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Cisco Testing, Deploying RFID on Multiple Fronts
Asset Management
In addition, Cisco performed another pilot project to ascertain whether and how RFID could be employed to help its employees better utilize assets within its research and development labs. This, Sheikh explains, would help the company avoid purchasing items identical to those it already owns but merely can't locate, while also ensuring that proper business procedures are followed so computers or other assets not being utilized are stored and powered down, thus helping to prevent the wasting of electricity.
"Cisco spends $700 million each year on equipment for our labs, and $42 million on energy costs [to power them]," Sheikh says. The company has now deployed an RFID-based tracking system for assets, and believes it will help Cisco reduce both expenditures. If an employee can quickly determine a mobile asset's location, he is less likely to request that another be purchased.
Because Cisco labs are metal-rich environments, the company had to test a range of different tags in order to pair the right tag with the correct asset. Depending on an asset's value, the amount of RF interference it would pose and the distance from which it needed to be tracked, Cisco paired active (battery-powered, with a long read range), semi-active (battery-assisted to boost range) and passive (no battery) tags to assets. "We use the technology that makes the most sense [for the asset to be tracked]," Sheikh says.
In addition to attaching RFID tags to assets used on a continual basis, such as testing equipment or microscopes, Cisco also affixed them to prototypes of new products being developed. Because some testing steps involve exposing a prototype to exceedingly harsh environments (extreme heat, for instance), some tags must be extremely ruggedized. But the higher cost of these tags is justified by the competitive advantage Cisco gains by being able to quickly and accurately identify and track each prototype as it moves through the testing steps.
The company uses its intranet, in combination with wikis and blogs, in order to share the location data of tagged assets with employees in various departments or buildings. This has helped Cisco avoid superfluous replacement purchases that previously resulted when an asset could not be readily found.
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In addition, Cisco performed another pilot project to ascertain whether and how RFID could be employed to help its employees better utilize assets within its research and development labs. This, Sheikh explains, would help the company avoid purchasing items identical to those it already owns but merely can't locate, while also ensuring that proper business procedures are followed so computers or other assets not being utilized are stored and powered down, thus helping to prevent the wasting of electricity.
"Cisco spends $700 million each year on equipment for our labs, and $42 million on energy costs [to power them]," Sheikh says. The company has now deployed an RFID-based tracking system for assets, and believes it will help Cisco reduce both expenditures. If an employee can quickly determine a mobile asset's location, he is less likely to request that another be purchased.
Because Cisco labs are metal-rich environments, the company had to test a range of different tags in order to pair the right tag with the correct asset. Depending on an asset's value, the amount of RF interference it would pose and the distance from which it needed to be tracked, Cisco paired active (battery-powered, with a long read range), semi-active (battery-assisted to boost range) and passive (no battery) tags to assets. "We use the technology that makes the most sense [for the asset to be tracked]," Sheikh says.
In addition to attaching RFID tags to assets used on a continual basis, such as testing equipment or microscopes, Cisco also affixed them to prototypes of new products being developed. Because some testing steps involve exposing a prototype to exceedingly harsh environments (extreme heat, for instance), some tags must be extremely ruggedized. But the higher cost of these tags is justified by the competitive advantage Cisco gains by being able to quickly and accurately identify and track each prototype as it moves through the testing steps.
The company uses its intranet, in combination with wikis and blogs, in order to share the location data of tagged assets with employees in various departments or buildings. This has helped Cisco avoid superfluous replacement purchases that previously resulted when an asset could not be readily found.
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