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RFID EDITOR'S NOTE
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Managing Everything That Moves
Similarly, RFID will allow companies to collect and share information quickly and easily about everything that is not stationary and plugged into the Internet. Companies are moving in this direction, but most are focused on solving an immediate concern. They want to locate assets that are missing, for example, or perhaps better manage work in process. The danger is that they could end up with a variety of systems, none of which work together. This would be similar to the stovepipe problem wired IT systems had in the early 1990s.
An enterprise-wide approach will lead to an integrated system. You will probably require a passive system and an active system to track everything that moves, but both will feed data into a single back end, enabling the information to be used by your ERP system. This approach will lead to reduced capital expenditure, lower total cost of ownership and greater efficiencies. Why? Because it's more cost-efficient to purchase 5,000 readers of one type than 1,000 of five different types. You won't spend as much to maintain one system as five, and you'll be able to build out an infrastructure that covers the entire enterprise and leads to greater savings.
Airbus is one of the few companies that gets this. Carlo Nizam, the aircraft manufacturer's head of value chain visibility and RFID, will discuss how to take a strategic approach to the technology at RFID Journal LIVE! 2010, to be held on Apr. 14-16 at the Orange County Convention Center, in Orlando, Fla. Airbus is building an enterprise visibility solution piece by piece, and each new RFID application delivers short-term benefits. But each system also fits within an enterprise infrastructure that will enable a company to use RFID to achieve real-time automated visibility across all of its business and production operations.
I've heard some people say RFID is just one technology, and that there are a lot of other technologies from which companies can benefit, such as 2-D bar codes, GPS, infrared, sensors and ultrasound. That is true, and those technologies will play a role, but RFID is an enabling technology—as broad and powerful as the Internet—and the next phase of IT evolution. (If it's a wireless sensor, it's almost certainly RFID, because there's no point in sensing something if you don't know to which object or location the information relates.)
The past 25 years have been about managing better by collecting data on the activity of people and fixed assets. I believe that over the next quarter-century, companies will become as good at managing assets—and I use that term in its broadest sense—in motion. If RFID Journal can help people grasp all that the technology can do for their business and actually achieve such benefits, then I will retire some day a very happy man.
Mark Roberti is the founder and editor of RFID Journal. If you would like to comment on this article, click on the link below. To read more of Mark's opinions, visit the RFID Journal Blog or click here.
An enterprise-wide approach will lead to an integrated system. You will probably require a passive system and an active system to track everything that moves, but both will feed data into a single back end, enabling the information to be used by your ERP system. This approach will lead to reduced capital expenditure, lower total cost of ownership and greater efficiencies. Why? Because it's more cost-efficient to purchase 5,000 readers of one type than 1,000 of five different types. You won't spend as much to maintain one system as five, and you'll be able to build out an infrastructure that covers the entire enterprise and leads to greater savings.
Airbus is one of the few companies that gets this. Carlo Nizam, the aircraft manufacturer's head of value chain visibility and RFID, will discuss how to take a strategic approach to the technology at RFID Journal LIVE! 2010, to be held on Apr. 14-16 at the Orange County Convention Center, in Orlando, Fla. Airbus is building an enterprise visibility solution piece by piece, and each new RFID application delivers short-term benefits. But each system also fits within an enterprise infrastructure that will enable a company to use RFID to achieve real-time automated visibility across all of its business and production operations.
The past 25 years have been about managing better by collecting data on the activity of people and fixed assets. I believe that over the next quarter-century, companies will become as good at managing assets—and I use that term in its broadest sense—in motion. If RFID Journal can help people grasp all that the technology can do for their business and actually achieve such benefits, then I will retire some day a very happy man.
Mark Roberti is the founder and editor of RFID Journal. If you would like to comment on this article, click on the link below. To read more of Mark's opinions, visit the RFID Journal Blog or click here.
