Beyond The Supply Chain

By David Crump

Why RFID is So Popular
RFID has been around since the 1940s. So why is it just now being so widely heralded? Why is Wal-Mart Stores, the largest company in the United States, using RFID technology to improve its inventory management operations? Why is the U.S. Social Security Administration using RFID to supplement (and, in some cases, replace) the handheld bar code scanning system it's been using for data acquisition in its warehouse management operations? Why are the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and other high-ranking government officials paying so much attention to analysts' predictions that the RFID market for consulting, implementation and management will grow to between $2 billion and $4.2 billion by 2008? And why is RFID now being used in industrial and manufacturing settings more than ever before?

There are several reasons. For one, RFID technology is relatively cheap and incredibly versatile. The small size and low cost of RFID tags, in particular, continue to drive the expense of RFID systems sharply downward. Additionally, although the RF environment can be adversely affected by moisture, weather and other interference, it remains relatively reliable and uncomplicated as a communications medium. As we shall see, these two factors—low cost and simplicity—are what make RFID just as viable for identifying a lost pet as it is for classifying parts.

RFID technology can be used with PACs, PLCs and I/O systems to improve manufacturing operations.

Perhaps the most important reason, however, for the increasingly broad acceptance of RFID technology—particularly in the industrial automation sector—is standardization. This standardization includes the frequencies over which RFID systems operate, as well as the codes and protocols they are able to recognize and utilize. For example, the electronic product code (EPC)—which evolved from the UPC (Universal Product Code)—has now become the de facto standard for retailers.

Moreover, significant progress continues to take place toward integrating EPC and ISO standards. This standardization is what will continue to make RFID a popular and effective technology and much more viable for solutions in industrial application. For example, there are many manufacturing applications where bar code systems help move products down an assembly line. At each successive stage of production, a bar code reader scans a serial label, and that information is sent to a computer that determines what the next step of assembly is.

By comparison, RFID is able to facilitate this type of data collection and delivery much more effectively. In many instances, RFID systems' antenna-to-tag communication method is superior to that of bar codes. The latter utilizes an interrogating beam of light that needs to be physically manipulated to pass over the linear bar code. Not only does RFID eliminate this need for line of sight, but it's also capable of reading multiple tags simultaneously, as well as selected tags based on a query requesting certain criteria.