Making RFID earn its keep

RFID is by now a well-established radio technology. However, the radio system can only be effective if the installation, and the need for it, work hand in hand after some very careful planning and research. This article looks beyond the technology and into that planning process to ensure RFID implementation is a success.

Radio frequency identification has always been considered a progressive technology. Today, most of the focus is on how emerging RFID developments can help connect trading partners and align supply chains around the world.

However, what should not be overlooked by any Australian business considering adopting RFID, is the unique deployment challenges this new technology can pose.

By understanding the potential challenges that can occur in the RFID implementation process, organisations will go a long way towards ensuring that the investment they make into RFID is as efficient, cost effective and beneficial as possible.

When deciding whether or not to invest in technologies like RFID, it’s important to evaluate all aspects of the organisation - from whether or not RFID is the best technology to invest in, to how the technology will interact within the site and the various tweaks which could be required when it is installed on the site.

Australian businesses should take a low-risk approach when adopting RFID for the first time and make some key determinations before committing substantial resources to the development of a formal business case and a full-blown implementation project. RFID is not for everyone and too often organisations are trying to ‘walk before they crawl’.

It is important that Australian business properly understand how RFID will interact with their existing operations and processes. This knowledge will help both the organisation and any third-party integrator to construct a formal business case for RFID.

Of great importance in building a business case for RFID is the need for a feasibility analysis to help businesses understand their goals, processes and application environment. This feasibility analysis ranges from a (usually free) phone call with a consultant, to an RFID specialist coming out and physically inspecting the site.

Generally, RFID provides the highest value in situations when traceability through a process or item life cycle is required, where labour costs or data errors related to identification and handling are high, and when there are time or labour constraints related to item identification, handling or replenishment.

Additionally, RFID technology is suitable for use in manufacturing any time business processes or software applications need more information about an object than bar codes or other forms of automated data-capture technology can provide.

While RFID can traditionally hold more information than bar codes, it is important to understand that, as more information is stored on particular tags, the length of time it takes to decode the tags increases.

By using a specialist consultant in this case, the processes which can be best used with RFID can be most accurately determined.

Once the organisation has determined that RFID is indeed the most efficient and cost-effective way forward, an evaluation of the various processes which should be supported by RFID should be undertaken.

The process analysis usually illuminates deviations in the prospect’s defined versus actual processes. The keys to the process analysis are the success criteria. It is critical that these are defined correctly.

If the success criteria are not defined correctly, there is a good chance of failure.

During the analysis, it may be determined that some of the assumptions presented in the feasibility analysis cannot be effectively supported by RFID technology.

Under these circumstances, alternative data capture methods, such as traditional bar code scanning can (and should) be looked at to complement RFID.

It may also be determined during the examination that customer processes not addressed in the original business plan merit consideration for RFID support, in so much that they could also be enlisted to further the organisation’s business-related goals.

The principal purpose of this secondary analysis of the processes themselves is to provide a holistic view of the organisation. This leads on to an overview of RFID applications which will provide optimal support of the organisation’s goals for business processing and project ROI. The process analysis also looks at the host system and the data requirements.

If too much effort is focused on the physical aspects of the system, it is possible that the user will not be able to use the data acquired.

After these two vital steps, many organisations feel confident enough to pursue the implementation process, more often than not to their detriment.

Given all of the possible combinations of variables involved in effectively matching the components, materials and ambient environment of a targeted RFID touch zone or read zone, great care should be taken in piloting RFID systems components in the actual work environment.

Doing a site analysis which consists of a detailed, on-site investigation into the possible - and often unintended - interactions of those variable combinations is an integral part of the RFID implementation process.

Businesses in the communications and manufacturing sector often realise, once they have RFID technologies in their workplace, that some of what they have implemented in terms of device configurations, tag attachments or other designs presented in the process analysis cannot be effectively supported by RFID technology in the actual work environment.

For example, until technologies are actually tested on site, it is unclear how ambient radio frequency interference may affect the new RFID technology or what effect that equipment may have on preinstalled wireless components in the same general location.

It’s at this point that organisations often get an unwelcome reality check showing them they can’t do what they had originally intended.

Completing a thorough on-site investigation ensures that a proposed design can be realised effectively and which success criteria cannot be met and which can be met (or in some cases exceeded).

An additional challenge when implementing RFID technologies can involve the actual installation on site. The on-site installation is critical because it ‘locks down’ the RFID technology according to methods recommended during the site analysis. If the devices - even when attached or installed according to specifications - do not perform as expected, then some adjustments will have to be made to the site, if not to any process analysis or business case which may have been developed for the project.

It is at this point that operational testing against success criteria should be done and training of staff should begin.

For organisations interested in implementing RFID, it is important to be flexible with your processes - while there is a certain ‘magic’ in RFID, the processes that RFID supports need to be adaptable to fit in with and maximise the results. Organisations who cannot (or in some cases, will not) be flexible are almost always doomed to fail.

In all cases, their processes today using bar codes aren’t the same as they were before bar codes, so why would it be the same after RFID?

Installing RFID into a communication or manufacturing operation can be a challenge. However we all know that, in business, information is power and, when implementing a complex system like RFID, the more information an organisation has, the more prepared it is to make better business decisions.

Given not all RFID systems are alike; the implementation of the technology is not always easy or straightforward.

What is required is help from a company, such as Intermec, that has several different types of experience, including deep technical knowledge, system design and implementation expertise.

By Mike Nichols, director, RFID Systems Consulting, Intermec