Apr 30, 2009Radio frequency identification and other sensor technologies can do more than just improve business value—they have the potential to change the world. So say IBM's Martin Wildberger, a VP with the company's software group, and Jerry McNerney Motorola's VP of strategy and business development, speaking to attendees at the RFID Journal LIVE! 2009 conference, held this week in Orlando, Fla.
IBM has been championing the use of technology to support what it calls an age of a globally integrated and intelligent economy, society and planet. In support of that concept, the computer technology firm launched its Smarter Planet Initiative in 2008.
"I have been coming to RFID Journal LIVE! for several years," Wildberger said. "In the beginning, the conversation was about the technology. The keynote addresses now focus on the business value. That's great. But if you look at what makes you happy at the end of the day, one of the things I've always been motivated by is the impact of our work on the world."
Wildberger challenged attendees to imagine all of the possibilities with RFID and other sensor technologies. "Often, we in this room see ourselves as leaders, and that we are pushing the envelope as to what this technology can do," he stated. "But our vision isn't grand enough."
Wildberger cited opportunities to leverage RFID and sensor technologies in food and cold chains, to improve product safety and reduce the incidence of food-borne illnesses by enabling companies to track the location of goods in a supply chain, as well as temperature, humidity and other conditions. Wildberger said he's seen statistics indicating there are approximately 76 million cases of food-borne illnesses in the United States every year. "Up to 60 percent of produce and 75 percent of our seafood in the U.S. is imported," he added, "but only 1 percent of the food that crosses our borders is inspected."
In addition, Wildberger said, there are also enormous opportunities for RFID to increase patient safety and lower health-care costs, by facilitating electronic medical records systems, improving communications flows and tracking assets, patients and employees.
The smarter planet, Wildberger stressed, hinges on three key concepts: instrumentation, interconnectivity and intelligence. "RFID is a great example of new instrumentation that's coming online," he said. "Instrumentation shines this big flashlight on things."
Motorola's McNerney pointed to a variety of RFID applications that can not only help companies ride out economic hardships, but also create stronger workforces. Specifically, businesses can make their distribution centers (DCs) and warehouses more technologically advanced by outfitting them with RFID to better ensure the correct product is being shipped to the appropriate customer at the right time. But by instituting more tech-savvy warehouse processes, companies are also better positioned to recruit skilled workers, or provide existing unskilled employees with greater job satisfaction by using RFID to enable them to do skilled tasks.
"The reality is, even in today's challenging economic environment, people don't aspire to be warehouse workers," McNerney said. "I was down in North Carolina recently, with a large copier company, and they were saying that their ability to recruit warehouse workers is very difficult, even in this economy. We need to be able to provide the technology to make workers highly skilled, and RFID technology is one of the tools that allow companies to do that."
In addition, McNerney cited next-generation uses of RFID that are gaining traction. "One area I have a lot of interest in is the food and cold chain applications," he said, noting how RFID combined with temperature sensors can be used to manage temperature ranges, as well as ensure food and other temperature-sensitive items are safe while in transit, sitting in DCs or awaiting purchase.
RFID, McNerney noted, together with sensor technologies, could also be utilized in health-care systems. He highlighted the current swine flu outbreak, for instance, as "an uncontrolled environment" in which RFID could play a role. (One firm exploring how the technology might be used to track the spread of infectious diseases is Infonaut, a Toronto startup company that is developing a real-time locating system [RTLS] to help hospitals map, manage and contain the spread of such illnesses [see The Hunt for Killer Germs]).
McNerney closed his keynote presentation by calling on attendees to focus on executing the RFID systems currently available, and to "be of the mindset" regarding where to go in the future. "We've got a technology [RFID]," he said. "Why aren't we taking advantage of it and using it? There's no limitation to what we can try to accomplish."
