RFID Provides Utility Company With Real-Time Visibility

With the RFID system, Hartwig says—which employs a proprietary air interface protocol—the utility company is affixing ruggedized, active 915 MHz 3-inch by 1-inch tags, with bar codes printed on the front, to wooden and metal reels destined for the RFID-enabled distribution center, or for one of the nine storage yards.

Once the tag is attached, the utility company employees scan a bar code on the tag with a Motorola bar-code scanner, then manually enter the size and type of cable on the reel, along with the unique RFID number, into the back-end system. If a reel is being re-used, the tag is simply scanned and new location data is input, which is then linked in the utility's SAP system. Information is also loaded onto a Web-based server hosted by the utility company but maintained by AppLocation. That Web server is accessible to other parties with a password. The Web-based site includes a map with tabs that can be selected by authorized users to track the locations of particular products.

After a reel is tagged, it is shipped to the distribution center, where an RFind fixed RFID interrogator captures the tag ID number as the reel enters the site, then again as it departs. The reel tag is read again at any of the nine storage yards, Hartwig explains, where up to five RFind readers are installed at each location on poles. Each reader has a 700-meter (2,300-foot) read range, thereby allowing real-time transmission at any point in the yard. In this way, the utility and permitted parties can track whether a reel has left the distribution center, or find the reel in real time at the storage yard.

Additionally, the tags are equipped with motion sensors that transmit an alert to readers in the yard if the reels are moved without authorization. This protects the cable, which is made of copper—a high-value material—from theft, since yard managers would receive an e-mailed alert as soon as a reel is moved.

In the future, the company plans to expand to a GPS system, also provided by AppLocation, as edgeware on the existing platform. Contractor and freight trucks that pick up and deliver the reels would be equipped with GPS devices. Each truck's device would send a cellular transmission of its location at regular intervals as the truck travels between the distribution center and yard, and between the yard and construction site.

Deployment began in March, and the nine yards are scheduled to all be fully operational by mid-October. In 2009, Hartwig says, the company intends to begin installing the system in all of its approximately 50 yards. In the meantime, he adds, when it comes to a return on investment, "They're expecting more than a 10 to 15 percent increase in operational efficiency. We expect that is achievable."