into planning and consultative project management at the outset can negate over investment and additional cost in the longer term.
RFID Terminology:
ASN – Advanced Shipping Notice – notification between vendor and customer of parts due or
to be delivered.
Agile reader - An RFID reader that can read tags operating at different frequencies or
different communication protocols.
Air interface protoc
Most novice or untrained salespeople make the same three mistakes. In brief, they are;1. They don't identify their target market and end up trying to sell to anyone and everyone2. They are in too much of a hurry to show off their product3. They try to "close" the sale without establishing if the prospect is even interestedNow we know the common mistakes, here are three quick tips anyone can use to improve their sales performance...1. Make sure that the person you're selling to has some interest in what you offer.The easiest way to do that is to ask "What problem does what I offer solve, and who has both the problem and the willingness to pay me to solve it for them?"Once you've answered that question, approach people you suspect have that problem and ask if them if they have that problem, would they spare a few minutes for you to discuss your solution with them.You may not see as many people; nevertheless, the ones you see will be interested in talking with you so you won't be wasting either your time or theirs.2. Now you know that they have the problem and are open to a solution, ask them more about the problem and how it impacts on them. Get them to explain it to you in detail by asking open questions.3. Because you understand the issues and how they impact on your prospect, you can easily tell them how your solution will help them move forward. Explain the costs or fees so it shows they either make a financial gain or a saving in time, effort or money by engaging you or buying your product.All you have to do now is agree to a timeline for implementation.Simple really, isn't it?
With the ability to write tags comes the ability to change data. This is considered by some to be a very important feature of RFID, specifically when it relates to the retail and warehousing industry where it is not just pallets and boxes, but also individual product items being tracked and replenished. These business operations, information needs, standards, customer requirements and other variables can all change rapidly over a relatively short period of time.
The RFID readers will be able to read tags at a rate of several dozen tags per second; however the speed at which that data is processed into the system is limited and dependent on the network and database. The amount of data held on a tag will affect the read rates. This therefore means that the middleware, back end processing and management reporting systems must be wholly compatible with the tags and readers supplied in terms of speed and capability.
It will be the results of the Pilot scheme that facilitate the specific “roll out” requirements for the full system. The exact specifications of the hardware requirements for the pilot scheme are to be specified during the site survey and process analysis by the system integrator. What are your system software requirements?
A key area for concern is handling the sheer volume and speed of data produced by an RFID system.
If you were to implement an RFID system by directly hooking RFID readers to the backend management and ERP systems, the results will be disastrous due to the massive volume of data directly entering the system.
What’s needed is the right system architecture, not only to maintain data accuracy and authenticity, but to make meaning of the vast volumes of data delivered by the RFID readers. Some estimates are that pallet, tote and item-level tracking, combined with data generated by RFID readers as items move within the enterprise, will increase the volume of data by 100 to 1,000 times today’s levels in most supply chains (source: RFID Journal).
Effective RFID implementations should follow the architectural principles developed for financial trading systems, process control and large-scale network management. Like RFID systems, these systems process huge volumes of data, correct errors in real time, correlate events, detect trends and patterns, re-organise and cleanse data and recover from faults – all in real time.
A role of the system integrator is to develop and implement an operational data management architecture that captures events at the “edge” of the enterprise, where operational activity occurs, rather than in the centre, where business-oriented transaction processing occurs. To achieve manageable data then the architecture will comprise of data concentrators and pipelines to route relevant data to the specific user systems that require it, thus not overloading any individual back end management system. For example:- container / pallet data to the asset management system, product and stock data to the ERP and MRP systems cost data to the financial management systems and so on…….
System compatibility in a Global Supply Chain is important, not necessarily for the pilot scheme, but if it is to facilitate a successful roll out across the whole supply chain. Global standards are progressing with the new systems created in compliance with the EPCglobal Generation 2 (Gen 2) standard.
Gen 2 creates a foundation on which to build interoperable RFID products and systems that will improve inventory management, logistics and retail operations around the world. However there will be significant performance and capability differences among Gen 2 compliant equipment. Gen 2 is a standard, and standards specify minimum performance requirements and will therefore not accommodate all systems, as standard –based equipment will not provide a standard performance.
