The usage of RFID tags has been gathering speed for several years, but 2010 has increased proliferation for three key reasons: 1] cheaper equipment and tags, 2] increased dependability and performance (up to 99.9% accurate now); 3] the agreement of an international standard for UHF passive tags.
Cost has always been a prohibiting factor, but a Korean company has declared that it will have passive RFID tags for sale for about three US cents each by the closing stages of 2011
Historically, the biggest user of RFID tags was and still is the US Department of Defense. The armed forces use smart tags to track the containers of their hardware and sometimes individual articles of hardware too. The aviation industry has also been using them worldwide for a long time.
The latest industries to find a use for the passive tags are financial services for IT asset tracking and health care, where more than 60% of the top medical device companies are using passive UHF RFID in 2010.
Companies that have not come up with a dependable system to track their stock and know exactly what they have of everything that they sell are apt to carry surplus levels of stock to ensure they can fulfill their customers' requirements.
If you can reduce excess stock by using improved information, you can: trim down investment, storage space, labour costs; and expand asset utilization, boost stock turnover, facilitate faster billing cycles, all of which will significantly contribute to cash flow.
In short, the usage of RFID:
1] Facilitates stock control and item location in real time, which reduces product search time, reduces inventory levels and enhances control of the manufacturing process. 2] Improves compliance, enhances work-in-progress (WIP) productivity and reduces the cost of the finished goods. 3] Enables the real-time monitoring of production, order fulfillment, and distribution procedures and their level of effectiveness. 4] Enhances profitably and ability to meet demand rapidly and reduces inventory costs. 5] Reduces labour costs by eliminating manual steps. 6] Improves order and shipping accuracy by helping to make sure that orders are shipped complete, error-free, and on time, which thereby increases customer satisfaction and the probability of repeat orders. 7] Provides extremely accurate real-time data capture by means of warehouse management systems (WMS) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.
The way forward is to begin with the goods-in bay. Goods arrive with shipping labels, but they are often inadequate in quality and information. It would be best to create a new 'identity badge' for all goods received at this point. All the pertinent information that you have on the items delivered can be put of an RFID tag and attached to the pallet, the crate or even the goods themselves.
Now these articles can be added to stock and the computer will always be able to divulge what the items are in the box, how many of them there are and where they are located in the warehouse.
The simple procedure of creating an RFID tag at the unloading bay and attaching it to the items received can save hours of time wasted checking up on stock levels and thousands of dollars wasted in overstocking.
Cost has always been a prohibiting factor, but a Korean company has declared that it will have passive RFID tags for sale for about three US cents each by the closing stages of 2011
Historically, the biggest user of RFID tags was and still is the US Department of Defense. The armed forces use smart tags to track the containers of their hardware and sometimes individual articles of hardware too. The aviation industry has also been using them worldwide for a long time.
The latest industries to find a use for the passive tags are financial services for IT asset tracking and health care, where more than 60% of the top medical device companies are using passive UHF RFID in 2010.
Companies that have not come up with a dependable system to track their stock and know exactly what they have of everything that they sell are apt to carry surplus levels of stock to ensure they can fulfill their customers' requirements.
If you can reduce excess stock by using improved information, you can: trim down investment, storage space, labour costs; and expand asset utilization, boost stock turnover, facilitate faster billing cycles, all of which will significantly contribute to cash flow.
In short, the usage of RFID:
1] Facilitates stock control and item location in real time, which reduces product search time, reduces inventory levels and enhances control of the manufacturing process. 2] Improves compliance, enhances work-in-progress (WIP) productivity and reduces the cost of the finished goods. 3] Enables the real-time monitoring of production, order fulfillment, and distribution procedures and their level of effectiveness. 4] Enhances profitably and ability to meet demand rapidly and reduces inventory costs. 5] Reduces labour costs by eliminating manual steps. 6] Improves order and shipping accuracy by helping to make sure that orders are shipped complete, error-free, and on time, which thereby increases customer satisfaction and the probability of repeat orders. 7] Provides extremely accurate real-time data capture by means of warehouse management systems (WMS) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.
The way forward is to begin with the goods-in bay. Goods arrive with shipping labels, but they are often inadequate in quality and information. It would be best to create a new 'identity badge' for all goods received at this point. All the pertinent information that you have on the items delivered can be put of an RFID tag and attached to the pallet, the crate or even the goods themselves.
Now these articles can be added to stock and the computer will always be able to divulge what the items are in the box, how many of them there are and where they are located in the warehouse.
The simple procedure of creating an RFID tag at the unloading bay and attaching it to the items received can save hours of time wasted checking up on stock levels and thousands of dollars wasted in overstocking.
About the Author:
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on several topics, but is now concerned with the best RFID printer. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Active RFID Management.