 |
THE WORLD'S RFID AUTHORITY
 PREMIUM = Requires Subscription. Learn More
Article Link: Six Sigma and the Single Tag
Singulation
by Damon McDaniel, posted 10/24/2006
Mr. King,
Your performance issues and therefore basis for your article is that RFID reads are NOT reliable (enough) and the only way to get there is to read all cases/items separately. Let me ask a question of you. Might you be referring to Gen 1 tags (class 1 & class 0)? And, at what frequency(ies)? I'm not a RF engineer, so because of that I HAVE to do a ton of reading & researching to keep abreast of the technology. From what I read - most of the relaiability issues have either been solved by Gen 2 developments or were truly site environment circumstances that may have called for a particular solution/frequency and because individuals were rushing to do RFID - were applying the wrong solution attempting to get the reads they were looking for. Apologies if that was confusing - but for example - look at the developments of near-field UHF vs. far. Here - the liquids pose no problem whatsoever and even metals can actually be used to ENHANCE the read ability. I don't think it matters much if you have 1,000 reads per second ability or 400. From a practical perspective - no one has proposed having a scanner sit on top of a truck bay and scan the entire truck contents for item-level tags. You probably would have reliability issues. You'd definitely also have data overload. Anyway - when a forktruck removes a pallet from a truck - usually what is desired is the pallet scan to confirm the ASN & determine it's routing - 100% reliable (if I assume proper function as you did). If the pallet requires "breakdown", then a further scan will usually capture the read on a moving conveyor to obtain the case read (also now 100% reliable in most properly constructed zones). True Six Sigma reliability will only happen when the tags & the rest of the supporting infrastructure are 100% reliable. The readers are almost there today (with proper construct). Think also of the developing RuBee & other technologies and how they will continue to improve performance issues. I felt like you were insuating that bar codes are "Six Sigma" reliable and the scanning process ususally is. But, for item level tracking - how many times have you purchased something like kids' flavored drinks - assorted flavors, yet the scanning clerk says "How many did you get?" - scans 1 and multiplies or repeats that over by your Qty? Item-level Six Sigma just disappeared. So, yes - RFID can & should be more reliable than bar codes and avail much to organizations as they discover creative ways to take advantage of the data as it becomes available. Warm Regards, Damon McDaniel Message threads
|
   |
|||||||||||||
