Paper Example on RFID: Automating Industries for Cost-Saving & Efficiency

Introduction

In many organizations, the use of Radio Frequency Identification has been adopted as a suitable means of cost-cutting and work efficiency. This includes having reduced human intervention as companies switch to more complex industrial robots that automates the entire work in the industry. In other words, companies using RFID technology, can monitor the movement of goods, location, stocks, sales, and inventory, through reading and updating the centralized database (Advanced Mobile Group, 2017). The heart of RFID is centered on the quicker means and methods used in gathering and transmitting data. The data is converted into codes that can be read and interpreted by a computer.

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Through constant data transmission in real-time, radiofrequency Identification, are becoming more autonomous. This helps rectify common errors at an early stage of production, which reduces the possibilities of getting inconsistent data. Through minimal human intervention, the RFID is turning fully autonomous in many industries.

In many developed organizations that deal with millions of customers, it becomes cumbersome for the organization to keep the extensive inventory list, updates, and insertions of products. Despite the use of shared databases to automates the process. It requires manual tracking of the products to ensure that sales are made with minimal errors. Nevertheless, there are higher possibilities of customers ending up with the wrong products, which they did not order. On the other hand, the production process is surrounded by a higher degree of uncertainty, which means that faulty products may slip beneath the nose of the production department. This may result in poor reputation of the company and even lead to poor sales. However, with the use of RFID technology, companies can transform their departments into a fully robotic or autonomous system that can reduce the margin for errors. More so, this reduces the possibilities of supplying damaged products to the customer, which reduces the chances of ruining the company's reputation.

On the other side of the coin, RFID has a dominant role in the industrial department, of synchronization machines within departments. This is regarded as one of the dominant parts occupied by RFID in the production sector. In other words, RFID ensures that data from one machine is red, and interpreted before the other devices commence on the next move in the production. Data from one computer is used as an input to determine the next course of action that is suitable for the upcoming production move. The information relayed through radio frequency travels faster to ensure that the other machine in the department does not miss any piece of information.

The use of RFID is widely used in making the supply chains autonomous in many ways. Products are monitored for their availability, authenticity, and manufactured date. This reduces the possibilities of supplying faulty products to the customer. On the same note, the use of RFID technology is used to curb production overflow or underflow. This means regulating products production from producing surplus goods that may result in losses. On the same token, through proper data relaying, it is possible to detect any underflows in product production and adjust to the required level (Advanced Mobile Group, 2017).

With the increasing of counterfeit products, it is becoming cumbersome for organizations with little technology to control the situation and offer their esteem customers the right products. The essence of counterfeit products is to ensure that customers are provided with under quality or substantial products at a slightly lower price than the actual one. This becomes difficult for companies to operate, as customers lose trust in the original products. However, the use of RFID plays a critical role in ensuring that counterfeit products are scanned using RFID scanners, which later send the digital codes to the database for authentication. This helps to distinguish between the original products from the counterfeit using an autonomous approach, which saves time.

How RFID exchanges information

RFID refers to the wireless or non-contact use of radiofrequency waves to transfer data. This is made possible by tagging products with a particular RFID tag sensor, that permits unique identification and tracking of inventory, or other assets in an organization. In many cases, RFID allows products or data to be collected from products that are out of sight or line. However, this highly depends on the type of RFID being used.

The power of radiofrequency wavelength resides within its ability and nature of the range. This allows data transmission at a more extended scale, enabling rapid data sharing between one device to the other. As Nabrotzky, (2018) observed, radio waves are a particular type of electromagnetic radiation that is slightly longer than the infrared light. Their frequency ranges between 3kHZ to 300 GHz, with a corresponding wavelength of between one millimeter to one hundred kilometers (Fan, et al., 2017). Moreover, radio waves can travel at a speed of light, which makes it suitable for real-time data dissemination, between devices.

Radio Frequency Identification can be classified into two main categories which include long-range and Vicinity RFID. The Long-range RFID uses the Ultra High Frequency, which ranges between 300 megahertz and 3GHZ. This allows for data reading from a range of fifteen meters from the product or item with the RFID tag. On the other hand, Vicinity RFID uses a High Frequency (HF) band with a range between three to the third megahertz (Advanced Mobile Group, 2017). This form of data transmission offers a reliable data transmission from in low range over a longer distance.

