The evolving business of RFID

Case story

By Rob Bamforth, Principal Analyst, Service Provision and Mobility, Quocirca Ltd

Like many technology ideas, the use of radio tags that transmit a unique identity (RFID), has suffered from a degree of over hype. No wonder, from science fiction novels by William Gibson, through to films like Minority Report, the fictional vision is one of simple pervasive connectivity of the small smart stuff. This leads to over-expectation of capabilities and inevitably to fears around privacy, security and information overload, which the media loves to play up.

The reality is somewhat less fantastic. IT is not quite as advanced as popular opinion and mass-media entertainment would suggest. Many businesses are too busy grappling with a lack of timely information, spiralling costs, and increasing demands on customer service to be making plans to play an Orwellian ‘big brother’ with data. That’s not to dismiss fears around security and privacy lightly, but they need to be taken in perspective. RFID, whilst often discussed as if a long-standing technology, is still relatively young, and has only recently begun evolving into something that can be usefully and readily deployed on a massive scale.

Most early discussions about RFID focus too narrowly on the raw technology and its cost – cost per tag, in particular – as it is assumed that a specific price point must be reached for widespread deployment. This is based on the assumption that a radio tag is to replace an inexpensive physical form of label or identification, and so must be as cheap as possible.

However, the role of the identity of any goods in a business process is far more complex than the cost of the label. Reading, detecting or tracking the identity can be an expensive and labour intensive process. While many material costs are falling, labour costs are not. Also, any business investment is offset by value gained, and if there is an increased return, more expensive technologies can be cost-effectively deployed.

Whereas barcodes have to be seen and deliberately read, RFID tags can be hidden and detected without anyone realising what is happening. For high value retail goods, even the cost of installing a complex tagging solution might be rapidly repaid by a reduction in theft or shrinkage. The cost of the tag is not the real issue, but the solution does need to fit invisibly into the shopping environment, and give sufficient confidence that stolen items can be accurately detected in time for appropriate action to be taken.

Some environments are more challenging. Manufacturing processes can be hazardous, and identifying components safely might be time consuming or error prone. The use of the wrong material or chemicals incorrectly identified might have disastrous consequences, so accuracy and authenticity is vital, and not having to rely on human intervention is a clear benefit.

Time constraints and large volumes of traceable items can also be an issue. Many businesses processes have little slack and need to quickly identify where everything is. High volume consumer goods producers need to ensure derivative products reach their intended channels and are packaged accordingly. The high volumes of logistics and transportation companies means they need to locate, track and authenticate goods to ensure they reach their intended destination. The time taken to read, check and identify masses of objects is critical to the process.

Of course, no technology alone will fix these problems, but RFID can add value if incorporated wisely into the business processes. Objects can be detected faster, automatically, and in larger numbers without being seen or deliberately targeted by a person charged with the identification task. However, this young technology has struggled in some early deployments with different standards in use world-wide, reader reliability and interference or absorption from certain materials. There is also the legitimate fear from consumers surrounding privacy and security.

An updated version of the RFID specification, known colloquially as Gen 2 was agreed in 2004. This aims to redress these issues; in particular improving read accuracy and speed in noisy environments with large numbers of tags, and offering the improved security including disabling the tag at the end of its working life. As one of the companies active with the first generation of RFID technology, Intermec quickly recognised the values Gen 2 offered, so evolved its complete product family, while still recognising and supporting the challenges of existing users needing to migrate.

The improved reliability, international interoperability, and enhanced privacy and security protection introduced in products supporting the revised specification may not appease all doubters, but it will allow RFID to be more confidently built into critical business processes. Those organisations that believe they might benefit from the intense asset monitoring, tracking and authenticating that RFID offers should now plan for its eventual deployment and assess the impact it will have on their current processes.

Ruggedised Intermec RFID products include the IF4 and IF5 fixed readers, the IP4 mobile reader, the IV7 forklift mount reader, and the PM4i intelligent printer. Intermec’s RFID equipment was the first to comply with the European standards for RFID at UHF and many companies worldwide have successfully implemented Intermec’s RFID equipment.