The literature says many benefits like productivity increase, reduction of manual ... Related Articles: RFID â Busines
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ENSURING SUCCESS ON RFID IMPLEMENTATION To implement a RFID system is necessary to understand the risks and the critical points of the project. Understanding these challenges and applying the best practices, the risks will be reduced and the success of the project implementation will be successfully.
Evaluate the Business Benefits This is the main decision on RFID adoption; understand the quantitative and qualitative benefits that the project can provide. The literature says many benefits like productivity increase, reduction of manual processes, increase performance, increase visibility of supply chain and others. Besides these benefits, is possible to have much more gains, for instance, quality of service, Environment and costs saving and the results will be competitive advantage and improve the corporate strategy. Related Articles: RFID – Business Decision, not a Technology Question (http://bit.ly/d3W5g2) and RFID – Green Technology? (http://bit.ly/aF0KKi)
Identify Problems to be Solved Some companies are limited to attend mandates because they still didn’t understand the improvements that the system can offer on the internal and operational logistics. RFID-enabled processes can overcome expectations and limitations that restrict alternative identification methods. RFID should be used where it meets a specific need or solves a problem. An idea on how RFID could improve the business is to review operations and determine choke points or processes that require excessive human handling. These processes are candidates to be automated with RFID, which can provide a good return on investment and increase efficiency.
Frequency of Operation RFID has many technical and industrial standards, plus various national regulations for RF transmission; so it is important to understand the technical aspects and standards of each RFID frequency band. Related Article: Passive RFID – LF x HF x UHF (http://bit.ly/9aKeU0)
Establish Clear Objectives Establish clear objective is important on decision making and to create the project scope. These objectives well defined and focused separate the “must have” from “nice to have”, that way the project requisites will be met (Cost, Time and Scope).
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Undestand the Physics The key point to success or failure of any RFID system is tag and reader communication, doesn’t matter how elegant is the software or process; if the communication isn’t effective the project success is impaired. How the efficiency of tag and reader communication depends on physics, the best practice suggests a scientific approach for the tag selection and reader customization, which will improve system performance. Trial and error tests won’t be effective.
Understand the Processes The RFID implementation impacts directly the processes, therefore, the best approach is study the current process and design a new one for better use of the technology. RFID can overcome many challenges, but is required to be ready for changes.
Understand the System All RFID implementations are kind of unique because each project requires a specific need or process. Understand the needs of system and a care designing of system architecture are the key for best results.
Understand the Interdependencies In a RFID solution, physics, process and system must work in concert. As important as process redesign and system selection, the physical installation also needs to follow best practices to guarantee the RFID operability.
Conclusion RFID projects are complex. A typical enterprise software implementation must coordinate processes, applications and people, a typical RFID implementation includes those elements plus physical device layer, a sophisticated wireless communication network governed by RF physics, impacts to physical facilities and material flows. However, following the best practices for deploying a RFID system is the key to guarantee the success of the project implementation.
