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Mark Hoske tracks the latest trends in the evolving field of Radio Frequency Identification technology.
Supply chain mandates for use of radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies put control engineers in a position of strength, since engineers have long seen RFID more as a benefit than a cost. Two approaches continue to beunderway in many facilities.
One is the “slap and ship” concept, where the lowest-cost RFID tags (transponders) are applied to comply with requirements from Wal-Mart, Target, U.S. Department of Defense, and others, and added to the cost of doing business with those customers. Such RFID tags often are applied as materials are packaged, scanned, and information fed into supply chain logistics software. These warehousing or shipping functions are often, though not always, led by IT personnel. Manufacturers may not have a plan for extractingbenefits, other than to please the customer.
Within the facility, RFID is being applied from the design phase, through manufacturing, assembly, inventory, and shipping, with tags attached to various components, skids, and even related tools and persons. Costs also have decreased for RFID tags traditionally used in manufacturing (as opposed to shipping), and lifecycle costs for these can be quantified, lowering cost per use. These manufacturing-rooted efforts are extending into the warehouse and may be led by plant-floor,control engineering personnel.
The mindset going into an RFID project can govern choice of vendors, consultants, system integrators, data use, and budgets. Despite recent RFID furor, RFID transponders and readers have been used in manufacturing more than 20 years (and were first applied in WWII for identification of Alliedairplanes.) Trends include:
• Greater use of integration services andautomation system integrators for RFID;
• Universal readers that can read tags of varied designs, of multiple frequencies, and from differentmanufacturers;
• Tighter integration of RFID for real-time asset tracking (linking tools, materials, and processes) connection to control systems to improve throughputand speed work in process;
• Better understanding of active and passive RFID tags and appropriate applications for each inmanufacturing through shipping;
• Wider use of standards and related certifications, lower cost per point and increasing industryknowledge through wider use; and
• Lower-cost, rugged tags; more security.
In offering technologies to the market, some RFID vendors tend to focus more on the IT, data-oriented, open-loop, retail side of the supply chain. Others have better understanding of manufacturing applications, where the tags (generally larger and more expensive) can serve as a traveling data repository, carrying information about the tagged item through stages of production, more as a smart sensor in a closed-loop process. Alex Stuebler, Business Manager, RFID, Siemens Energy & Automation, says Siemens does both and can serve the diverse global market, which could be buying billions of tags and tens of thousandsof readers within the next 12 months.
With that kind of market pull, RFID products, services, hardware, and software are being applied from the top down, the bottom up, and from the middle in both directions. Stuebler suggests the full structure extends, much like the familiar software or networking diagram, from sensors on the plant floor through the enterprise and connected supply chain. From highest to lowest level, Stuebler says, RFIDtouches:
• Global integration of EPC (EPCglobal’s Electronic Product Code) and databases;
• Enterprise resource planning (ERP) with supply chain management middleware;
• Control level with RFID devices and data management;
• Data acquisition; and
• Sensor level. Tags here can give (read only) or give and receive (read and write) information, don’t have to be line of sight, and generally are more reliable than barcodes for information exchange in many applications.
Shift: hardware to service
Most RFID hardware uncertainties have been answered in recent years, suggests Mike Wills, vice president, Intermec. “The long-term value, return on investment, and total cost of ownership that an RFID system produces are all heavily dependent on the initial processdesign and implementation decisions,” Wills says.
Even with available standards, Wills suggests, RFID isn’t close to plug and play. He advises paying attention to system infrastructure planning; determining the degree of communication and integration required for host systems; supporting current processes or designing new ones; developing supportable criteria for systems performance success; applying the most effective readers, antennas, tags, and standards; and making sureit all works as intended as quickly as possible.
Engaging a professional services provider early increases the chances for success and helps avoid implementation delays that can undermine return on investment, Wills says. While greater familiarity means companies are more likely to bring training, maintenance, and support in-house, they will continue to outsource integration and installation tasks, Wills contends, citing the October 2006 “RFID Professional Services” market research report from VentureDevelopment Corp.
Trade group Aim Global (Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility) says RFID tags can be read very fast in challenging circumstances, usually responding in under 100 milliseconds. Active RFID read and write capabilities offer advantages for interactive applications (work-in-process ormaintenance tracking).
Low-frequency (30-500 kHz) systems, says Aim Global, have short reading ranges and lower system costs (for security access, asset tracking, and animal identification). High-frequency (850-950 MHz and 2.4-2.5 GHz) systems offers long read ranges (>90 ft) and high reading speeds (for railroad car tracking and automated toll collection). High-frequency systems have higher performance and higher costs,Aim Global adds.
