| RFID technology is facilitating a major | | | | fewer tags are needed, since a single tag is |
| innovation to supply chain management. From | | | | identified with a ‘batch’ of |
| an article by John Lorinc in the December, | | | | goods instead of the individual unit of |
| 2006 edition of the Globe & Mail Report | | | | product. Another benefit of tagging the |
| on Business Magazine, “Every year, | | | | pallets and containers is to continuously |
| according to an expert cited by the Federal | | | | track the whereabouts of these vessels used |
| Trade Commission, American merchants lose as | | | | to move the goods and this helps to cut down |
| much as $300 billion (US) in revenues because | | | | these assets being lost in the supply chain |
| they’ve lost track of goods somewhere | | | | and needing to be replaced. Another reason to |
| on the journey between factory and store | | | | start an RFID solution at the container level |
| shelf.” Lost revenues are not the only | | | | is because many individual products pose |
| concern in the supply chain, improving the | | | | challenges for RFID technology by the way |
| productivity in transporting goods and | | | | they are packaged. Metal goods, goods that |
| securing the source of goods are also of | | | | contain liquids and very small items pose a |
| concern to professionals managing the supply | | | | challenge to doing individual item tracking. |
| chain. RFID technology delivers solutions to | | | | RFID solutions are available here, but the |
| all these needs. | | | | cost goes up considerably. The direction of |
| | | | the technology is toward tracking all |
| Overview: | | | | individual units of products. With advances |
| | | | in RFID technology, costs per tag will be |
| Where does an organization start to realize | | | | driven lower and this will allow more RFID |
| the benefits of RFID? To answer this, an | | | | tagging of individual product units. |
| overview on the technology is a good start. | | | | |
| The concept behind RFID is simple; an item | | | | Open Standards: |
| (the product, or a pallet) has an RFID tag | | | | |
| attached to it. The tag contains a small | | | | The realization of the benefits of RFID |
| integrated circuit (IC) chip that contains a | | | | technology is also very dependent on open |
| unique ID and an antenna that allows it to | | | | standards in the industry. Open standards |
| communicate to an RFID reader. When the tag | | | | will allow manufacturers, distributors and |
| is attached to the product or pallet and then | | | | retailer to use a common type of tag(s) and |
| ‘read’ by the RFID reader, that | | | | reader(s) while allowing this hardware to |
| unique ID is then associated with the product | | | | interact with their own ERP needs and deliver |
| or pallet through your enterprise resource | | | | the efficiencies promised by RFID technology. |
| planning (ERP) system. This unique ID stays | | | | EPCglobal Inc., the standards body that |
| for the remaining part of product’s | | | | manages UPC (Universal Product Code) |
| journey from the factory, right through the | | | | information in bar codes, sets the standards |
| consumer’s purchase at the retailer. | | | | for how basic product information is encoded |
| The RFID readers are then placed at all key | | | | in the RFID chips. The standard set for |
| junction | | | | supply chain management is referred to as |
| | | | “GEN 2”. GEN 2 has brought |
| GAO – G2HE RFID for metal surface | | | | significant advantages over the previous |
| | | | evolving standards of “Class 0” |
| GAO 5700 GEN 2 portable reader/writerpoints | | | | and “Gen 1” and these include: |
| in the supply chain. As the products or | | | | |
| pallets pass through these readers, your ERP | | | | (a) GEN 2 can write to tags multiple times, |
| system is updated immediately on the flow of | | | | |
| goods. This automation in the process reduces | | | | (b) GEN 2 has longer read ranges, |
| time spent with manual entry and the | | | | |
| potential for human error of bill-of-lading | | | | (c) GEN 2 has greater data storage capacity |
| details, provides real time updates on where | | | | and |
| goods are, makes more secure the integrity of | | | | |
| your product shipments and helps you address | | | | (d) GEN 2 has more reliable and faster read |
| bottlenecks in the system faster. | | | | rates. |
| | | | |
| A Starting Point: | | | | GAO RFID Solutions for SCM: |
| | | | |
| Therefore a good starting point to deploy | | | | For more information on how RFID technology |
| RFID technology is at the pallet or carton | | | | can help your challenges in the supply chain, |
| container level. Goods assembled in these | | | | please contact us at or call us at (416) |
| vessels are then tracked in batches defined | | | | 292-0038, ext. 601. |
| at the source. The benefits, here, are that | | | | |