RFID - it's More Than Tags and Standards

Most news articles about RFID (radio frequency identification) technology seem content to limit their coverage to RFID tag vendors such as Matrics and Alien, or to focus on the UCC's standards body for RFID, EPCglobal. But while tags and standards are clearly important for RFID's widespread adoption, they represent only one part of the story - the part that's is enamoured with the technology of air interface protocols, hardware specifications, and chip manufacturing techniques. However, to successfully deploy RFID, companies need to think far beyond tags and standards.

More than tags and standards
Tags and standards emerged long ago as being central to the RFID viability debate because they were viewed as the two largest adoption barriers. Conventional wisdom suggested if tag costs remained over US$0.05 - US$0.10, few companies could justify their widespread use. And, without widely accepted standards, it would be hard for RFID to proliferate since inter-company use would be hindered by dozens of proprietary systems.

But take a look at what is actually happening: tags are still much more expensive than 5 cents, and in moderate volumes you can expect to pay more than five times that amount. Widely accepted standards are not in place. EPCglobal and ISO are developing competing standards whose differences will not be easily resolved. The big drivers of RFID adoption, from Wal-Mart to the US Department of Defense, are taking it for granted that these issues will resolve themselves over time. And the FDA assumes that the benefit to society of fighting counterfeit pharmaceuticals far outweighs these long dominant challenges.
When you think about deploying RFID you need to quickly think beyond tags and standards.

Defining an RFID use: objectives and media
First, you have to determine why, where, and how you may employ RFID. There are many other well-established RFID uses such as asset tracking and electronic payment and emerging uses such as in-store marketing.

To identify and organise your potential uses of RFID, you must first consider your objectives. Most companies typically weigh the benefits of three objectives or benefits RFID can deliver:
·  efficiency,
·  security, and
·  marketing.

Efficiency improvements are the driver of most current RFID projects as companies attempt to reduce material handling costs and shipping cycle times, more effectively track and allocate assets, improve quality and better manage inventory. However, product security is also a driver as is evidenced by Gillette's efforts and the recent initiative by the FDA to address pharmaceutical counterfeiting. Finally, efforts by companies such as Metro Group (Germany), Prada (USA) and Marks & Spencer (UK) go well beyond the supply chain to improve in-store customer experience in hopes of driving greater revenue.

In concert with an evaluation of target objectives and benefits, you should also determine which media you expect to tag. Tagged media typically fall into one of four categories:
·  payment devices
·  property
·  people, and
·  products.

Many people are already familiar with RFID payment due to automated toll collection systems and Exxon Mobil's SpeedPass system. However, they may not be aware of work to tag assets such as computers, warehouse conveyances, and airline service carts to better track their use and reduce loss or theft. Moreover, several amusement parks now enable you to track the other people in your party to help you locate family members.

The most prolific interest in RFID today involves tagging products or product containers. This is the use championed by the US Army for container tracking, and is the focus of retailers for case and pallet tracking. These RFID lead adopters are tracking goods to improve supply chain efficiency and inventory visibility, in an effort to reduce both cost and out-of-stocks.

Knowing up front your objectives and media is critical to determine your requirements for an RFID trial or deployment. Tracking a product within a retailer's store has different performance and connectivity requirements than tracking the same product in a warehouse setting. Moreover, the economics and durability requirements for tagging reusable assets are different than those for tracking disposable packaging or payment devices. These decisions are based on criteria extending well beyond tag and standards issues.

Three critical areas of deployment
While tag and standards developments will have some bearing on your RFID deployment, you need to critically assess three additional areas early in your initiative: readers, RFID middleware, and current processes and systems.

• Readers: RFID readers should be evaluated with equal or greater care than tags. Readers are the engines that make RFID work. They interrogate tags, sift through data and package it up for storage or use by other systems. Whereas tags typically have a short lifecycle, readers must continue to work indefinitely. A faulty tag has limited impact on your RFID use and can be quickly and inexpensively replaced. Readers play critical roles monitoring various areas and a malfunction could result in missed or incorrect information for large numbers of products, shipments, or assets. They are 'mission critical' equipment. As a result they must be constantly monitored to ensure proper performance.
  
  Furthermore, readers can determine the long-term flexibility or rigidity of your RFID capability. Many readers currently work with only a specific type of tag. This reduces your ability to switch between tag vendors to take advantage of cost or performance breakthroughs that can be expected over the next several years. And while these single protocol systems may provide simplicity in initial purchase and deployment, they could prove very costly down the road if you 'bet on the wrong horse'. You now need to evaluate multi-protocol reader vendors who are developing open systems that can read tags from multiple manufacturers. This approach will provide greater flexibility in deployment and management, as well as better protecting your investment.
  

• Middleware: Middleware is playing two critical roles in RFID deployment and use. First, it is used to efficiently connect readers to enterprise systems and data repositories. This feature provides benefits in deployment - as well as benefits after implementation when other new systems are introduced. Second, most RFID middleware vendors are developing tools to help you filter data more effectively, and to remotely monitor, control, and maintain readers. These tools can make RFID more valuable to business users and also reduce the challenges involved in the deployment and long-term management of the hardware. Any project beyond a very limited pilot should include RFID middleware as a core component.

• Processes and systems: RFID does not exist in a vacuum. It is deployed to support or improve your existing processes or provide new capabilities. RFID deployments should start with a process and systems analysis - not with tag selection. Understanding your existing processes and systems and how they will be impacted by RFID will help you establish project requirements that will determine your tag and reader selection criteria. This can be done by mapping out your existing processes, and the systems that support them, and then identifying the RFID 'touch points'. Those touch points, combined with your performance measures and objectives, will help you make the right choices for tags and readers.

Act locally - ensure your project's success
While tags and standards have driven the RFID debate for some time, users must look at several critical factors that will make or break your RFID initiative. These include strategic factors - such as your objectives, the media to be tagged, and tactical aspects such as reader selection, the use of RFID middleware, and process or systems impacts. Your project's success will be based far more on your decisions in these areas than the tag and standards challenges discussed so frequently today.

For more information on how netlink can help you with successful RFID deployments e view our RFID services or click here to contact an account manager@netlink.