Gen 2 specifies basic RFID communications performance required for common supply chain business processes. However, although companies within the same sector have similar information needs as their competitors and have comparable business practices, usage environments will be very different depending on age and design of the assembly / manufacturing facility, geography and culture. Gen 2 or any RFID technology won't provide exactly the same performance at any two facilities. That is why it is important to understand the difference between what Gen 2 specifies and the range of performance that Gen 2 compliant products can provide.
What next?
RFID does not need to be as complicated or as daunting as some of the industry players would have you believe. Just because the technology exists it does not need to be used to maximum capacity throughout all supply chains. The following factors are considered to be key when moving forward:
• Do not overcomplicate the technology; use what is suitable to meet your objectives.
• Ensure the correct partner (system integrator / provider) is engaged from the outset.
• Ensure that the systems chosen can move with technology
• The pilot scheme is just that - it will need development
RFID system planning is crucial to its success but can on its own be a major task. This combined with the fact that you may have little or no RFID expertise internally can prevent you from taking your first steps to deciding if RFID is suitable to you and your business. Gideon Hillman Consulting can assist you with knowledge and experienced based RFID system planning and help you design a project plan with specific focus on:
-Project Objectives & Scope
-Resource Requirements
-Project Stages and Timescale
-Project Milestones
-Integrator / Supplier Choice
-Regular Technical Reviews
Investment into planning and consultative project management at the outset can negate over investment and additional cost in the longer term.
RFID Terminology:
ASN – Advanced Shipping Notice – notification between vendor and customer of parts due or
to be delivered.
Agile reader - An RFID reader that can read tags operating at different frequencies or
different communication protocols.
Air interface protoc
The idea of fire branding customers comes from my grand daughter, Taylor. She applied a tattoo to her shoulder and was pleased as she displayed a small peace symbol about the size of a peanut. Each time I looked at her shoulder, I was reminded of the little symbol and what it meant. It made me think about how great it would be to fire brand customers with my business name. I thought of countless ways of placing my logo around the world to spread the right image.I realized that several companies are fire branding their image everyday. All I have to do is see a red and blue swirl and Pepsi comes to mind. A few yellow arches and hamburgers with fries make me hungry. A consistent image is what makes this work for them.Turning Drab to Fabulous Having a consistent image creates an impact with customers. Later this month I will be attending a few conventions where my image and my booth must create an impression. I will fire brand my image from the shirts I will be wearing to the consistent stationary and sales collateral on display. My sales video has been reworked to link my logo to an image of myself as I promote my sales management consulting business.Creating brand awareness is the dream of every marketing executive. Consistent branding is the only way to make this work. A logo is the customer link to your business and yourself as a salesperson. The more consistent you are with it, the stronger your brand becomes.One company that can help create a fire branding impact is Letter Click. The Letter Click Company is an Email Services Provider (ESP) that brands your email consistently. If you want to try out their service, give them a try for 30 days. I’m sure you will be pleased with the results. I have been using their service for a few months and recommend them.Talk the Talk Consistently
Effective RFID implementations should follow the architectural principles developed for financial trading systems, process control and large-scale network management. Like RFID systems, these systems process huge volumes of data, correct errors in real time, correlate events, detect trends and patterns, re-organise and cleanse data and recover from faults – all in real time.
A role of the system integrator is to develop and implement an operational data management architecture that captures events at the “edge” of the enterprise, where operational activity occurs, rather than in the centre, where business-oriented transaction processing occurs. To achieve manageable data then the architecture will comprise of data concentrators and pipelines to route relevant data to the specific user systems that require it, thus not overloading any individual back end management system. For example:- container / pallet data to the asset management system, product and stock data to the ERP and MRP systems cost data to the financial management systems and so on…….
System compatibility in a Global Supply Chain is important, not necessarily for the pilot scheme, but if it is to facilitate a successful roll out across the whole supply chain. Global standards are progressing with the new systems created in compliance with the EPCglobal Generation 2 (Gen 2) standard.
