Intelligent Sensing with RFID Can Change Operations

By D'Anne Hotchkiss, Editor -- RFID News & Solutions, 7/20/2005

Shove over, IT. RFID’s moving from science experiment to core business improvement. It’s not about tags and readers working together anymore. The true value of RFID technology is enabling more efficient core business processes.

This is the scheme behind Click Commerce’s Strategy 18 (named for the “R” in RFID—the 18th letter in the alphabet).

The Strategy 18 approach systematically addresses the business issues to be solved through the use of RFID. It begins by identifying the issues and then quantifying their impact on the business. This process is designed to secure the senior-level support needed to make the required changes to business processes.

“It’s time for the business guys to pay attention to RFID,” says Johan Sauer, vice president and managing director at Click Commerce. “RFID started with the technology. That’s the tail wagging the dog. At the business problem end, you see a bigger image of RFID.”

Real business value comes from “using the intelligent sensing RFID offers,” he says, such as improving inventory control for expensive parts and delivering cost-effective warranty programs. He offers an example involving personal watercraft.

For parts tracking:

Outboard motors include small parts with high value. “It’s important to attach to them the equivalent of the pharmaceutical e-pedigree,” says Sauer. An RFID tag can identify its manufacturer, where it is stored and its authenticity, as well as track a product though the supply chain.

For maintenance:

Tagging a boat’s critical components means she can be run through a scanner as part of a pre-season check-up of the prop, drive shaft, engine, even the refrigerator and plasma screen TV.

For warranty:

“Offering a bow-to-stern three-year warranty program requires tight control over what parts are on the boat, who put them on, who made the parts, etc., for the upstream warranty claims. RFID will make it more accurate, and deliver speed and consistency”—particularly when the customer has a different boat the next season. “The boat owner has a consistent record of what happens.”

In the end, it’s all about keeping that boat in the water, rather than in a repair shop for longer than need be.