Standards (de facto and formal) have helped accelerate adoption, says another industry organization, EPCglobal. As of December 2006, more than 1,000 companies globally, in 12 major industries and 51 industry segments, are said to be using EPCglobal Electronic Product Code RFID technology. Last year, EPCglobal certified 45 RFID hardware and software products and ratified seven global standards, including the International Organization for Standardization UHF Gen 2 Air Interface protocol (ISO 18000-6 part C. Working groups formed to extend the logic and technology the ultra-high frequency standard into the high frequency band and develop security extensions foritem-level tagging.
“At Procter & Gamble, EPC/RFID provides us with the means to see our products move from the point of production to the point of sale,” said Dick Cantwell, EPC team leader, Procter & Gamble and Chairman, EPCglobal Board of Governors. RFID “allows us to watch every step between those two points, which results in a more accurate, safer, and more secure supply chain,”Cantwell says.
Faster togetherness
RFID discussions need to fit the RFID system to application needs, says Gabi Daniely, AeroScout Vice President of Product Strategy. Within industrial manufacturing, Daniely says, active RFID tags (battery-powered, rather than passive, unpowered tags) can easily track assets (machinery, toolkits, and work-in-progress inventory). Real-time asset tracking can integrate information into control systems, driving business intelligence for increased efficiency andthroughput.
Taking advantage of pre-existing network infrastructure, such as RFID reader Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11b) access points, accelerates return on capital. One infrastructure can deliver data, voice, and RFID services to make them “easier, less disruptive, and less expensive to implement,” Daniely says. Batteries boost communications to more than 90 ft, even in metal-filled environments, without use of a handheld “scanned” reader. “Tags also can include sensors and be programmed to proactively send alerts” at a certain temperature,Daniely says.
Boeing uses AeroScout’s Wi-Fi-based Active RFID to speed final aircraft assembly. Previously, engineers spent time locating needed parts and tools in the nearly 100-acre plant. High-value airplane components and equipment now carry tags. Using the facility’s Cisco wireless network, AeroScout’s MobileViewsoftware enables engineers to speed assembly.
Newer RFID technology provides greater read and write capacity
Navigational pushbuttons with a small display
Hits & Misses Raghu Das, CEO of IDTechEx of specialist market research company IDTechEx on what’s hot and what’s not in the world of RFID At the start of 2007, the cumulative number of RFID tags sold over the last 60 years amounted to 3.75 billion. Almost half (46 percent) of that number were sold in the last two years, indicating the very robust increase in sales. However, the sale of 1.02 billion RFID tags in 2006 (35% of those being RFID cards) has been disappointing to those expecting higher volume sales of versions in the form of labels. In 2007, IDTechEx expect that 1.71 billion tags will be sold, with the total global RFID market value (including all hardware, systems, integration etc) reaching $4.96 billion. The market will rise to $27.88 billion in 2017. This includes many new markets that are being created, such as for real time location systems (RTLS) using active RFID, which will itself be worth more than $6 billion by 2017. By far the biggest segment of this is RFID cards. For those not involved in that sector, the 2007 market value for non card RFID (e.g. RFID labels, fobs, tickets etc) will be $1.97 billion. Excluding cards, 58.4 and 33 percent of the market in 2007 will be in the US and Europe, respectively. Some successes • Airline baggage In 2006, 25 million tags were used for baggage tagging. And according to Andrew Price of IATA, “In the next few years, the air industry will be tagging an ever higher proportion of its two billion bags yearly and it will use RFID in other new applications as well.” Korean airports have placed orders with Symbol Technologies and others are following. And in late 2006, Paul Foster of San Francisco International Airport reported at the IDTechEx RFID Smart Labels Europe conference that working with Quatrotec (owned by Alien Technology), they had overcome UHF frequency problems by using focused beams. • Retail – item level UK-based retailer Marks & Spencer continues to extend its successful item-level RFID tagging from 42 to 120 stores by spring 2007, on the way to tagging all 350 million items of apparel yearly. M&S has seen a sales uplift by being able to have close visibility of stock availability. M&S is not using EPC tags but a 64 bit identification number on each tag, saying this is much cheaper than EPC RFID. Others doing similar item level work have reported excellent results, such as Tesco and Best Buy, tagging DVDs and computer video games respectively. Tags are applied to each item so when stock on each shelf gets low staff are informed and can replenish, rather than losing sales. • RFID card/tickets RFID card orders are sharply increasing from many quarters. ERG of Australia, with over US$100 million in sales of RFID card systems has just announced two major orders totaling $40 million, one being in Manila in the Philippines and the other being in Italy. They involve card payment systems for mass transit but also stored value cards (SVC) for a general cash replacement in shops, vending, etc. In 2007 China will supply the peak number of RFID cards for their national ID scheme – the largest RFID project in the world. Missing forecasts • Pallet/case tagging Despite the progressive mandates by retailers in the US, consumer packaged goods companies have yet to realize any significant benefits let alone payback. The benefit has flowed rapidly to the retailer from the RFID solution providers who significantly