Gen 2 creates a foundation on which to build interoperable RFID products and systems that will improve inventory management, logistics and retail operations around the world. However there will be significant performance and capability differences among Gen 2 compliant equipment. Gen 2 is a standard, and standards specify minimum performance requirements and will therefore not accommodate all systems, as standard –based equipment will not provide a standard performance.
Gen 2 specifies basic RFID communications performance required for common supply chain business processes. However, although companies within the same sector have similar information needs as their competitors and have comparable business practices, usage environments will be very different depending on age and design of the assembly / manufacturing facility, geography and culture. Gen 2 or any RFID technology won't provide exactly the same performance at any two facilities. That is why it is important to understand the difference between what Gen 2 specifies and the range of performance that Gen 2 compliant products can provide.
What next?
RFID does not need to be as complicated or as daunting as some of the industry players would have you believe. Just because the technology exists it does not need to be used to maximum capacity throughout all supply chains. The following factors are considered to be key when moving forward:
• Do not overcomplicate the technology; use what is suitable to meet your objectives.
• Ensure the correct partner (system integrator / provider) is engaged from the outset.
• Ensure that the systems chosen can move with technology
• The pilot scheme is just that - it will need development
RFID system planning is crucial to its success but can on its own be a major task. This combined with the fact that you may have little or no RFID expertise internally can prevent you from taking your first steps to deciding if RFID is suitable to you and your business. Gideon Hillman Consulting can assist you with knowledge and experienced based RFID system planning and help you design a project plan with specific focus on:
-Project Objectives & Scope
-Resource Requirements
-Project Stages and Timescale
-Project Milestones
-Integrator / Supplier Choice
-Regular Technical Reviews
Investment into planning and consultative project management at the outset can negate over investment and additional cost in the longer term.
RFID Terminology:
ASN – Advanced Shipping Notice – notification between vendor and customer of parts due or
to be delivered.
Agile reader - An RFID reader that can read tags operating at different frequencies or
different communication protocols.
Air interface protoc
If you have ever been to a seaport it is a busy place with heavy cranes and material handling equipment everywhere. Containers lined up sometimes 6-8 high, it is a scary place for some but for a material handling equipment supply and services company it is a dream come true. The seaports only job is to move freight to and from our shores. America exports all kinds of goods and imports every thing from car parts to computers.Those containers represent World Trade, US trade deficit and the hopeful economies of many third world nations busy trying to fulfill the needs of our economic powerhouse and strong middle class base. This is why a material handling equipment and supply services company salesman is in heaven near such waters. But on my last visit I spent some time in a coffee shop with a container specialist who later switched jobs and became a material handling equipment supply guy. He told me he sold everything you could ever think of that was used in any part of the shipping business, from plastic wrap machines for small business to shock mats for the inside of trucks and cargo containers to protect the cargo, freight and exported goods to foreign shores.I asked him about lighting and he said yes our company has manufactured lines on that too, he then asked me; “How many lights do you need and when do you want them?” What a salesmen, so since I was not actually buying lights, I bought him a cup of coffee to pick his brain. I asked him how do they light up such large Seaports and do you have an energy efficient lighting that uses no power source? He said; “Oh, we have all types of energy efficient bright lights that can light up a stadium, how many do you need?” I enjoyed his assertive “trial close” sales tactics, he must have went to Ziggy Ziglar’s Sales Seminars? Not bad I thought for a material handling equipme
What next?
RFID does not need to be as complicated or as daunting as some of the industry players would have you believe. Just because the technology exists it does not need to be used to maximum capacity throughout all supply chains. The following factors are considered to be key when moving forward:
• Do not overcomplicate the technology; use what is suitable to meet your objectives.
• Ensure the correct partner (system integrator / provider) is engaged from the outset.
