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Putting RFID Know-How to Work
In addition to technical knowledge, HP has worked on ways to find and measure the return on investment, which HP believes is essential for any company deploying RFID. For example, in an initial proof-of-concept pilot at its Memphis location last year, the company measured that a pallet ready for shipment could be processed in just 11 seconds—well down from the 90 seconds it had taken previously.
“That was a specific process with a specific product,” says Ian Robertson, head of HP’s RFID program. “We know that in electronics manufacturing, there is a high degree of variability, and every item could mean a shift in configuration. But it made us think RFID was worth going after.”
HP has also gained experience in how to manage the personnel involved in an RFID deployment. “RFID deployment brings program management issues,” says Pradhan. “We have learned how to manage and organize an RFID team—sometimes across the world—to work toward meeting a mandate.”
Because RFID cuts across so many parts of HP’s business and operations, the company has developed a core RFID-deployment team that can work with any number of HP employees, depending on the project. “RFID is still an emerging technology, and it does not respect organizational boundaries,” says Pradhan. “We have one program throughout the company.”
HP’s core RFID team, composed of about 25 people, holds regular meetings and works with HP staff drawn from divisions throughout the company, including its enterprise group, internal supply chain group and HP labs. “We try to look at outstanding issues and what resolutions we reach,” says Pradhan. “There are also a lot technical and regulatory issues that need to be addressed. We also use meetings to remind people what we are working toward, where we are going in our own facilities.”
Several members of the RFID team sit on HP’s 12-person RFID governing council, which is responsible for the company’s strategy, direction and priorities for RFID initiatives. In addition to Robertson and Pradhan, members of the RFID council include Dick Lampman, director of research and HP’s representative on the board of EPCglobal, and Jim Milton, senior vice president customer solutions group and managing director of HP Americas.
HP applied what it learned from its own internal RFID deployments to develop and implement RFID projects for a number of Wal-Mart suppliers, including toy manufacturer Hasbro and Canadian fire-log company Conros. It took HP roughly 45 days to deploy a trial for Hasbro and around 60 days to design and complete the pilot for Conros (see link http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/1029 Log Maker Warms Up to RFID>). For the Conros pilot, HP worked with Matrics, which delivered the tags and reader infrastructure, Shipcom Wireless, which provided middleware to connect the system, and Conros’s own IT staff. Hasbro declined to release details of its project.
“We were able to duplicate a lot of what we had already learned with our own internal RFID deployments to deliver a turnkey solution to Conros,” says Victor Garcia, the managing principal for HP's wireless and mobility program in Toronto.
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| HP's Robertson |
“That was a specific process with a specific product,” says Ian Robertson, head of HP’s RFID program. “We know that in electronics manufacturing, there is a high degree of variability, and every item could mean a shift in configuration. But it made us think RFID was worth going after.”
HP has also gained experience in how to manage the personnel involved in an RFID deployment. “RFID deployment brings program management issues,” says Pradhan. “We have learned how to manage and organize an RFID team—sometimes across the world—to work toward meeting a mandate.”
Because RFID cuts across so many parts of HP’s business and operations, the company has developed a core RFID-deployment team that can work with any number of HP employees, depending on the project. “RFID is still an emerging technology, and it does not respect organizational boundaries,” says Pradhan. “We have one program throughout the company.”
HP’s core RFID team, composed of about 25 people, holds regular meetings and works with HP staff drawn from divisions throughout the company, including its enterprise group, internal supply chain group and HP labs. “We try to look at outstanding issues and what resolutions we reach,” says Pradhan. “There are also a lot technical and regulatory issues that need to be addressed. We also use meetings to remind people what we are working toward, where we are going in our own facilities.”
Several members of the RFID team sit on HP’s 12-person RFID governing council, which is responsible for the company’s strategy, direction and priorities for RFID initiatives. In addition to Robertson and Pradhan, members of the RFID council include Dick Lampman, director of research and HP’s representative on the board of EPCglobal, and Jim Milton, senior vice president customer solutions group and managing director of HP Americas.
HP applied what it learned from its own internal RFID deployments to develop and implement RFID projects for a number of Wal-Mart suppliers, including toy manufacturer Hasbro and Canadian fire-log company Conros. It took HP roughly 45 days to deploy a trial for Hasbro and around 60 days to design and complete the pilot for Conros (see link http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/1029 Log Maker Warms Up to RFID>). For the Conros pilot, HP worked with Matrics, which delivered the tags and reader infrastructure, Shipcom Wireless, which provided middleware to connect the system, and Conros’s own IT staff. Hasbro declined to release details of its project.
“We were able to duplicate a lot of what we had already learned with our own internal RFID deployments to deliver a turnkey solution to Conros,” says Victor Garcia, the managing principal for HP's wireless and mobility program in Toronto.
