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The Chasm Between RFID Standards and Implementation
RFID Application—Open-loop / Full-featured
The automotive original equipment manufacturing (OEM) industry has, for many decades, routinely exchanged parts and data through multiple parties and several levels within a supply chain. Today, identifying and tracking all of these parts—in real or near-real time—is a monumental task, and various means of automatic identification are currently employed. RFID is among them, and is being used precisely for two reasons:
• It can provide more than a simple name for an object.
• The additional data in memory can be changed during the part's lifespan.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks to widespread RFID implementation appears to be not only identifying which RFID standards are relevant, but also understanding those standards well enough to be able to implement them. The good news is that the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and EPCglobal have effective RFID standards. The better news is that they work well together. In fact, in critical areas, relevant portions of these standards are identical!
The bad news is that they are very difficult to comprehend and then implement, especially for those non-subject-matter experts (the majority of the world) looking to implement RFID for more than just a small pilot. Most organizations that want to employ RFID do not have the requisite knowledge. Ideally, they would like to purchase what they need, and then be off and running. Unfortunately, the supplier base is not quite yet at that level, so those organizations that want or need to delve deeper into the technology—and then implement it—must struggle to understand the standards on their own.
The AIAG has successfully created effective, implementable standards for more than 25 years. The B-11 Revision 8 standard provides detailed, easy-to-understand explanations, with examples, of the relevant parts of the ISO and EPCglobal standards required to implement full-function RFID identification and tag-data storage systems.
The overall goal of B-11 Rev 8 is to show that common data needs (unique item identity, plus additional data about that item) can be satisfied using globally applicable data syntax and implementation standards—regardless of what is carrying the information.
The automotive original equipment manufacturing (OEM) industry has, for many decades, routinely exchanged parts and data through multiple parties and several levels within a supply chain. Today, identifying and tracking all of these parts—in real or near-real time—is a monumental task, and various means of automatic identification are currently employed. RFID is among them, and is being used precisely for two reasons:
• It can provide more than a simple name for an object.
• The additional data in memory can be changed during the part's lifespan.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks to widespread RFID implementation appears to be not only identifying which RFID standards are relevant, but also understanding those standards well enough to be able to implement them. The good news is that the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and EPCglobal have effective RFID standards. The better news is that they work well together. In fact, in critical areas, relevant portions of these standards are identical!
The bad news is that they are very difficult to comprehend and then implement, especially for those non-subject-matter experts (the majority of the world) looking to implement RFID for more than just a small pilot. Most organizations that want to employ RFID do not have the requisite knowledge. Ideally, they would like to purchase what they need, and then be off and running. Unfortunately, the supplier base is not quite yet at that level, so those organizations that want or need to delve deeper into the technology—and then implement it—must struggle to understand the standards on their own.
The AIAG has successfully created effective, implementable standards for more than 25 years. The B-11 Revision 8 standard provides detailed, easy-to-understand explanations, with examples, of the relevant parts of the ISO and EPCglobal standards required to implement full-function RFID identification and tag-data storage systems.
The overall goal of B-11 Rev 8 is to show that common data needs (unique item identity, plus additional data about that item) can be satisfied using globally applicable data syntax and implementation standards—regardless of what is carrying the information.
