RFID-Enabled Phones Assign Work to Airport Crew

Holding the telephone's RFID reader within 10 centimeters of a location tag triggers the phone to transmit the ID numbers of the phone and tag automatically. This informs the airport work-management system of that person's location and availability for another task. This real-time data enables the Northport work-management system to determine which staff members are closest to the sites of remaining tasks, thereby saving time and creating efficiency in the work scheduling.

Work assignments are then transmitted automatically to the phone and appear on its screen. With the previous system, personnel would have to call in and wait, or browse multiple voice menus to learn their next task. Now, a worker presents an existing RFID-enabled identity card into the handset used for that shift, and the phone's RFID interrogator reads the tag on the card and logs the employee in.

"Workers just grab a phone from a pool of phones, work with it and then return it," says Kimmo Kaskikallio, IT architect at IBM Finland. "Their ID checks them into the phone, and the task-scheduling system can see which staff member has which phone."

So far, tags have been deployed at 40 check-in desks and 35 departure gates at the airport. Northport eventually plans to attach tags to the panels covering the plane power outlets embedded in the tarmac so ground staff on the airport's air side—the area where the planes are kept, boarded and maintained—can be tracked by location, as well.

Northport currently uses approximately 70 RFID-enabled handsets. Extending the system to air-side ground staff will reportedly require another 110 units.