Our founder and CEO, Peter Collins, recently spoke with Mike Allen from the AIM Group on the topic of RFID Asset Tracking. This conversation was recorded as an RFID Technology Podcast on AIM’s popular Industry Leader Podcast Series.
AIM is an industry group supporting automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) technologies, especially promoting the use of RFID, Barcode, IoT and other technologies. Mike Allen manages and moderates a podcast series that interviews leaders in the AIDC industry.
Below is a short excerpt from the podcast with Mike Allen and Peter Collins on RFID Technology.
RFID Asset Inventory Control
Peter Collins explained, that at A2B Tracking we often get into discussions with customers about RFID technology. And to be clear, for this conversation we are referring to Passive RFID or RAIN RFID technology, as opposed to Active RFID technologies.
Often in our discussions with customers we will be asked some variation of the question: Is RFID just another data collection technology like barcode? The answer is YES but, RFID is much more powerful…
RFID technology is implemented in a way that is profoundly different from Barcode. But, here is the punchline on RFID. It’s our experience at A2B Tracking that RFID is a game-changer. It is a very exciting time to be working with this technology because when it’s implemented properly it has the ability to provide incredible visibility and accuracy to a broad range of organizations.
The reason why RFID is so exciting is that there are a number of different types of RFID readers in the market today. RFID readers today are extremely powerful and all come with proven track records many times over. But, the way that these readers get implemented is extremely nuanced – and the details in the implementation are critical to the success of the project.
Mobile RFID
Imagine a Mobile RFID scenario, where you have a handheld device that is connected to a smartphone, or a touch computer, that is paired with the mobile device in your hand. This is a very common way that we deploy RFID technology. It relies heavily on the App software to drive that data capture function.
Let’s picture a warehouse scenario, where you are standing in front of a stack of boxes, or a row of shelving that is full of bins of inventory. When you use your Mobile RFID device and you depress the trigger – at that moment, you will capture hundreds of RFID tag reads within your range.
The big question here is – Is that a good thing to have captured hundreds of reads?
And the next question is – At that moment, what function are you trying to perform with this technology?
The above scenario we just described might be great for performing a physical inventory; but, it might not be so great when trying to pick a single item or receive a small number of items.
These kinds of nuances really play out and can become quite complicated when you are trying to harness RFID technology. At the end of the day, it is critical to completely understand the business need that is driving the desire for RFID. Organizations need to carefully think through their business processes and consider the impacts of RFID in different situations.