• Ensure that the systems chosen can move with technology
• The pilot scheme is just that - it will need development
RFID system planning is crucial to its success but can on its own be a major task. This combined with the fact that you may have little or no RFID expertise internally can prevent you from taking your first steps to deciding if RFID is suitable to you and your business. Gideon Hillman Consulting can assist you with knowledge and experienced based RFID system planning and help you design a project plan with specific focus on:
-Project Objectives & Scope
-Resource Requirements
-Project Stages and Timescale
-Project Milestones
-Integrator / Supplier Choice
-Regular Technical Reviews
Investment into planning and consultative project management at the outset can negate over investment and additional cost in the longer term.
RFID Terminology:
ASN – Advanced Shipping Notice – notification between vendor and customer of parts due or
to be delivered.
Agile reader - An RFID reader that can read tags operating at different frequencies or
different communication protocols.
Air interface protocol - The standards that govern how RFID tags and readers
communicate.
Anti-collision - Anti-collision algorithms are used to collect data from multiple RFID tags at
the same time from the same RFID reader without interference.
Auto-ID Centre - The original non-profit organisation that helped develop RFID system
technology. This work is now continued by EPCglobal.
Backscatter - The communication method between a passive RFID tag and a reader. An RF
signal sent by a reader is reflected back to the reader from the tag, which is modulated to
transmit data.
Beacon - An active or semi-passive RFID tag that is programmed to wake up and broadcast
a signal at pre-set intervals.
Commissioning - Writing data to an RFID tag for the first time. This can happen at the
factory or later using a smart label printer.
Concentrator - A device used to gather data from multiple RFID readers at the same time.
Contactless smart card - A credit card or buyer card that contains an RFID chip to transmit
information without having to be swiped through a reader.
EPC – Electronic Product Codes
EPCglobal - The organisation set up to commercialise RFID technology, which has taken
over this task from the Auto-ID Centre.
Far-field communication - An RFID tag that is located one full wavelength away from an
RFID reader.
HHT – Hand Held Terminal – portable handheld RFID reader which operators can carry to
manually interrogate RFID tags
Inductive coupling. - An RFID reader antenna and a tag antenna each have a coil, which
together form a magnetic field. The RFID tag draws electrical energy from this field, which
powers its microchip. The microchip then changes the electrical characteristics of the tag
antenna. These changes are sensed up by the reader antenna and converted into a serial
number for the RFID tag.
Interrogator - Another name for an RFID reader.
KPIs – Key Performance Indicators – used in performance benchmarking processes
License plate - A simple RFID system that only tracks RFID tag serial numbers and no other
information.
Middleware - In the context of an RFID system, refers to software that is used to filter RFID
data and pass on useful information to enterprise software applications for further processing.
Moores Law - The observation made in 1965 by Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, that the
number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits had doubled every year since the
integrated circuit was invented. Moore predicted that this trend would continue for the
foreseeable future. In subsequent years, the pace slowed down a bit, but data density has
doubled approximately every 18 months, and this is the current definition of Moore's Law.
Passive tag - An RFID tag without a power source or transmitter. Radio waves from an RFID
reader are collected from the RFID tag antenna, which powers up the microchip in the tag.
The tag is then able to send back information stored in the chip to the reader.
Phantom read - When a RFID reader reports the presence of a tag that doesn't exist.
RFID reader - A device used to communicate with RFID tags. The reader has one or more
antennas, which emit radio waves and receive signals back from the tag. The reader is also
sometimes called an interrogator because it "interrogates" the tag.
RFID tag - A microchip attached to an antenna in a package. An RFID tag contains a unique
serial number at a minimum, but commonly contains other information about a product. RFID
tags can be passive, semi-passive or active.
Semi-passive tags - Similar to active RFID tags, but the battery is used only to run the RFID
chip - not to broadcast a signal to a reader.
Slap and ship - Placing an RFID tag on a case or pallet just before it is shipped from a
supplier. Used to meet a retailer's requirements.
Smart label - A bar-code label that contains an RFID tag.
Transponder. A radio-frequency transmitter-receiver combo. Another term for a RFID tag.
Write-once, read-many (WORM) - A RFID tag that can be written to (changed) only once by
a reader. Afterward, the tag can only be read.
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