Advantages of RFID in Transportation & Logistics - Motorola Solutions

WHITE PAPERRFID: DRIVING THE VISIBLE SUPPLY CHAINTHE NEED FOR VISIBILITYOptimized supply chain management is based on gettingmore done in less time and with fewer resources. Many oftoday’s transportation and logistics businesses struggle totame both their asset management and supply chainoperations. Virtually every business or institution with anextensive supply chain finds that optimizing it is a processfinds that supply chain optimization is a process that’stime-intensive, largely based on manual procedures, proneto human error and increasingly costly. In focusing on theseissues, businesses are working to increase asset, inventoryand shipment visibility in every link of the chain. That’s notsurprising. It’s hard to track and manage what you can’tsee. End-to-end visibility facilitates more effective, timelierdecisions; reduces delays through prompt detection,reporting and resolution of operational anomalies; allowsswift rerouting of goods in transit to meet changingbusiness requirements; and provides real-time trackingstatus and traceability.AN RFID REFRESHERFor many organizations, the solution is the automation ofvisibility and management processes. Most transportationand logistics companies have been using barcodingsuccessfully for years now. A growing number are alsoadding Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) solutions. RFIDis essentially a more automated way of knowing what youhave and where it is. There are substantial differencesbetween barcoding and RFID. One of the most significant isthe fact that barcodes need a clear line-of-sight to bar codescanners, making them difficult and slow to work with inmany locations and situations. Another is the high numberof manhours it takes to count shipments, inventory andassets with barcodes. In addition, barcodes are able toidentify only the type or class of goods, rather thanindividual items.RFID, on the other hand, identifies and locates every singleitem you want to track, from trucks to forklifts to returnabletransit items (RTIs) to containers to whatever is beingshipped in them. With RFID there are no line-of-sightrequirements, so you can read a great many tagssimultaneously. RFID lets you read, write and re-write toflexible, low-cost tags that offer greater data capacity,durability in harsh environments and the security of beingdifficult to replicate. And you can read them at distances ofup to 30 feet.An RFID system includes tags, or transponders, that includea small antenna and a chip that can hold a significantamount of data such as product number, manufacturer,location and much more. It also includes three basic typesof RFID readers.• Fixed readers have an external antenna and are oftenlocated at entry points to facilities and yards.• Handheld readers provide on-demand scanning and areused by personnel moving through the space.• Mobile readers can be located on moving equipment,such as trucks and forklifts, for faster, more accurateinventory and process tracking.“WITH A BARCODE SCAN, YOU HAVE A ONE-TO-ONERELATIONSHIP, BUT WITH RFID YOU CAN HAVE AONE-TO-MANY RELATIONSHIP, AND THAT’S WHERE YOUSEE A SIGNIFICANT INCREASE IN EFFICIENCIES. INSTEADOF HAVING TO TOUCH EACH ITEM ONE AT A TIME, RFIDBASICALLY THROWS AN UMBRELLA OF ENERGY AROUNDAN AREA OR A BOX AND DETECTS EVERYTHING IN IT.”– L. ALLEN BENNETT, CEO AND PRESIDENTENTIGRAL SYSTEMS, GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINAPAGE 3