funded development for this sector. Only 200 million tags were sold into this sector in 2006. That’s an average of a few hundred thousand tags that each mandated Wal-Mart supplier bought for the whole year. Technical problems (getting 100 percent read-rate) persist although users are pleased with the significantly improved performance from Gen 2. Infrastructure is still threadbare. Sub 10 cents tag prices announced by suppliers in late 2005 were intended to trigger hundreds of millions to billions of tags being ordered. The volumes never came in 2006 and there is over capacity. However, the end game will probably happen broadly as anticipated, which means the tagging of most pallets and cases (about 35 billion globally each year) ten years from now. • Pharmaceuticals Despite a high profile and significant work by the industry tagging drugs such as Viagra (Pfizer used about 5 million in 2006) and products of GSK, Purdue Pharma and others, adoption in 2007 will still be low. This is partly because the industry has yet to agree on a frequency – indeed it may never do so and the FDA needs to lay down the law on what should be used rather as IATA did with baggage tags and ICAO did with passport tags, triggering major new RFID applications. For drugs, HF was preferred but near-field UHF is promised to be just as good when it is finally tested in volume. It also operates at the frequency that Wal-Mart wants. Without significant infrastructure – i.e. a kick start from the regulator – the business case for item level tagging of drugs purely for anti-counterfeiting may be weak. The full market analysis report, “RFID Forecasts, Players & Opportunities 2007- 2017”, is available from IDTechEx (www.idtechex.com/forecasts). |
The Active Approach Andy Barker, Business Development Director at Wavetrend, talks to CE Asia about the advantages of an active RFID solution. CEA: Could you clarify the difference between active and passive RFID systems? Barker: In an active system, the tag has an internal battery and is continuously transmitting RF signals, which are detected by a reader. This is in contrast to a passive RFID tag, which is only powered and transmits when it comes within range of a reader. The main feature of an active system is that the tags can be read from much larger distances – up to 200 meters – as compared to a passive system. At a 1.5 second “beacon rate”, we guarantee our tags to have three years of battery life, although they often last longer than that. CEA: For what type of applications is active RFID targeted? Barker: It’s really anything that involves a “zonal” area. Tagged items can be detected as they move into and around the configured zone. For example, in an aircraft hanger application done by Wavetrend, just six readers positioned around the area was enough to cover the entire zone. To do the same with a passive system would require many, many more readers. CEA: But isn’t the cost of active RFID tags still very prohibitive? Barker: Active RFID tags do certainly cost more than passive ones – for small volumes it’s in the range of $20. So the key is identifying a business case, i.e. what return on investment can you achieve by having access to the real-time information that an active system can provide? I have one client in the equipment rental business using our tags on items that are only double the cost of the tag. His ROI comes from being able to know very quickly when the goods come back to his yard. Before, it was taking up to a month to record the items into stock, which delayed sending out the invoice to the customer and so slowing down cashflow. He can now tell his customers precisely what came back (and when) into his yard. CEA: Do you see active eventually replacing passive tags? Barker: No, there is really a case for both; they are complementary rather than competing technologies. The high growth potential comes from the additional functionality that an active system can provide, like real-time location information. I recently came across two major auto manufacturers that had implemented passive systems but are not convinced it’s the right technology for them – because they lose track of the items as soon as they move off the production line. They are now looking at an active system, which would enable them to track items right across the factory floor. CEA: How would you assess customers’ current awareness of RFID? Barker: It’s growing but cautionary. They understand what the technology could do for them but are unsure how to apply it. RFID may appear quite simple – stick a tag on an item and get a reader to detect it – but there are many issues to consider: coverage zones, data transmission rates, what to do with the volumes of data generated, and ensuring there is no critical RF interference on the site. This is where a company like Wavetrend can help: evaluating what the customer needs; if the technology is right and will work in their environment; and through a network of accredited channel partners, building a software application that integrates to the corporate IT system. CEA: And how is the market in Asia shaping up for Wavetrend? Barker: It’s definitely a significant region for us – we have set up an office in Singapore, have agents in Hong Kong and Japan, as well as a number of channel partners in the area. We also have access to manufacturing facilities in China, which will help to bring down our tag cost. The advantages of RFID over bar codes in an automotive paint plant RFID helps to ensure that the right car doors are mounted in the right vehicle |
