RFID technology and the Internet of Things (IOT) is changing Inventory and Asset Tracking forever.
Today’s managers are demanding more visibility and accountability in less time due to the need to reduce costs and to be prepared for audits. It was not long ago that 85% inventory accuracy was acceptable and now in 2019 many organizations are striving to achieve greater than 95% inventory visibility while using less labor. Part of this change is due to customer expectations, who are demanding that organizations know exactly where all of their inventory is at a moments notice.
Modern RFID technology is rising to this challenge and changing the way organizations are managing their assets.
Radio Frequency Identification or RFID has been around for many years; but, is just recently gaining greater acceptance and adoption as the costs reduce and the technology performance improves.
Similar to barcode technology, RFID is applied with a unique tag (or identification similar to a “license plate”) which is associated with a unique asset or a container of items. However, with RFID, assets can be scanned at a much faster pace than barcode, as the scanner does not need a line of sight to the asset tag. This translates to inventory cycle count speeds that are 10x to 20x faster than barcode or manual processing.
With an RFID asset tracking system, you don’t need to “touch” each item individually. In a well-designed inventory tracking system along with the proper implementation, RFID has the potential to provide instant accountability with the pull of a trigger.
Mobile RFID
Mobile RFID systems allow a user to walk through an area and quickly capture all of the RFID tags within read-range. Modern RFID systems enable the use of mobile computers, or Smartphones, coupled with mobile RFID readers to perform this function. Adding mobility to an asset tracking system is powerful for many reasons; but, having the flexibility to rapidly count items, adjust inventories and modify item-specific details from a mobile device empowers the workforce to address problems on the spot.
Another powerful time-saving benefit of mobile RFID is realized when locating missing assets. Historically, locating inventory that has gone missing has been a painfully slow process of physically searching an entire facility for an asset. Missing assets (sometimes referred to as “Ghost Assets”) have been plaguing inventory managers for decades. A properly implemented mobile RFID system can be used to locate a missing asset within minutes. Greatly reducing the search by scanning entire areas with RFID instead of manual processes that can take hours or even days.
Fixed RFID
Fixed RFID readers can also provide significant improvements in visibility to the movement or current location of assets within a facility. As assets move, fixed readers that are mounted in areas such as a doorway or dock door will capture the RFID asset tag of the item in-transit and record the date and time of that movement as well as recording location change and direction that the asset was moving.
Comparing Barcode to RFID
Compare RFID to barcode asset tracking for a moment. If you were to attempt to take an inventory, for example, of an office space that contained multiple rooms of computers and digital equipment. Using a barcode system for this inventory you would need to find every barcode on each piece of digital equipment. The barcode capture process would require that you methodically go through your rooms and handle each unique item so that the barcode reader had a direct line of sight with each barcode and scan them one at a time.
If that same office space was utilizing an RFID tracking system, the employee could have walked through each room and within a matter of minutes captured a complete inventory.
Upcoming Webinar
RFID and Inventory — 3 factors that will change your business
Sign up now for a Free online session on February 7th for a live expert presentation with A2B Tracking’s founder Peter Collins, to explore 3 permanent improvements to your organization with RFID for tracking inventory and critical assets. We’ll explore the need for inventory visibility, asset accountability and the challenges that most organizations face.
You will learn:
- A brief orientation on how RFID technology works
- How RFID can help your organization achieve 3 permanent improvements
- Storing inventory and assigning assets
- Searching and finding assets or inventory
- Automatically capture item movements in real-time
- How to leverage other Auto ID technologies
- Benefits of existing barcode systems
- The key parts of an RFID system and how they link to results
Register here for our webinar on February 7th at 2pm EST.
