Saudi Arabian Jeweler Puts a High Value on RFID

The RFID tags carry only an Electronic Product Code (EPC) number. All other information—such as the jewelry's designer, its price, a description and a picture—is associated with that EPC number in a database. In addition, each employee carries an EPC Gen 2 ID badge.

The system is comprised of six Motorola readers, and roughly 45 interrogator antennas installed inside and outside of 40 glass store displays. Two antennas are located near the door, with two more positioned at the store's safe. The readers and antennas capture the jewelry's tag numbers, as well as those of the employees' ID badges. When a staff member moves close to the displays, the antennas in the displays read that person's badge ID number, and the system begins emitting a low audio sound alerting that employee that the badge has been recognized and identified. At that point, the worker can handle jewelry at a particular case without setting off an alarm. If someone attempts to handle jewelry without a recognized badge, an alarm will sound and an e-mail or SMS will be generated and sent to a store manager.

In addition, antennas are built underneath the velvet-covered mobile viewing trays that employees use to show jewelry to customers. The antennas capture the ID numbers of the RFID-tagged jewelry when the pieces are placed on a tray. The employee has a pre-set time limit for moving jewelry to the viewing tray, Chikhani says; otherwise, an alarm is triggered.

Before the store closes each evening, the staff must use a two-step process to return the jewelry to the safe. The jewelry intended for the safe is placed on a dedicated tray with an embedded antenna, and the items are identified automatically by the system. On a nearby computer screen, a green light flashes next to a picture of each piece of jewelry, confirming its identification. The items are then transported from this tray and placed within the safe, where an antenna captures the tag numbers once more. If any of these tags are detected by any other antenna in the store after this timed step is completed, alarms are triggered. The process is conducted in two stages, Chikhani says, to differentiate between items destined for the safe and those to be viewed briefly by a client.

"All tags are continuously accounted for by the system before the safe door is closed...If any jewelry is picked up by any other reader while in this process," Chikhani notes, "the security alarms are triggered accordingly." In the morning, a similar process is performed when jewelry is moved out of the safe.

The company claims that the application—in operation since January—has already provided it with a 400 percent return on its investment, by reducing internal theft from 1 million Saudi riyals (about $267,000 annually) to zero so far this year. It has also reduced the time necessary to inventory the entire stock, the company reports, from two to three days to about 10 minutes.