RFID Standards in Logistics Industry

Abstract

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is emerging to be a significant application among industrial and E-Commerce industries that include retail, logistics, manufacturing, healthcare, construction, animal detection, sensing and metering application, automatic vehicle identification, real-time location systems (RTLS), and the pharmaceutical industry. This paper comprehensively explores the applications of RFID technology in logistics and the specific standards applied in the industry.

Introduction

RFID technology uses one type of auto-identification technology that employs radio frequency (RF) waves to identify, track and locate individual physical objects. This emerging compact wireless technology gets considered as an eminent candidate for the realization of entirely ubiquitous “ad-hoc” wireless networks. RFID technology employs electromagnetic waves for transmitting and receiving information that is stored in a tag or transponder to/from a reader. The primary components of a RFID system are the tag or transponder, the readers, and the middleware. Tags refers to gadgets attached to the objects that the RFID systems is intended to monitor/track. The main function of a tag is to transmit data to the rest of the RFID system. Tags get made up of three basic parts namely the electronic integrated circuit, a miniature antenna and a substrate that hold the integrated circuit and the antenna together and to the inventory object. The RFID reader refers to a device that makes the electromagnetic signal transmitted by the tags through one or more antennas. The RFID reader also undertakes a second function that is monitoring of electromagnetic signals from the RFID tags via the sane antenna. In complex or rapidly moving systems, the electromagnetic signal gets transmitted using a smart reader. Smart readers get commonly seen in conveyor or loading dock portal applications. The RFID antenna receives the radio frequency signal from the tag for subsequent processing by the RFID reader. The RFID middleware sets up and controls the reader.

RFID technology gets associated with various benefits that include faster data transfer, higher read range, no requirement of line of sight, the ability to embed RFID tags within items, and capacity to read massive amounts of tags simultaneously. There has been increasing demand for flexible RFID tags in the recent past due to the requirements of automatic tracking/identification/monitoring in different industries.

RFID Applications in Logistics Industry

The integration of RFID technology in logistics promises widespread benefits especially due to the emerging demands posed by increases in E-Commerce activities. RFID systems have been employed in different logistic areas such as supply chain visibility, pallet tracking, inventory control and management, container management and tracking returnable transit goods (Lee, 2016).

RFID-capture information influences the supply chain performance with inventory management, data analysis, transportation and supply chain visibility. Data analysis involves the evaluations about facilities, transportation, inventory costs, prices, and customers and is essential to the organizational success in the supply chain. Inventory management involves raw materials, operations, and finished goods within a supply chain. The effective manipulation of inventory is an essential factor in contributing to the long-term success of an organization. Transportation visibility offers information concerning inventory transported from a location to another in the supply chain and includes a combination of modes and routes, each with their performance characteristics. Supply chain visibility gives information in the status updates that allow for assessment of the physical locations in the supply chain network where the product gets stored, assembled or fabricated. In the logistics management field, the RFID gets applied in cargo management of intelligent warehouse in which it can process the cargo to go into storage, exit the storehouse and the stock management, and can supervise and manage all the information about the cargo.

Advantages and Challenges of the RFID system in Logistics Industry

The integration of RFID system in logistics contributes to increased profitability as a result of reducing stock and the sales personnel aspect cost, minimizing labor cost of reading the code, minimizing the occurrence of larceny and out of the stock situation and reducing the goods in stock (Yong-Dong, Yuan-Yuan & Wei-Min, 2009). RFID system reduces the labor expenses and regular cargo management and service fee through improving the self-service, minimizing the inspection time and errors and improving the inspection method of the automatic scan. RFID system assists in taking accurate stock list hence reducing the occurrence of decreasing the book value intentionally. The use of RFID system contributes to the optimization of container storage to increase profitability through increasing production without adding resources, maximizing asset utilization and enhancing customer service.

The major challenges associated with RFID implementation in industries are cost, reliability and regulatory situation (Lindenmeier & Weigel, 2011). So as to realize an entirely ubiquitous network for RFID technology, the cost of tags needs to be inexpensive so as to be realized in mass production amounts. The tags also have to abide by a particular global regulatory set of requirements that include the bandwidth allocations of the Gen2 Protocols defined by the EPC Global regulatory unit.

RFID Standards

Standards refer to the data content, conformance testing, air interface protocol and applications usage. The three standardization bodies at the international level are ISO/IEC, EPCglobal, and ITU-T. ISO Standards develops standards for different sectors, and EPCglobal is specific for RFID technology. RFID standards at the item level get described for ISO under the ISO-IEC Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) Standard. The standardization of RFID products provides different advantages as listed below.

                               I.            Standards minimize the cost and ease implementation.

                            II.            Standards lead to consumer confidence in RFID technology.

                         III.            All vendors follow a defined standard to manufacture gadgets, technical standards so as to ensure the interoperability of the devices thus benefiting consumers and assisting providers to create healthy competition.

                         IV.            Standards assist in defining the most efficient platform on which industry will operate and advance since it does not serve just one vendor (Thornton & Sanghera, 2011).

The ISO has developed RFID standards in various fields namely:

Ø  Identification standards about the coding of identification or other information on tags

Ø  Data protocols for the middleware of a RFID system

Ø  Standards for testing, compliance, and safety

Ø  Air interface protocols that describe the rules of communication between tags and interrogators

The Standards include:

Ø  ISO/IEC 15961 – Information exchange in RFID system for item management

Ø  ISO/IEC 15962 – Data encoding rules and logical memory functions for item management

Ø  ISO/IEC 19762-3 – Automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) techniques

The EPCglobal network provides the services listed below:

Ø  Assigning unique identification numbers to objects so as to allow them to be identified

Ø  Detecting and identifying items through the use of EPC tags and readers

Ø  Querying and storing data

Ø  Locating information in which it finds the repositories for the required EPC data

Ø  Collecting and filtering data: EPC Middleware offers services that enhance data exchange between EPC readers and business information systems that include databases.

Conclusion

The use of RFID systems in logistics has led to increased efficiency and effectiveness and a wide range of benefits in the industry. Regulation in the RFID industry is crucial in keeping RFID devices safe and also prevents them from disrupting the services that exist in the RF arena. RFID standards are also critical as they ensure interoperability thus assists in creating healthy marketing competition among vendors as well as help industries to advance.

References

Lee, I. (Ed.). (2016): Encyclopedia of E-Commerce Development, Implementation, and Management. IGI Global.

Lindenmeier, S., & Weigel, R. (Eds.). (2011): Electromagnetics and Network Theory and Their Microwave Technology Applications: A Tribute to Peter Russer. Springer Science & Business Media.

Thornton, F., & Sanghera, P. (2011): How to cheat at deploying and securing RFID. Syngress.

Yong-Dong, S., Yuan-Yuan, P., & Wei-Min, L. (2009): The RFID application in logistics and supply chain management. Research Journal of Applied Sciences, 4(1), 57-61.

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at Melda Research in nursing writing services if you need a similar paper you can place your order for non plagiarized essay for sale.