San Bernardino Human Services RFID-enables File Warehouse

An HS Web server will host the DRAFT application. Lowry software will also provides HS with a Web-based dashboard that displays such items as overdue files (those taken out of the warehouse for too long), case files that need to be reboxed and pending file orders from HS agents. An agent or warehouse operator seeking a file or box will be able to tell, using the dashboard, if it has already been removed, says Pete Mendoza, HS' business application manager.

The agency is in the process of phasing in electronic storage for its files. About half of the file documents currently going into archives will be stored electronically, while the other half will remain in hardcopy and be kept in the warehouse. This, Mendoza says, will greatly reduce the quantity of files held in storage. Eventually, the department hopes to store all data electronically, making the warehouse system unnecessary.

Next month, the group will begin defining system requirements and testing the hardware's feasibility. By January 2008, says Ells, the system should be fully deployed, with labels attached to assets and file boxes, tracked via RFID and bar codes. Including hardware, software and middleware, the system is expected to cost $153,000. Although the agency has not yet predicted a specific return on investment, Tillman notes that the improvement in file retrieval should allow one warehouse employee to do the work currently required of three or four workers.

Eventually, the Department of Human Services hopes to expand the system to include providing its employees with ID badges containing EPC Gen 2 RFID chips. This should allow warehouse portals to document when a certain staff member takes a particular file or box. However, no date has been set for such a deployment.

Lowry and GlobeRanger are partnering to provide DRAFT as the first of many solutions, says Susan King, GlobeRanger's vice president of business development.