For years, RFID technology has suffered from an image problem in manufacturing circles, where retailer mandates forced the technology's introduction and left some plant managers and operational folks with a bitter aftertaste. As the industrial adoption rate has ticked sluggishly upward, some RFID technology providers have headed for more lucrative shores, spending their R&D dollars on consumer- and healthcare-focused applications, such as pet tracking and medical equipment tracking. In the wake of those defections, questions emerge: Is RFID in manufacturing at a standstill? Have providers covered all the terrain they're going to cover with applications for work-in-process, tools, and people tracking?
The answer to both questions is an emphatic "no," according to experts. That's probably to be expected. After all, analysts who cover the RFID industry have tended to display a relentless optimism, even during periods of stagnation. From the analyst ranks, the outlook for RFID is almost unerringly upbeat, a fact that has contributed to the technology's image problem.
Indeed, a recent study by RFID researcher Burnell Reports found that prospective RFID customers "are harder to influence than ever before," and that "eight of the 10 most recognized RFID leaders had their recognition rankings decline from the original industry leadership study conducted in 2006."
Still, the rah-rah forecasts stem from a belief that the technology works, and works well. The truth is, RFID remains a rugged frontier, with many areas of adoption still unsettled.
For a balanced view of RFID, it may be helpful to look at recent innovations. Outside the world's factories, RFID tags are finding their way into many novel deployments — drivers' licenses, fresh seafood, the family dog, and others. Inside the manufacturing sphere, we hear a familiar tune: work in process tracking, asset tracking, worker tracking. But the instruments used to create the tune are sounding better, as RFID providers focus on optimizing the mechanics of the technology itself, from tags, to networks, to read accuracy.
One recent shift involves the manner in which items are tracked. Most early RFID deployments featured an infrastructure of readers that sensed tagged assets at fixed locations — for example, a carton of pill bottles passing through a dock door or a car chassis reaching a specific point along the assembly line. But while these deployments still dominate, a growing number of manufacturers aren't satisfied with knowing that an asset passed a set point X number of hours ago. They want to track assets freely and continually. Some, including perennial first-adopters in the automotive and aerospace industries, are now working with real-time location systems to create this kind of visibility.
Real-time location systems, or RTLS, come in a variety of flavors differentiated by the means of communication from the tag to the reader, as well as by their precision in pinpointing asset locations. Some systems run on proprietary networks while others piggyback on WiFi deployments, and still others utilize the latest entrant to the field, ultrawide-band communications. All track assets throughout the entire facility, and sometimes multiple facilities, in real time.
WiFi Pros and Cons
RTLS vendors that use WiFi networks, including Ekahau, AeroScout, and InnerWireless/PanGo, tout the convenience of using an established wireless infrastructure to transmit RFID signals and asset locations. That convenience comes with a trade-off, though, since WiFi-based systems typically locate tagged assets only within a radius of 3 meters or more.