THE introduction of mobile RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), from PDA scanners to forklift mounted devices, has led to significant productivity improvements in the manufacturing industry.
In contrast to ordinary RFID implementations, consisting of mobile tags and fixed readers, mobile RFID typically requires fewer readers — often less than a dozen. The technology also simplifies the traditionally labour-intense practise of “slap and ship” — unpacking, tagging and repacking before shipping the freight.
Resulting in considerable cost savings, mobile RFID readers are becoming an integral part of the supply chain in most manufacturing enterprises. Australian companies are also increasingly looking to use mobile RFID readers in the warehouse, to identify the location of components and goods in the supply chain. The technology is known as RTLS (Real Time Location Systems).
RTLS literally determines the locality of an object. The operational challenge for Real Time Locating, beyond the technical task, is not just to know where an object currently is, but in which direction and to which destination it is moving. The result is not merely a momentary indication, but the basis for tracking and tracing in the warehouse environment.
ABI Research, a leading international analyst firm in enterprise mobility, sees strong demand for RTLS applications in the supply chain in 2008 and beyond. So how does it work? The mobile scanner that reads the tag data is tracked by the RTLS system, which transfers the device position data to the RTLS connector. The connector forwards this information to the custom business module or Location Information System (LIS), the same system that also receives the inventory data from the mobile device connector. The result is a holistic real-time view on the movements of goods within the manufacturing site and warehouse.
RFID solutions such as Sybase RFID Anywhere support mobile devices, sensors and location tracking systems in a web-based, SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) environment. The solution correlates data from the mobile device connector with the RTLS connector to allocate the current position of the tag read by mobile devices in the warehouse.
In order to provide real-time information on both tag data and motion, seamless communication between both applications is crucial.
A flexible, extensible and scalable middleware platform glues both systems together, and synchronises with the database on the enterprise server. This software layer also allows an organisation to use the same hardware to support another application in the future without requiring new hardware to be installed (for example, RFID hardware to monitor arriving pallets for an inventory application).
Together, mobile RFID and RTLS ensure productivity improvements in the supply chain and secure future growth for Australian manufacturers.
www.sybase.com.au
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