RFID Journal Staff asked 9 years ago In particular, how can the technology prevent time wastage?
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There are many ways, but each depends on your organization and the tasks you undertake. In general, radio frequency identification provides a faster way to count items. So it can reduce the amount of time required to conduct inventory counts at stores, hospitals or other locations by a factor of 20 or more.
RFID can automatically identify objects, individuals and vehicles. If your organization spends time and labor to identify objects, RFID can greatly reduce the amount of time required to do so. For example, a store associate might need to find a pair of jeans of a specific size on the store floor. This can take a long time if the item has been picked up by a customer and put back in the wrong place. A worker could enter a particular stock-keeping unit in a handheld reader, walk around the store and quickly locate that product (handhelds beep more loudly and frequently as they get closer to a tag being searched for).
The technology can also speed up payments. By quickly identifying cars passing through a toll, for example, a car owner's account can be charged without the vehicle having to stop. Mobil gas stations use RFID at pumps to allow customers to wave a keychain fob with a transponder near a reader in the pump. Their account is then automatically charged for gas, without them having to take out a credit card, swipe it and put it away again.
There are many other examples, but they depend on the industry you are in and your specific operations.
—Mark Roberti, Founder and Editor, RFID Journal
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