Manufacturing environments are rigorous. Jeff Schaengold counsels that using RFID in operations also means using hardware suppliers and system integrators who understand manufacturing environments. Schaengold is CEO of RF Commerce, a supply chain technology and services company specializing in asset management for raw materials, work-in-process and finished goods through the retail supply chain.

“RFID is a data management problem. If you’re a supplier to Wal-Mart, you need to move data around the shop floor up to your ERP. The new venture-funded companies have no real familiarity with manufacturing environments.” He points to hardware vendors with established reputations for shop floor operations such as Siemens.

Siemens has been applying RFID in manufacturing, assembly and distribution for 20 years, including in harsh materials handling and materials flow environments. The company has built a strong reputation in the automotive industry, where RFID systems track car bodies as they travel through assembly and paint shop operations. Earlier this month, Siemens released its UHF RFID product line.

Companies should be aware of the difference between industrial tag and reader suppliers and those focused on the distribution scene, says Alex Stuebler, the business manager for Siemens’ Factory Automation Sensors - RFID unit. “These readers are assembled for functionality but not by industrial engineers for functionality in manufacturing. They’re not sealed units, or made for extreme heat and cold such as meat plants and other environments where everything is washed down several times a day.”

Siemens Logistics and Assembly, is bringing Wal-Mart and Target suppliers into compliance, says Stuebler. One supplier “especially likes the design and features and functions that are expected to be equal to what they have already.” The RFID hardware is “industrial in appearance. They know they can wash it down, and that the equipment takes the stress and has the power to improve read reliability. (That supplier) feels other technology is on the disposable side.”