A home appliance manufacturer is incorporating passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID tags into its air conditioners. Tags are integrated into the 200,000 AC units that the firm manufactures annually. The technology enables the company to track each unit’s assembly process from one station to the next, providing supply chain visibility through the distribution center and to the store, by collecting data related to every unit’s operation once it is purchased. Each tag also serves as a black box, storing what has happened to the air conditioner to which it is attached, in the event that the unit malfunctions, as well as sharing error code information with maintenance personnel. Technicians can then access the tag’s data via an EPC UHF RFID reader, in order to identify what is wrong with the air conditioner prior to its disassembly.
