RFID 101

So what exactly is RFID?

Radio Frequency Identification, commonly known as RFID, is a method of wirelessly reading tags that was first utilized by the military in the mid-20th century, right around World War II. RFID is in many ways similar to bar codes, in that a tag has a unique identifier on it which is read by a reader and then correlated to an item in a database.  We all know bar codes from the grocery store, where the laser reader identifies the milk as milk, the cereal as cereal and retrieves the correct prices from the grocery store’s central database.

And bar codes work fine in a situation where you are moving small amounts of product (e.g. a cart of groceries) past a logical reading point, such as the checkout station at the grocery store. When you get into larger or more complex environments, however, bar codes are quite limiting.

Imagine a large shrink-wrapped pallet with a shipment of 5,000 various auto parts arriving at a warehouse. Many years ago, a person with a notebook would have to personally unwrap and inventory each box on the pallet. This process was painfully slow, and the chance for human error was tremendous in logging and identifying the inventory.

When bar coding became standard, the rate of human error dropped dramatically since the bar code scan clearly registered the item with the database and removed most chances of operator error. However at the same time, the process was still slow and not conducive to efficient operations.  A human being still had to unwrap the pallet and scan each item one by one.

The key difference between bar code reading and RFID is that RFID does not require a line of sight – each item’s tag (like a bar code, with a small transmitter) can be read wirelessly from a distance. So with RFID, the entire pallet could be passed through a portal reader as it traveled via forklift from point A to point B, and every box could be read, identified and inventoried as it passed. In less than 15 seconds you have completed a job that takes a person hours to complete, and with stunning accuracy.

Once introduced to a variety of enterprise solutions, RFID transformed the process of tracking all kinds of assets as well as managing inventory, fulfillment and logistics. And as the affordability of RFID tags and readers has vastly improved in the last decade, there is now a clear and impressive return on investment for smaller and medium sized businesses who adopt RFID.  IPM Asset Solutions has been on the forefront of bringing RFID solutions to successful enterprises of all sizes, from venture-backed medium sized businesses to large governmental organizations.