RFID Demystified!

Though a simple technology, customers are wary about applications built
around RFID, because of the technical complexities involved. If you project RFID,
not as a rival but as an alternative to bar code, then buyers will be more
willing to understand and accept it.

Reading about the increasing interest in RFID and bar code technology,
reminds me of my first brush with RFID almost 25 years ago. A client who had a
factory in Gujarat had recently installed a motorized gate at his factory.

He asked me to develop a handheld radio frequency transmitter for himself and
a receiver to be installed in the watchman's cabin, which would identify the
RF signal from his transmitter and open the gate for him even when the watchman
was not there. This system could then be used for all the senior managers.

We found it very difficult to make this a highly reliable and foolproof
system.

Finally, we settled for a plastic card with eight positions for holes to be
drilled as an 8-bit digital code and a card reader with eight LEDs and eight
phototransistors to read the code. So, the bar code kind of a system won against
the RFID idea.

The moral of the story is that the RFID idea is not something very complex.
It has been there for a long time, waiting for technologies to develop to a
stage when it could be implemented in a very reliable and foolproof way. No one
would have believed in those days that a radio frequency transmitter including
its antenna could be etched into a thin tiny chip that can be embedded
seamlessly into an ordinary label.

PHARMAS WILL BENEFIT

One of the major industries to benefit from low priced RFID labels will be
the pharmaceutical industry. The US Food and Drug Administration, has realized
the technical benefits of RFID-based technologies and is bolstering its already
stringent regulations to protect the efficacy of the drug manufacturing and
distribution process.

Pharmaceutical companies can now use RFID technology to reliably and
affordably provide assurance to the consumers that their products were
manufactured safely and distributed under conditions that did not compromise the
potency or legitimacy. The percentage of spurious drugs in circulation is at
present rising to alarming levels.

Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and
outsourcing company has helped form the RFID Industry Group To Evaluate
Technology's Value In Pharmaceutical Industry. This group of industry leaders
that will work together to evaluate the potential of new RFID technologies to
enhance pharmaceutical product manufacturing, distribution and retail operations
within the USA.

This project will explore the application of EPC and RFID and technologies to
three areas: enhancing the safety and security  of the pharmaceutical
supply chain, improving the process of pharmaceutical returns management and
increasing the efficiency of distribution operations.

Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers and exporters will have to get ready soon
for the RFID initiative, if they want to penetrate into American and European
markets. RFID solutions providers will need to take the initiative without
waiting for the Pharmaceutical Industry to wake up and come to them. Time and
money will also have to be invested in customer education, which always proves
important in the long run in getting and keeping lifetime customers.

WORRY NOT

As long as you are not going to manufacture RFID ships, there is no need to
worry about complexity of the technology involved. If you can drive a car
without being an automobile engineer, if you can use a mobile phone without
being a telecommunications engineer; you can implement RFID applications without
knowing the technology inside the chip.

Partners are skeptical about RFID applications, because they have once burned
their fingers with the Internet boom, some years ago. They are wary of trying
new technology, especially one which is highly hyped about.

But one must remember, all technologies are just tools to get different
things done. It all depends on how you apply them to build solutions around them
for your customers. If the expectations are raised too high and cannot be met,
the technology gets the blame.

What happened with the Internet can be easily avoided for the RFID
technology, because the bar code technology is now well established and accepted
by everyone. If you project RFID, not as a rival but as a natural next step
ahead of the Bar Code, new applications will become simpler to understand and
accept.

INCREASING ADOPTION

The bar code is nothing but information stored in a graphical pattern, which
can be read by the bar code reader. The RFID is nothing but information stored
electronically, which can be read by the RFID reader!

Indian customers are only now warming up to the idea of the RFID technology.
There are success stories like the Chitale Dairy Farms who have achieved an
increase in the milk yield up to 20% by using RFID technology to manage their
livestock.

An important reason for RFID technology being held back in India is the cost.
Printable electronic polymers could hold the key to making RFID tags available
at price levels around 1 cent each, inexpensive enough to enable the use of the
technology in the packaging of low-cost products. At this kind of a price,
including RFID tags in product packaging could reduce staff costs by 20%, and
lower inventory levels by between 5% and 10%. 

Ashok Dongre is an independent
consultant