RFID tracks assets worth trillions worldwide

The paintings of Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet and Johannes Vermeer in London's National Gallery, the garbage trucks that daily collect hundreds of tons of rubbish in Johannesburg and patients who enter Medi-Clinic's theatres in South Africa have this in common - they are all being monitored by radio frequency identification (RFID) technology.

RFID is an automatic identification technology that uses radio waves to send and retrieve information from devices, which are called tags or transponders.

An RFID system usually consists of a combination of tags, tag readers, antenna and application software.

Systems that combine these elements identify, track and trace products worth trillions of dollars every year.

The use of RFID technology to keep a watchful eye is steadily increasing across a broad front, from single high-value assets like paintings, to entire supply chains.

According to supply chain research company ChainLink, of the US, the use of RFID tags on containers is increasing by 15% a year, and will continue to do so in the coming years. Currently, a small but steadily growing number of the20-million containers in transit worldwide have RFID tags.

The company attributes the robust growth to the fact that RFID tags and readers have become less expensive, while communication infrastructure, such as Internet and satellite services, are more readily available than in the past. Another firm that has undertaken independent research on the technology, Gartner, indicates that corporate spending on RFID is beginning to accelerate.

In 2005, companies spent $504-million - up 39% on 2004 - on RFID.

The firm forecasts that RFID spending worldwide will surpass the $3-billion mark by 2010, as the technology will be adopted more broadly and business value-focused implementations will increase.

However, other independent research companies and analysts are even more buoyant about the global growth prospects of RFID.

For instance, the Yankee Group says that by 2008 $4,2-billion will be spent on RFID services. And research company Datamonitor predicts that RFID technology, including hardware, software and services across all verticals, will be a $6,1-billion market by 2010.

Local R&D, global applications
RFID products developed in South Africa are being used in a variety of applications locally and abroad.

Much of the know-how that drives the local research and development (R&D) of active RFID technologies in South Africa resides with Wavetrend, which was established in Johannesburg, in 1999.

The company has since been acquired byUK shareholders, and is headquartered in Richmond, in the UK.

However, the company retains a strong presence in South Africa, with offices in Fourways, Johannesburg, where most of its R&D takes place.

The manufacture of the firm's range of active RFID tags, readers and peripherals - which have been installed on more than 1 000 different projects - is subcontracted to three local firms - Cape Digital, in Cape Town, PEM, in Johannesburg, and Omnigo, in Tshwane.

These products are used locally and abroad to track and trace, besides other things, vehicles, works of art, commercial cargos, military equipment, livestock and prisoners.

Wavetrend's active RFID tags, in conjunction with RFID software from ISIS, provide a real-time system that protects the valuable works of Van Gogh, Monet, Vermeer and other renowned artists in London's National Gallery.

The company's tags also allow Opto Africa to collect and publish real-time information on the amount and type of refuse being collected by its client, waste disposal company Pikitup, in Johannesburg.

To realise another innovative application, the company joined forces with local information-technology systems integrator Holbert Systems to monitor the time that patients spend in private hospital group Medi-Clinic's operating theatres.

Validating the time that patients spend in the operating theatre has significantly improved payment terms with medical aid companies.

Wavetrend CEO Chris Bishop says that the company's open-architecture platform is a plus point, as it facilitates cooperation with local and international software developers, including the likes of Microsoft and IBM.

Wavetrend's technology exports earn foreign currency for South Africa, and supports about 200 local jobs.

Active and passive
A clear distinction is made between active and passive RFID technologies.

Active RFID tags typically have read-and-write capabilities, so that tag data can be rewritten and modified. Active RFID tags can transmit specific information and instructions to a reader - such as where a container has been and what its condition is.

Internal batteries power these tags, giving them a significantly longer read range (beyond 100 m) than passive tags.

Passive RFID tags cannot actively send information as they operate without an internal power source and obtain operating power generated from the reader.

Passive tags have shorter read ranges (typically from a metre to eight metres) than active tags and require a higher-powered reader.

Read-only tags are programmed with a unique set of data - usually ranging from 32 to 128 bits, which cannot be modified.

Passive tags are, in general, lighter, have smaller form factors and are less expensive than the more powerful active tags. Dexter Motta-Marques, the regional manager for the world's largest active RFID company, Savi Technologies, in sub-Saharan Africa, tells Engineering News that active and passive RFID are often viewed as two fundamentally different technologies. But Motta-Marques says that, while often considered competing technologies, active and passive RFID systems actually complement each other, balancing cost and capability. He believes that these RFID systems have much potential for combined use in applications, such as air cargo and intermodal cargo management, in South Africa.

