RFID Users Don't Care

“The reality is that most end users don't know—or care—how a tag or sensor communicates, whether it has an onboard CPU and so forth. What they care about is what RFID does:  can it solve their problem?” 

Mark Roberti of RFID Journal hit the nail on the head in his February post.  RFID adoption is not about technology, it is about improving business processes to cut cost, increase throughput, enhance security, improve visibility and reduce risk.  This is different than 2004-06. 

During that time, we spoke with many buyers who were interested in learning how each component worked and why we were recommending one RFID technology or vendor over another.  Since it was their first exposure to RFID and there were few third party user references, many buyers perceived a great deal of purchase risk and wanted to be educated.  Vendors obliged. 

Reader and tag manufacturers hungry for customers would tout the performance of their wares and discuss how they operated differently from competitors.  At ODIN, through discussions and benchmarks we often were asked to provide an objective evaluation of these vendor claims and in turn took time to further educate buyers.   While we still have a loyal following for ODIN’s RFID Benchmark Series™, buyers are more likely to ask us how fast can we install, what else we’ve done in their industry or our experience integrating RFID into SAP than what kind of tag we recommend. 

RFID Physics still matters because performance is essential

So does the physics of RFID still matter?Yes.It has simply taken its rightful place behind the business value discussion.  RFID performance is more important than ever.  As buyers have zeroed in on solving business problems, they are expecting reliable performance.   If they don’t get the performance, they don’t get the benefits.  While the discussion focuses on benefits, timelines and integration interdependences, the scientific work designing reliable and scalable RFID systems becomes a checklist item for the buyer and a responsibility of the provider.

Thankfully, RFID reader and tag vendors have made great progress over the past five years improving price and performance.  At the same time, client expectations have grown and tougher use cases have emerged. 

Better Performance is an Opportunity and an Obligation

The lesson for RFID product and solution providers is to put forth high performing solutions that enable substantial business benefits.  You can do this through the many components that drive RFID performance:  tags, readers, antennas, software, material flows and business processes.  If you can adjust these variables properly, you can deliver the 99.9% or higher accuracy that is often needed. 

The lesson for end users is that you should present a clear business objective and manage to it.    It’s not about the technology. It’s about what it can do for your business.  However, you also should ask your suppliers how they expect to achieve the high read accuracy performance you require.   Do they understand how to leverage different components, software and processes in order to make subtle performance improvements?  That knowledge may be the difference between project success and failure.   

Sanskrit Poetry and RFID 2.0

This past month's Journal of Computer Science and Information Security had an interesting article on using an algorithm that converts Sanskrit prose into poetry automatically following the metical rules of Sanskrit prosody (which is no easy task considering the euphonic conjunctions area real bear). So what does this have to do with RFID?

In a month ODIN will once again have the honor of awarding the IEEE award for best research paper in RFID. We're doing this at RFID Journal Live! in Orlando. ODIN has sponsored the IEEE RFID Award for three years and has not done it for press (most people have never heard of it) nor do we do it for product development (the Sanskrit idea says it all there). We do it for the same reason I wrote RFID for Dummies - to drive the industry forward.

The young men and women who are applying for the IEEE award are the ones that two, three, five years from now will deliver the true breakthroughs in RFID. The technology which will take us a quantum leap forward. Right now they may be figuring out how to use an RFID tag to measure the molecular density of a Peanut Buster Parfait, or trying to make a bicycle's bottom bracket generate UHF energy - and we applaud them for this creative thinking. However the real value comes in the "unknown unknowns" they discover as they chase after some strange idea like converting Sanskrit.

Through that level of creative R&D and freedom to invent tomorrow's massive breakthroughs will come. As always ODIN supports the world's best RFID engineers through our sponsorship of IEEE and we look forward to seeing what's in store for this year's winners. Please join us in Orlando for the award of the paper of the year, and let each one of these engineers know your proud of them for making a difference in our industry.

RFID Weapons and Firearms Tracking Video

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a breakthrough technology for tracking weapons, small arms and firearms. RFID Tags and RFID readers can be used to gain 100% visibility and accountability into where and when a firearm moves within a facility or vehicle. This short video shows how using teh US Department of Defenses ISO 18000-6 passive RFID standard can increase security and accountability of weapons. Passive RFID is not bringing a new world order (NWO) rather it is increasing security and accountability.