RFID tags stores data in numerous forms, which may permit or restrict data from being written. This includes the classification into Active, Semi-passive, and Passive RFIDs. Each category contains a series of characteristics that determines how data is being read from the tag. Active tags can use vicinity RFID to capture data to the reader. The underlying part of the Active RFID tag is the ability to use batteries to power its internal circuits, which helps to disseminate data quickly to the reader.

On the other hand, semi-passive RFID tags use both internal power the charge from the reader to broadcast its data (Cui, Wang, Zhao, & Chen, 2016). Never the less, both Active and semi-passive RFID tags must be regulated. This helps reduce the possibilities of interfering with other devices, which includes readers and cards.

Passive RFID tags depend on the power from the readers to power them up. As a result, this limits them to be read up to a closer range of six meters (Fan, et al., 2017). Due to their dormant state, passive RFID tags, have a lower production cost than the active or the semi-passive cards.

According to (Nabrotzky, 2018) observation, RFID tags can be thought of the common Universal Serial Bus (USB) or computer memory, which can take different formats. The RFID tags can take various forms such as read-only, WORM (write once, read many), and read-only. Despite the classification of the tags, each card depends on the supplied power to help broadcast data.

How RFID collects the location information

Since the development and first use of RFID technology, consumers have widely benefited from this technology. This has provided a series of benefits to the users ranging from pets' control to products controlling and tracking in large organizations. In Agriculture, Australia is deemed as the nation that pioneered the use of RFID technology in the livestock movement (Cui, et al., 2016). This was achieved through the development of a livestock traceable program for livestock's system.

The purpose of the program was to ensure that livestock traceability in the nation was widely developed. Moreover, movement of the livestock is highly accountable from one region to the other. The RFID tags on the animal were used to collect the location of the livestock by sending their current location and previous migration region to ensure accountability. This data was transmitted through long-range, or the rain RFID, which uses UHF band to operate or send real-time data across a more extended range.

Every livestock in Australia was mandated by the law to have a RFID tag on the ear. This helped to record the place of birth, the owner, as well as tracking movement of the livestock. The data is then fed in the national government database, where tracking, and assessing of the livestock is made. This principle guarantees maximum control or tracing of animals across the nation. Moreover, the database can restore data regarding the chemical residue status, diseases, and market eligibility of the livestock. As Fan, et al., (2017) observed, this refers to the constraints regarding theft, commercial value, or mortgage. The use of RFID technology reduces the possibilities of reselling stolen livestock since the owner's identity is recorded, once the transaction of the animal is made.

Since the first successful use of RFID technology on livestock, the technology has widely transitioned to pet animals to reduce the possibility of losing the animals from their owners. This is done through injecting passive RFID chips that do not require to be recharged for data transmission. Through this, the chips broadcast data back to the reader, which allows them to read the data written on the chip, as a means of identifying the owner.

On the other side of the coin, RFID chips are made exclusive with extended or customized accelerometers for measuring speed. According to Pesavento, and Diorio, (2016), a researcher at the Chicago-based location tracking solutions company Zebra Technology, RFID tags with accelerometer relays back information, which refers to the specific location and the speed of movement. This allows the reader to calculate the exact direction of the object fitted with the chip. Moreover, one can compute the rate at which it is moving at. Nevertheless, products can be traced or tracked using this concept since RFID chips can hold more data than a barcode reader. In many cases, some products are fitted with a passive RFID tag. This helps ensure that conflicts during broadcasting are reduced; hence this allows for easier accessing and reading the embedded data within the chip.

Intelligent RFID that helps digital transformation

Among one of the issues that many organizations face is associated with early detection and control of deserters. In many cases, this is highly related to sophisticated programs such as airlines, and the concepts employed to detect and monitor airplanes. In many cases, the use of RFID is becoming the ultimate solution for solving sensitive parts of planes.

As Roberti, (2018) observed, Delta Airlines is one of the companies that have widely used the technology offered by RFID to ensure that deserter management and monitoring of planes is up to date. This has been achieved through the use of "RFID tags on oxygen generators, life vests and cabin emergency equipment on all of its more than 800 aircraft." In other words, this has increased the accuracy and reduced the time required to access each component in the plane.

The ability to read the data and monitor changes in different oxygen generators provides a more natural way to replace the faulty equipment in the plane. This helps to save innocent lives, which makes flying comfortable and safe. As Roberti, (2018) observed, the life span of each oxygen generator is highly limited, with a life span between 12 to 15 years.

This subjects the generators to be none useful if their expiry time is up. Never the less, there is less productivity of oxygen gen...