RFID ID and its Benefits
Capturing data relating to products as they progress through their life cycle is important to ensuring that they are being produced, used and maintained properly.
Using a variety of technologies, data can be read automatically, improving the effectiveness and reducing the high cost of manual data gathering systems.
Technologies range from simple bar codes – low cost equipment but higher cost of manual scanning - to high end RFID systems with higher capital cost but capable of automatic operation. The latter systems are now being investigated by retailers for example, where the cost per tagged consumer item has fallen to 5 cents.
The example of gas cylinders is used throughout; the newer auto ID technologies can cope with metal substrates, robust handling and have high built-in levels of redundancy.
The value of the data collected can be found by considering what decisions are needed about products, the value of those decisions and what data is needed to inform those decisions.