RFID Technology Adoption -- healthy at 300

Reik Read of RFID Monthly / Robert W. Baird & Co. posted an article this week citing the lack of industry and end user technical knowledge as the key factor holding back RFID technology adoption.  It stood out in sharp contrast to an ODIN milestone announced this week. As of January, ODIN has completed over 300 paid RFID projects. These span more than a dozen industries for over 90 companies.   Three hundred projects completed by a single company would typically suggest healthy and growing market adoption.  Of course, it depends where you are looking. 

Two years ago, ODIN began to see some trends emerge.  Retail was seeing decent results from RFID, but the industry was struggling with macroeconomic factors. At the same time, government use was accelerating, RFID IT asset tracking was taking hold, RFID tool tracking and inventory visibility applications were emerging with strong ROI.  Weakness in one sector was counterbalanced by growing RFID adoption in industries ranging from the aerospace and defense to healthcare and financial services.  Several industries were embracing RFID because it enabled rapid item identification for high value and high risk assets without human intervention.  It was more than just efficiency.  RFID was providing visibility with real value.   

Knowledge – an RFID Adoption enabler

Having completed many projects and seen many others that weren’t funded leaves me with the impression that Mr. Read is at least partly correct.  Technical knowledge and RFID expertise have been important factors in whether RFID projects go forward and whether they are successful.  The customers best educated in RFID have been the most likely to move forward.  And, the most knowledgeable RFID implementers have been the most likely to deliver successful solutions.  We have seen many projects go unfunded because of lack of technology understanding.  Unfortunately, we have seen other projects that were canceled due to unskilled implementation and end users looking to us to rescue their project. 

There is no doubt that more knowledge will result in more successful projects.  Oftentimes the challenges are not found in the technology, but rather in its proper selection and implementation.  At ODIN, all of our engineers go through CompTIA RFID+ certification.  This is a small portion of their training, but is a good foundation that we recommend all implementers of RFID consider for their staff.

Making RFID Invisible and Easy – embedded solutions

In 2004, knowledge was probably the biggest adoption barrier.  Deploying systems was complicated and time consuming even for the most expert implementers.  By 2007 we were seeing more buyers whose biggest concern was a paucity of peer references within their industry.  They wanted to know that someone else like them had been successful.  Today, there are a large number of successful references across a number of industries.  We expect these successful deployments will lead RFID solution suppliers embed their experience into more pre-packaged RFID solutions.

The increased availability of easy to use, pre-packaged solutions will no doubt be a catalyst for RFID adoption.  Three years ago, most solutions were custom designed and built to a customer’s specification.  That approach can deliver great results, but it also involves more time, cost and risk.  Today, there are well proven, pre-packaged RFID solutions that can be installed and put to use in just a few days.   High ROI RFID solutions for kit tracking, IT asset tracking and tool tracking are good examples of solutions where end users don’t need a great deal of knowledge.  The learning is embedded in the solutions and the RFID technology is transparent to the users.  End users can now adopt business solutions that happen to use RFID and not the other way around. 

Let us know your thoughts on RFID adoption barriers and successes by commenting below. 

2010 RFID Predictions--Video Blog

In this video blog I make my 2010 Predictions for the RFID industry. I also look back on 2009 and summarize how my "9 for 2009" stacked up; consequently, a special guest joins us on set.

Airbus A350 RFID programme Questions & Answers

By Luke Waidmann -- ODIN expert at Airbus

In 2009, Airbus announced requirements for high memory Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Radio Frequency IDentifictation (RFID) and Contact Memory Button (CMB) tags use in parts tracking of all serialized, replaceable, and repairable part of the A350. To go along with these requirements, this month Airbus announced preferred pricing on high memory tags through further contract. These two developments have raised a number of questions from parts suppliers, so I will try to answer the most repeated questions.

Why Use RFID and CMB for Aerospace?

The respective RFID and CMB tags will be used to store maintenance and manufacturer information of up to 3,000 parts on the A350. Airbus will use these tags to keep maintenance records and part history. By storing records on the parts, a repair facility will not need network connection get relevant maintenance information.With the click of a hand-held RFID reader the full component history of an A350 part will be available. Likewise fixed readers in tables or portals will read the part information .This will save MROs significant time and expense when a part needs repair, and it increases the overall safety of the aircraft.

