How RFID Tags Can Streamline A Business
In order to illustrate how RFID tags can really sway the fortunes of a company for the better, we shall take a look at a hypothetical example below. Let us take the example of a furniture maker specializing in supplying furniture to a hotel group.
This may sound like an case with no relevance to normal small businesses, but in fact, hotel chains are awfully choosy and have no allegiance, so if you can satisfy these people, you can please anyone.
The main requirements of the hotel chain are that orders are met and on time, the quality of the supplier's goods has already been determined by means of compulsory ISO 9000 quality control and factory visits.
The hotel furniture producer decides to use passive RFID tags to follow its products from the point of manufacture to the point of delivery, that is the hotel or its storage area.
Under previous circumstances the producer had employed a few personnel to walk around with bar code readers and clip boards carrying out quality control and following the fulfillment of orders.
The problem was that the arrangement was still subject to human error and items still went missing, which resulted in management compensating by over manufacturing and over stocking 'just in case'.
That is a common enough phenomenon., but the difficulties are multiplied when you think of all the separate items of furniture that are implicated in a hotel room, bathroom or lobby and if they are stored in a 200,000 square foot warehouse. Items get lost, forklift drivers make errors, people forget to fill in inventory forms, get sick and take holidays.
In short, running a warehouse like this is a nightmare with too much stress on key employees. It sometimes leads to imperfect deliveries or worse, incomplete delivery tickets. Sometimes the order might be complete but the hotel would think it was not because the delivery ticket was incorrect.
If this company were to initiate RFID asset control they could affix an RFID tag to finished sticks of furniture. The tag would say where it is, what it is, whom it is for, when it has to be handed over and what else forms part of the order. The tag is being read continuously by the warehouse's RFID readers warning when orders are running late or are still short.
Not only that but the tag can say what else has to be manufactured and whether the object itself has passed quality control. It can also tell you which defects someone has found with it. In short, instead of a couple of people traipsing around the stockroom hoping that they have covered everything, you could have radio sensors reading every tag in a warehouse the size of a football pitch, reporting back to a central computer where the storehouse manager can have access to real time intelligence, not just the state of affairs at close of business the previous day.
This should enhance the manager's chance to manage, cut down on waste, ensure complete orders delivered on time and so higher levels of customer satisfaction, which should mean more repeat orders.
This may sound like an case with no relevance to normal small businesses, but in fact, hotel chains are awfully choosy and have no allegiance, so if you can satisfy these people, you can please anyone.
The main requirements of the hotel chain are that orders are met and on time, the quality of the supplier's goods has already been determined by means of compulsory ISO 9000 quality control and factory visits.
The hotel furniture producer decides to use passive RFID tags to follow its products from the point of manufacture to the point of delivery, that is the hotel or its storage area.
Under previous circumstances the producer had employed a few personnel to walk around with bar code readers and clip boards carrying out quality control and following the fulfillment of orders.
The problem was that the arrangement was still subject to human error and items still went missing, which resulted in management compensating by over manufacturing and over stocking 'just in case'.
That is a common enough phenomenon., but the difficulties are multiplied when you think of all the separate items of furniture that are implicated in a hotel room, bathroom or lobby and if they are stored in a 200,000 square foot warehouse. Items get lost, forklift drivers make errors, people forget to fill in inventory forms, get sick and take holidays.
In short, running a warehouse like this is a nightmare with too much stress on key employees. It sometimes leads to imperfect deliveries or worse, incomplete delivery tickets. Sometimes the order might be complete but the hotel would think it was not because the delivery ticket was incorrect.
If this company were to initiate RFID asset control they could affix an RFID tag to finished sticks of furniture. The tag would say where it is, what it is, whom it is for, when it has to be handed over and what else forms part of the order. The tag is being read continuously by the warehouse's RFID readers warning when orders are running late or are still short.
Not only that but the tag can say what else has to be manufactured and whether the object itself has passed quality control. It can also tell you which defects someone has found with it. In short, instead of a couple of people traipsing around the stockroom hoping that they have covered everything, you could have radio sensors reading every tag in a warehouse the size of a football pitch, reporting back to a central computer where the storehouse manager can have access to real time intelligence, not just the state of affairs at close of business the previous day.
This should enhance the manager's chance to manage, cut down on waste, ensure complete orders delivered on time and so higher levels of customer satisfaction, which should mean more repeat orders.
About the Author:
Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on quite a few topics, but is now involved with the RFID asset management. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Active RFID Management.
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