Driving Productivity RFID technology is finding its way into an increasing number of applications in the demanding automotive industry. The times when Ford produced exactly one version of its “Model T” are long gone. High competitive pressures with more and more new car models and technologies (such as hybrid), strict quality requirements, cost reduction pressures, and an ever increasing number of variants that customers can configure until shortly before the start of the production – all these imply a precise interaction between suppliers and automotive manufacturers, an efficient and largely automated production and highly optimized logistics in the factories. RFID technology is a key to meeting these challenges. Two major aspects of RFID make the technology attractive for the auto plant. Firstly, since RFID systems transmit the data by means of radio signals, they do not require line-of-sight connections between the reader and the data medium (tag). Hence, the tag can accumulate dirt or be installed in protective enclosures without any impairment to the function of the system. This advantage of RFID over optical bar code systems allows its use e.g. in automotive paint lines. The temperatures of over 200 °C necessitate extensive protective measures for the RFID tags, implemented with special ceramics-plastics enclosures. Overspraying of the tag during the painting process does not present a problem. The second advantage is the ability to reuse the data medium. In contrast, a printed bar code remains unalterable once and for all. Combined with the high storage capacity of RFID tags (up to 32 KB), this allows distributed automation architectures to be implemented that significantly reduce the effort of central data management. For this purpose, an RFID tag is attached to each vehicle or skid and programmed with as much production data as possible. In individual manufacturing steps, this data can be read out and processed directly via a PLC. Every workpiece carrier or skid, equipped with an RFID tag, is programmed at the beginning of a process or production line with the specific data that applies to this particular vehicle. At each manufacturing station, this data is remotely read out by the PLC and then processed to control the production step. Subsequently, the PLC may e.g. write quality data or status information on the RFID tag before this is transported on the vehicle to the next station. Since the RFID tags can be reused at the end of this process, this is called a closed-loop application. Dürr Systems, manufacturer of painting and drying lines for the likes of GM and VW, uses RFID systems for immersion plants and for controlling spray paint robots. In addition to resistance to extreme temperatures, the tag’s ability to store production data is a major advantage, allowing Dürr to implement a highly flexible production control system. Right place, right time But RFID does not only help to optimize the production process – intralogistics in the factories can also greatly benefit from this technology. Here, it is all about having the right things available in the right quantity at the right time and at the right place – for example, transport containers, fixtures, tools, raw material or semi-finished goods. Errors will almost inevitably lead to (at least partial) production downtime, because obviously it will e.g. not be possible to make a motor if the corresponding workpiece carrier is missing. This is aggravated by the fact that the inventory of such items should be minimized in order to make the factories less capital intensive. An example of an automotive manufacturer that has mastered this challenge is the BMW Group. At its Series 3 factory in Munich the cars are all made to order. A great number of vehicle components contain sophisticated electronics that needs corresponding wiring. The cable harness not only becomes the lifeline of the automobile, its proper connection is decisive for successful production since a single error requires a very high effort to correct and the installation of the wrong cable harness can lead to the scrapping of the entire vehicle. Therefore, BMW relies on an RFID system (Moby D from Siemens) to achieve automated identification of harnesses – from delivery to to installation. Cable harnesses are delivered individually packaged in bags. The bags have a sewn-in RFID tag with a 112 byte data memory pre-programmed by the supplier with all necessary data. At BMW, the data is evaluated both on reception of the goods, later in the factory’s intermediate store, and when the part enters the production area. This ensures that exactly the right cable harness is installed in the right car. All down the line It has now become a cost-effective option for manufacturers to have their suppliers already attach the RFID tag to the goods being delivered, which helps to make the entire supply chain more transparent. The earlier and more reliable this information arrives with the production planners, the better are the options to avoid a production standstill. To achieve this goal, every transport unit (e.g. pallet) is equipped with an RFID smart label and is fully detected when it leaves the supplier’s premises. Through the correlation with GPS data of the truck, this now permits 100 percent location of the goods. Within the factory, it is possible to fully automate the incoming inspection process. RFID systems such as Simatic RF600 are installed at the loading gates to detect the supplied transport units. A software component matches RFID data from readers with the electronic bills of delivery, flagging any errors. Software used in this process plays an important role, since RFID systems create a huge amount of information. Several automotive groups are currently working on pilot projects that are designed to test the use of RFID in the supply chain – with very promising results. The electronic product code (EPC) also plays a major role since it permits accurate identification of vehicles even long after they left the factory gates. It is planned to use RFID tags as an electronic nameplate to automatically determine the identity of a car – without any manual and thus error-prone inputs or the possibility of falsification and fraud. The scenarios range from service and the handling of warranty claims to the recycling of vehicles. CEA Based on information from Siemens (www.siemens.com/rfid). |