What do the Airbus RFID Requirements actually say?

Airbus will require the tagging of all replaceable, repairable and serialized parts on the A350.  Parts inside the pressurized areas of the plane can use either RFID or CMB (however RFID significantly speeds up the business process because it does not need to be touched and many tags can be read at once). technology, while parts in unpressurized areas should use contact memory buttons (this part of the requirements may change as more robust RFID tags are developed).  The full specifications stipulate requirements for the performance characteristics, locations, and sizes of the tags.  The contract signed this month allows external parts suppliers to benefit from the pricing negotiated by Airbus by providing the same price to contractors.  Neither document, however, requires the use of a specific vendor; parts manufacturers may be able to obtain better value from other tag providers.

Ok great... What's in it for the part supplier to Airbus?

RFID mandates in other industries, such as retail, have floundered because they lacked buy-in from the companies responsible for the tagging (the suppliers).  This time, the manufacturer can implement RFID tracking technology to obtain similar ROI in their processes. In addition, Airbus is offering pre-negotiated RFID prices. Two primary use cases come to mind: process tracking and MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) tracking.  The memory in tags can be re-written any number of times or locked forever.  This means that the manufacturer can apply the tags early in the process and track the build status of the part automatically.  The tag can be used similarly to the Airbus use case by adding information to the part as it goes through each build phase.  Prior to delivery, the tag can be erased of information used by the manufacturer, and the information needed by Airbus can be written and locked.

Summing it Up

ODIN can help if you are interested in tagging parts with RFID and CMB.ODIN’s team has been on the ground at Airbus HQ in Toulouse since 2006, and we have the best team in the industry for solving the challenges in tagging LRUs and other Aersopace use cases like tool and jig tracking.  Our team of experts can quickly identify which tag to use and where to place it.  If you’d like to learn more, please contact Kevin MacDonald at Kevin@odintechnologies.com

 

RFID Software needs a New Year’s Resolution

Last week, ODIN kicked off a project to deploy 17 data centers with RFID for one of the world’s top banks.  Should you be surprised that they are moving to deployment or why it took them so long given the clear return on investment of RFID IT Asset Tracking?  It was clear that there great RFID asset tracking success stories abound like Airbus and others.   However, some short term thinking has halted progress in the RFID industry like an anchor grabbing hold of a solid reef –  the DoD’s Alaska Project come to mind when I think of ships run aground. Much of the fault or credit goes directly to the software strategy those organizations adopted.  So I thought it would make sense to show what makes success or failure in RFID software.

The Problems with RFID Middleware

There are three major problems with traditional RFID middleware:

1. The software is not optimized with the RFID physics in mind

2. Many middleware companies require additional servers because they are another enterprise application in disguise

3. Integration and support are a nightmare with enterprise ERP systems like SAP or Maximo

Unfortunately many software companies don’t have an RFID lab and can’t Benchmark RFID Equipment to know how their software effects the performance of an RFID device. Some companies only have the ability to interoperate with one or two readers and use trial and error in the field.  This leads to software convenience driving reader selection and in a world where no one size reader fits all use cases, this too often leads to poor performance and cumbersome exception processing.

What you should look for in RFID middleware

There are a handful of features to look for that will ensure success in an RFID deployment they are:

1. The software can control the reader operation at the deepest level to ensure optimal performance

2. There is a mechanism for high-availability that does not require adding more servers which burden you with associated costs and support headaches

3. The software should not try to replace SAP’s, Remedy’s or Maximo’s functionality, but should augment those solutions

4. You should cap the integration period to a couple of weeks when getting started

5. The “as-is” business processes should be changed to drive a solid and measurable ROI

RFID’s New Year’s Resolution

One or two RFID vendors have it right. The software is built in a high availability, peer-to-peer architecture and it’s built with the physics of RFID in mind. Then the best companies take it one step further and actually go through rigorous testing and Benchmarking in an RFID  lab and with real-world use cases.For those companies that don’t follow that prescription – here’s a New Year’s resolution for the good of everyone in the RFID industry. If you are making RFID software, especially if you have raised millions of dollars in VC, stop wasting time working to be Microsoft ‘s Gold partner or attending IBM’s Pulse Conferences, those are for mature industries. RFID isn’t there yet. Focus on removing the adoption barriers:

1. Make your RFID software work with 99.9% read accuracy by understanding the physics of RFID and how software can enable better performance

2. Create easy integration onramps to existing enterprise applications

3. Set up a lab that is more than a conference room, because last time I checked not many manufacturers, data centers, or retails use conference rooms to do anything other than talk.

