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RFID customers span many industries, and use RFID solutions to solve a variety of issues. RFID technology used from reducing or eliminating out-of-stock situations to improving quality assurance to tracking valuable assets. Retailers have accepted RFID's value in managing inventory, tracking goods and enhancing consumer experiences.
The example of traceability in Retail is Indian company ITC. It prints bar-coding and readable text onto the adhesive RFID labels centrally, then sends them out to hundreds of producers of clothes and accessories across India. The manufacturers attach a label to each garment's usual hangtag and ship the items to a distribution centers. At the DC, the tags are interrogated in a tunnel reader affixed to a conveyor used for the receiving and shipping processes, while picking remains a bar-code-based process. At the stores, tags can be read during receiving. The tunnel-style readers used at DCs would not be appropriate for the small space in a store's back room. Instead, the tags are read by interrogators installed under the checkout counter to speed up the sales process. Shoppers select goods and set them on the counter, where a sales terminal interrogates the items' tags and generates a bill within seconds.
Many manufacturers have deployed cutting-edge RFID technology to track inventory movement throughout their manufacturing facility. RFID solutions are also enabling real-time, automatic tracking of valuable IT assets, such as servers, hard drives and media tapes, enabling better security and compliance with regulations. RFID-driven production management system provides production equipment and process solutions for different manufacturers. Wood products manufacturer Custom Cupboards, for example, uses the RFID system to track work in process and to automatically guide production equipment. Materials needed for an order are kitted and a Gen2 RFID tag is permanently applied to one of the pieces at the start of the production process. When materials arrive at a production station the RFID tag is read to automatically identify the job order in Custom Cupboards's automated production control system. The production equipment then automatically makes the cuts or performs other activity required for the specific job, without requiring operator intervention to set up the machine. Some operations are performed by robotic assembly. A total of five RFID readers are used. RFID-enabled automated operations include production, quality inspection and box making for the finished product. In ports you will see RFID-enabled real-time, automatic data on trailer parking slots, truck positions, gate activities and temperature of refrigerated trailers. Airports are using RFID to track bags from the ticket counter through loading, providing nearly 100 percent accurate baggage tracking as well as end-to-end asset visibility. RFID readers are available in a variety of form factors. Fixed readers can be installed at portals, like a dock door, or integrated as part of a conveyor line. Handheld devices can be worn or carried by an operator, and vehicle-mounted readers can be mounted on a lift truck. The more important consideration is what operating frequency to use, which will vary according to the application. Three frequencies, or tag types, are commonly used in industrial applications today: 1. High frequency (HF) tags have been used to identify and track assets for decades. These tags have a limited read range of 2 to 6 inches from the reader. 2. Ultra high frequency (UHF) tags have become popular over the last four or five years as a result of the mandates for tracking cartons and pallets. UHF tags can carry more data than an HF tag, and they have longer read ranges of up to 8 feet. HF and UHF tags are known as passive tags. They have no power source. Instead, they are powered when interrogated by a radio signal from an RFID reader. 3. Active tags, on the other hand, are equipped with a battery for power. They broadcast a signal that can be read by any reader within range. Some active tags have read ranges of hundreds of feet, making them ideal for asset tracking solutions like locating a trailer in a yard. Active tags are also considerably more expensive than passive tags. For that reason, they are used to track very high value assets or in closed loop applications where the same tag might be used hundreds of times.
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