RFind Systems, Inc., founded in 2005 with the aim of providing low-cost RFID systems, earlier this year launched its flagship product, Expeditor 2D, to address the location tracking needs of manufacturers.
"Manufacturers spend millions and millions of dollars every year looking for stuff," including work in progress, finished products, and equipment used in the production process, says RFind CEO Sharon Barnes. "Many organizations have recognized that one of the number-one cost savings that they can bring to their organization is knowing where everything is."
RFID-based real-time location systems (RTLS) can help, but the cost has been prohibitive, says Peter Harrop, chairman of IDTechEx, an RFID research firm. In a manufacturing environment, a typical RTLS system involves a combination of access points, readers, interrogators, and tags. RFind cuts costs by disposing of all but the tags. The hockey-puck-sized smart tags in its Expeditor 2D system communicate directly with one another to triangulate the location of a given asset.
"We can install several times the number of tags without coming anywhere near the cost of a traditional RTLS system," Barnes says. She claims that the company's proposals are typically 20% to 50% of those from competitors, such as WhereNet Corp., PanGo, and AeroScout, Inc. RFind's deployments range from $50,000 to $500,000, and can scale to several hundred thousand tags.
The patented Expeditor 2D technology "probably could find a niche in the RTLS market," Harrop says.
On the horizon for the company are smaller tags that lend themselves to lighter manufacturing applications. For now, Barnes says, job one is building interest in a market where high costs and ROI concerns have made skeptics out of many potential customers.
- YEAR FOUNDED: 2005; commercial emergence in 2007
- PRODUCT NAME AND CATEGORY: Expeditor 2D/real-time location tracking
- INDUSTRY SEGMENTS SERVED: Heavy manufacturing
- KEY PROBLEM SOLVED: In sprawling production environments, manufacturers need to know — in real time — where their production equipment, work in progress, and finished products are.
- DIFFERENTIATION: RFind is a low-cost alternative for heavy industries. It uses smart tags to triangulate the location of assets, eliminating the need for costly access points, readers, and other RFID gear.
- TOP CUSTOMERS: Peerless, manufacturer of heavy-haul trailers; unnamed construction equipment manufacturers
- FUNDING: Private investors