4. Listen, listen, listen to what customers want and then give them what they need.

If the industry can follow these four simple rules, we’ll have a lot more stories like Airbus and J&J and the handful of RFID software companies will have more business than they know what to do with, and most importantly clients will be happy.

For a more detailed analysis of RFID software, click here to recieve a copy of ODIN's Whitepaper "Seven Secrets to RFID Software Success"

The Internet of Things is baaaack!

As I think about all the great ideas born out of the 1999-era Auto-ID Center at MIT, I can't help relying on the old adage "timing is everything".

I took MIT's RFID summer course just a couple of years after the Auto-ID center was founded, and met Kevin MacDonald - one of ODIN's pillars, a five-year employee with a great reputation. I met and hired Dr. Daniel Engels (before most people could spell RFID). And I sat with Dr. Sanjay Sarma and discussed an "Internet of Things". It was his vision of the world if everything was connected.

Many people in RFID have scoffed at the IBM advertisement of a woman sitting behind a desk on a desolate road telling a truck to turn around because the RFID tags talked to her, but we aren't far from getting there and it looks like we are doing it with cooperation and oversight from the governemnt.

Last week I had the good fortune to speak at a symposium in Washington, DC about the Internet of Things. It was largely focused on policy and regulation and Gerald Santucci the head of the European Commission unit for ICT and RFID in DG Information Society and Media discussed the EU RFID recommendations and the EU Communication on the Internet of Things. Also present were several representatives from the Obama administration as well as their EU counterparts.

The big takeaway from the event was that the Internet of Things is being planned for; and is expected on both sides of the pond. There are many smart people making it as effective and safe as possible. Early pioneers from the registrar and domain name service (DNS) companies were there to lend their lessons learned creating the first scalable Internet (capital "I"). They reported we are only months away from not having fixed IP addresses from the governing bodies, because we are running out of IP numbers. Clearly the only solution is IPv6 - the latest version of the Internet Protocol. That will become very important for the Internet of Things.

The other curious bit of misinformation was that they thought RFID just worked no matter what, and that the object name service (ONS) was what people were using to route data. Fortunately there were several experts on the docket to dispel both those rumors. I did my best to educate on the physics of RFID and the limitations of passive read ranges and active battery size, for instance. I spent a lot of time on the benefits to everyday consumers, while others talked about how there are various "catalogs" to look up things like ONS. It was great to see policy makers get an education and take steps forward to help Dr. Sarma's vision step one foot closer to reality.

Time for CIO’s to step up their game with RFID & ROI

For executives who run major IT organizations, the implications of the current downturn—marked by persistent uncertainty, tighter credit, lower consumer spending, and greater government involvement in business—are clear: they will have to make the IT function dramatically more productive, use IT more effectively to meet larger company goals, and embrace disruptive technologies…” McKinsey & Company Quarterly newsletter

McKinsey is telling CIOs to raise their game and “embrace disruptive technologies”. In August 2009 Gartner’s Hype Curve analysis for the first time ever called RFID “Transformational” their highest rating of impact on an organization. The conclusion is plain to see; using skilled, expensive labor to manually count (whether with human readable or barcodes) is as wasteful today as using a typerwriter and carbon paper to send memos within your organization. 

Yesterday I toured a 550,000 square foot data center facility just outside of London’s Heathrow airport. Our Dublin office requested I visit so they could leverage my operational background running data centers in the 1990s. What I found will make an ideal case study for the adoption of RFID by a CIO who wants to transform the data center through disruptive technology.

Based on measurable and demonstrable metrics there is a 61% savings in effort to provision and location verification by using RFID instead of the 35 year old barcode. If you have a 50,000 square foot data center that receives 1,500 devices annually the annual savings on provisioning alone is $377,618 (this does not include increased productivity through provisioning the server in a much faster manner).

If the same data center costs $250,000 to deploy and integrate an RFID network the ROI is less than seven (7) months. Assuming a 3% weighted average cost of capital (WACC) the net present value (NPV) over three years is an astounding $794,305 or nearly eight million dollars of value created across an enterprise of ten data centers.

