Satellite Equipment Center Automates Inventory Tracking

To link the tag data with COLTS, Jones worked with RFID systems provider IntelliTrack to write integration software that would reside on the Symbol MC9060-G RFID handheld interrogators used to read the tags. This software would be integrated with the COLTS software.

Testing of the system took less than 90 days, says Jones. Since October the team has been addressing minor bugs found in the software layers. Once these are fixed, the branch will roll out the program on a permanent basis. Jones says it has tagged all 4,000 serialized items at the facility.

The circuit cards are stored in drawers held by large metal racks. Thus, personnel must remove each drawer from its rack before reading the handheld device. Attempts to read the tags while the drawers are in the racks have proven unsuccessful because the metal interferes with the RF signal transmitted by the reader. Jones says that having to remove the drawers adds a small amount of time to the inventory process, but that it's not significant. Under the manual system, conducting an inventory of 85 circuit cards took approximately two hours to complete. The use of passive RFID tags has cut that time to less than five minutes.

"Because the inventory is easier to take, [branch personnel] will do it more often, and the accuracy will likely increase," says Jones. He adds that the RFID system will also streamline the process of updating the locations of inventory items in the database.

Under the manual system, when personnel move inventoried parts to a new physical location within the facility, they must manually change the location in the inventory database for each item. "This isn't a big deal until you have to move 50 drawers of parts," says Jones. Now, they can change the location of multiple items by using a function written into the integration software IntelliTrack installed on the handhelds.

The software also keeps track of the time and date of each tag read, then imports this information to the COLTS database, which provides a record of when each inventory was taken.

The EHF SATCOM branch, Jones says, will likely begin tagging the cases and pallets of satellite equipment it sends to the DOD before the department requires it to support an RFID mandate for tracking shipments headed to its materiel depots. That is because attaching the tags may help the branch automate shipment tracking. Still, he points out, none of the DOD facilities the branch ships to are yet RFID-enabled. Therefore, EHF SATCOM may wait for those facilities to add RFID readers before it begins tagging shipments.