Beyond The Supply Chain

By David Crump

Other Uses for RFID
So far, we have described two scenarios where RFID can be extended beyond uses in the supply chain, warehousing and asset tracking, facilitating manufacturing and industrial automation processes more directly. Now let's examine one other way in which RFID can be implemented in the factory: in the areas of validation and regulatory-compliance reporting.

Many industries—oil, gas, pharmaceutical, automotive and others—have strict requirements and guidelines (some self-imposed, others federally mandated) applicable to their manufacturing and processing operations. The U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), for example, requires pharmaceutical manufacturers to maintain unalterable electronic records to prove their drugs and the raw ingredients used to make them have been stored at proper temperatures. This means refrigeration-system temperatures must be constantly monitored and recorded in some sort of database.

An easy way to accomplish this would be to affix a smart RFID to a lot of drugs (or ingredients) and integrate that tag with whatever industrial I/O system or device is being used to monitor the refrigerators. With a relatively simple configuration, the monitoring system can be programmed to acquire the data and communicate it to the RFID system. The latter can then write these temperature readings to the RFID tags affixed to each individual lot as they sit in the very refrigerator, warehouse or storeroom that's being monitored. Once again, the medium enabling this communication is Ethernet. The RFID tag can carry this temperature data with it all the way through the supply chain; in the event of an FDA audit or product recall, lot numbers can be quickly tracked to verify storage temperatures.

These kinds of scenarios—where industrial automation, control and data-acquisition systems seamlessly integrate with RFID systems, reading and writing to tags automatically—offer the brightest hope for RFID to become a truly ubiquitous technology. It's important to note that we already have the supporting infrastructure to accomplish this. We have the devices (I/O systems, PLCs, PACs and the like) to make the necessary sensor-actuator connections. And we have the communication protocols and industrial networks we need to make these new types of RFID applications a reality.

All we need now are individuals throughout the organization—from C-level executives down to plant managers and operators—with the vision to recognize the value of RFID and the fact that it can function as more than just an asset-tracking technology. It can, in fact, complement all types of control and data acquisition systems, and with its unique features and capabilities, it's ideally suited for integration into new and existing industrial applications.

David Crump is director of marketing communications at Opto 22, a Temecula, Calif., manufacturer of industrial control and data acquisition hardware.