If you look at inventory and audit requirement for Sarbanes Oxley, tracking requirement for hard drives containing sensitive customer information and loss due to manual data entry errors, the savings for a data center described above tops out well over $500,000 per year. Many CIOs would first think about laying-off almost five full time staff members as a way to get that savings. Wouldn’t you rather save the money on counting equipment and use it to keep staff for more value-add processes or billable services?

If your organization had ten data centers RFID can drive an annual $5,000,000 savings through process improvement. Remember with RFID it is not about the technology.  It’s all about the process improvement and ROI.

For a complete White Paper of the ROI of RFID in the Data Center click here.

RFID 2.0 - SIMPLE

From Ronan Wisdom who runs ODIN's Dublin office:

First email, then iPods and now eBooks; each of these technologies have been transformational leading to significant change of a type some folk like to call ‘disruption' - meaning there were people, companies and whole market sectors that got disturbed and in many cases eliminated by the change. When was the last time you bought 35mm camera film?

So when we talk about technologies that have the power to transform, people sit up and take notice for fear of disruption in their own back yard - after all, these days it's not the large that eat the small, but the fast that eat the slow. And that's transformation in a nutshell.

Email, iPods and eBooks have something in common - they all achieved market transformation by mastering one key attribute, an elusive beast we in the technical community often miss by a country mile; simplicity.

Let's try for a definition; easy purchase, quick setup, great integration, ease of use balanced with rich feature sets and of course, great service. These combine to produce a simple offering we can quickly understand, value and use. For you tech heads wed to complexity and your favourite C++ garbage collection routines who think this is a consumer phenomenon, tell me how many software developers out there are writing CORBA interfaces compared to the number developing (oh, and actually deploying) Web Services.

I remember having three MP3 players because the first had the best audio quality, a second had greater capacity and yet another was small enough to go jogging with (God be with the days). I actually had to have two duplicate music libraries to service all these devices and a Minidisc player for good measure! How did I ever find time to actually listen to anything? Then the iPod arrived and pretty quickly I understood this meant less disk space, fewer cables, easier purchase from the clever iTunes Store and a single, brilliantly simple device. Oh, and I actually got to listen to stuff.

Corporate purchasing is influenced by the same factors; easy purchase, quick setup, great integration, ease of use balanced with rich feature sets and of course, great service which all lead to quantifiable return on investment. Simplicity wins and that's what RFID 2.0 is all about.

For the past eight years or so, RFID has quietly gone about its business winning significant market share while disrupting older technologies. I say quietly because I'm not sure we appreciate just how pervasive RFID has become; inventory sure, but also travel cards, ski lifts, walking sticks, aircraft parts, car keys, fleet cars, tools...the list goes on. But it's fair to say RFID has suffered from complexity preventing even wider adoption. It's not exactly been easy to purchase, configure, install, integrate or support - and many system integrators without the physics backbone have failed to deliver. The industry has trumpeted how accuracy has improved beyond recognition in the last two years, but that's not enough - we must address complexity.

The good news is that's changing, and at ODIN we're leading the charge with RFID 2.0 solutions focused on simplicity. What's RFID 2.0? Think of it like the iPod for RFID - focused solutions which are easy to purchase, quick to setup, deliver seamless integration and ease of use balanced with rich feature sets, backed by great service. Simple!

Imagine an RFID tunnel that slots into your logistics operations immediately automating shipping, receiving and replenishment processes. That's EasyTunnel™, an RFID 2.0 solution from ODIN that is installed and operational in under 24 hours.

Imagine a portable RFID portal that can turn any shipping container into a fully monitored environment tracking the status and location of your tagged items as they travel all over the world in real time. That's EasyContainer, an RFID 2.0 solution from ODIN that installs magnetically in under two minutes!!

Back up and think about that - when was the last time you read ‘RFID' and ‘installs in under two minutes' in the same sentence?

From clever monitoring software that runs on the reader itself eliminating the complexity and cost of middleware, to fully-featured low-cost asset tracking, RFID 2.0 solutions are all about simplicity. And because ODIN has the best RF physics team of any company worldwide, all that RF complexity is hidden away under the hood while users benefit from increased accuracy and reliability.

What's left are great solutions that customers can quickly understand, value and use, leading to better return on investment. Watch out - that's transformational.