Despite the technology being readily available, RFID systems have not reached the same level of adoption in South Africa as in countries abroad. However, Motta-Marques says that prospects for South Africa are promising. One of the largest potential local RFID projects is planned by the National Department of Transport, which is currently investigating the possibility of using RFID to gain greater insight into the country's intermodal transportation system.

The implementation of RFID systems has saved freight transportation and handling organisations - including long-distance road haulers, railways and ports elsewhere in the world - millions of dollars by improving productivity, increasing security, reducing theft, eliminating unnecessary capital investment, decreasing operating and maintenance costs and enhancing customer service.

Case studies indicate that the implementation of RFID systems has also enabled retailers, such as the Metro group in Europe, a major Australian retailer, and Woolworths, in the UK, to realise similar benefits. Moreover, it has given these retailers greater insight into, and control over, their supply chains.

Motta-Marques explains that RFID systems enable a multidimensional supply chain for retailers whereby dynamic decisions and adjustments can be made, in real-time, to respond to an increasingly competitive industry with a demanding consumer market. However, he points out that, to achieve nested visibility - which involves providing visibility from the transport vehicle down to the specific items within a carton - requires the integration of RFID software, hardware and the full range of automatic identification and data collection(AIDC) technologies, including laser-surface authentification bar-code scanning, passive and active RFID and global positioning systems.

The largest AIDC network is found within the US military.

Savi - which is owned by the world's largest defence contractor, Lockheed Martin - is the primary active RFID technology provider for the US Department of Defence (DoD).

The US DoD uses RFID, bar code, cellular and satellite communications systems to track more than 35 000 conveyances daily across a global network of 2 000 locations in more than 45 countries.

Many other military organisations worldwide also use RFID-based networks in their day-to-day activities.

In fact, the military was one of the first users of RFID's ability to track moving objects.

The use of RFID in tracking and access applications is traced to 1932, when it was used by the military to identify aircraft as friendly or unfriendly.

A sure sign of the commercial development that has taken place since can be found in the fact that not only the US DoD, but also giant retailer Wal-Mart, today require that suppliers place RFID tags on all shipments to improve supply chain management.

The RFID requirements of these two large organisations have affected many smaller companies in the supply chain, which have complained that compliance was putting their margins under strain.

Many of these companies voice concerns that they will not be able to achieve the same return on investment from RFID as the DoD or Wal-Mart.

However, the large-scale adoption of RFID is making it cheaper to implement the technology, as devices are being mass-produced.

It is expected that there will be a trillion tags in use by 2012. The widespread adoption of RFID technology is also stimulating additional R&D, which is making hardware not only cheaper, but also smaller and more durable.

Information technology company Sun Micro-systems is one of the many manufacturers of RFID technologies and equipment that is tapping into the market's potential.

Sun's massive 17 000-ft2 RFID test centre in Texas provides a controlled environment that simulates the varying conditions of an actual distribution centre or warehouse.

A selection of scenarios - from loading docks to 600-ft/min conveyor belts, all built to Wal-Mart's standards - allows Sun's customers to test out RFID solutions before investing in them.

It is expected that R&D advances made will also enhance the application of RFID tags to track environmental variables, such as temperature, humidity and contaminants.

In this way, the technology will make an even greater contribution to the management of supply chains in the near future.

Not only for supply chain
Besides tracking goods trough the supply chain, RFID technology has a myriad of other uses. Users of some of the world's busiest public transport systems, such as the Moscow metro, the New York City subway, and the Taipei bus, rail and taxi system, use RFID-enabled cards for fare payment.

Commuters no longer have to use traditional cards.

Instead, money is automatically deducted from the commuter's account, depending on the trip undertaken.

In many countries, RFID tags are also being embedded in passports. In addition to the information contained on the visual information page of the passport, these electronic (e-) passports also record the travel history - time, date and place - of entries and exits from the country.

The US, the UK and Malaysia are some of the countries that are issuing epassports.

Another use of RFID is in the automatic collection of fares for toll roads.

An example is the etag system in use on many of South Africa's toll roads, which helps to speed traffic through toll plazas. The automotive industry has been using RFID technology in car keys for theft protection since the 1990s.

Newer versions of application allow the driver to open the doors and start the engine while the keys remain in a purse or pocket.

And, in the US, tags are embedded into tyres to comply with tyre-tracking legislation.

Some of the other uses of RFID includeanimal identification and tracking, prisoneridentification and tracking and the management of inventories in libraries.

Future applications of the technology envisagemaking shopping queue-free.

Readers placed at store exits will simply scan all the items in a shopping cart, and deduct the total from the buyer's bank account.