Many technologies have stumbled over standards. Mark Vernon
assesses whether RFID tags have a solid enough grounding for them
to succeed in the supply chain
Radio frequency identification (RFID) has been hailed as a
"super-barcode" for retail, enabling goods to be tracked
efficiently throughout the supply chain without the need for direct
contact or line-of-sight scanning.
Enthusiasts also see great promise for RFID in a host of broader
applications, including access control, baggage handling and fraud
prevention. But how will that promise be fulfilled in the real
world?
As with many technologies aimed at mass take-up, it all boils down
to effective standards. Choose the right set of standards for RFID
and the gates for mass adoption will open. Make a mistake, and RFID
could get caught in a technological cul-de-sac.
The consensus among analysts seems to be that RFID standards are
mature enough to support barcode replacement. The standards for
more complicated supply chain management capa-bilities will emerge
soon. But individual item-level tracking standards, the
functionality around which much of the RFID hype revolves, is still
some way off.
In fact, there are still basic technological problems to be
overcome, let alone standards. How, for example, can products such
as those wrapped in metal foils be successfully tagged with chips
that might receive interference from metal wrappings?
Knock-on problems also compound the uncertainty around standards.
For example, manufacturers of RFID readers tend to be unwilling to
invest heavily in devices that may become obsolete. Conversely,
users are hesitant to spend as it may lock them into a supplier
that goes bust.
"All readers should be field-tested with the brand of RFID tag
intended for its use," said Bruce Hudson of Meta Group. "If
something is 'EPC compliant', this should not be interpreted as a
problem-free guarantee."
Another standards problem is with applications beyond retailing and
distribution. Secured access control, anti-theft, container or
boxcar tracking, toll taking, asset tracking, baggage handling,
livestock tracking and item-fraud protection all have complex
inherent functions that are barely touched by RFID.
"The primary problem is that supply chains are unavoidably diverse
in nature, comprising multiple systems, applications and
operational capabilities - and the RFID chip technology will be
expected to interoperate seamlessly across the board," said Alan
Lawson, a research analyst with Butler Group.
"A failure at any single point could easily impact activities up-
and downstream, and users will not commit to such systems until it
has been decisively proven that RFID has an ability to perform in a
robust and dependable manner."
RFID forces businesses to address difficult matters, including
privacy, collaboration and return on investment.
"It is evident that standards are key for collaboration," said Tony
Hart, enterprise applications managing analyst at
Datamonitor.
"Collaboration will demand greater use of standard communications
and messaging to ensure its success. Global data synchronisation
will become fundamental and, for many organisations, this will lead
to a review of existing business-to-business infrastructures and
e-business strategies."
However, some of the responsibility relating to standards falls on
the shoulders of internal IT departments. These include:
Scoping the breadth of an existing infrastructure and application
portfolio
Understanding RFID's capabilities and limitations
Setting privacy policies, especially those that address tag
deactivation.
"The impact of RFID must be assessed across the entire
infrastructure and application portfolio, because RFID will touch
all aspects of the enterprise's IT investments," said Enrico
Camerinelli of Meta Group.
"For cutting-edge organisations, we believe an RFID 'pilot health
check' should be performed before moving on to a production
roll-out. This check is to ensure that all product types have been
tested and that the design has addressed issues such as scale and
velocity."
When it is running, RFID will generate lots more data for companies
to handle and this, in turn, will create its own set of problems. A
UK trial called cd.id, between Asda, EMI and distributor Handleman,
RFID tagged 8,000 CDs. The trial indicated to Rob Salter, managing
director of Handleman, that RFID is still "a work in progress". Or,
as he put it, how the individual tagging of hundreds of CDs in a
single box enhances knowledge of product movement across the supply
chain is still far from clear.
"The fear of choosing a potentially wrong standard is preventing
many companies from launching pilot RFID projects," said
Camerinelli. But he is convinced that the option of doing nothing
is a mistake. "The benefits of getting acquainted with the
technology and the ability to shape processes around it will offset
the risk of choosing the wrong standard," he added.
For example, current production-ready RFID does offer resolutions
to some of the standards hurdles, such as tag size, read and write
capabilities and radio operating frequencies.
"A rail transportation organisation's use of RFID to track entry
and exit of boxcars in a rail yard has spawned a similar design
model for distribution centres or stores," said Camerinelli.
"In this model, goods will be placed into an inventory on entry
through a gate and removed from an inventory when the goods pass
through another gate." Alternatively, the pilots of leading
retailers have RFID reading gates placed at the loading-dock areas,
the doorway to the store floor, and the doorway to the disposal, as
well as in point of sale stations.
Legislative deadlines will also force standards resolution, perhaps
faster than market pressures. Forrester senior analyst Charles
Homs, reflecting on the impact of the EU's Health and Consumer
Protection Directorate that will come into law on 1 January 2005,
said, "To address the problem of food traceability, retailers and
packaged goods firms should use RFID to meet traceability
compliance deadlines.
"Regulations do not specify the use of RFID to comply with food
safety regulations, but using them to find goods in distribution
centres, stores and trucks will help firms respond within the time
limits to any official inquiry."
The IT industry has recognised the potential of RFID. Accenture's
chief scientist Glover Ferguson, for example, has long been
advocating their inevitable ubiquity. Software suppliers including
Microsoft and Oracle have recently launched initiatives, a good
sign that the hurdles are coming down. And with support from
systems integrators, there is no lack of energy or investment to
cure RFID of its current standards headache.
RFID timeline2004 Newcomers will run pilots and test operating
environments. There will be some limited deployments
2005 Pressure from the likes of Wal-Mart and the
Department of Defense will force the issue of compliance
2006 RFID capabilities will be widely extended by
retailers, distributors and suppliers
2007 New issues will come to the fore as RFID
adoption forces more complex compliance requirements, such as
integration with enterprise applications and across verticals
2008 Standards activity will reach
resolution.
RFID glossaryCarrier frequency The radio frequency at which an
RFID tag operates. Different systems are used to transmit data
including Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK), Frequency Shift Keying
(FSK) and Phase Shift Keying (PSK)
Data rate The speed at which data is exchanged
between a tag and a reader
Error management Standards used to check that data
is being exchanged correctly
EPC Electronic product code: the standard for
uniquely identifying products
EPCglobal The retailers' organisation with the job
of standardising item numbering
ETSI European Telecommunications Standards
Institute: the European body
Microsoft Radio Frequency Identification Council
The new Microsoft-led group which includes Accenture, GlobeRanger,
Intermec Technologies and Provia Software. The council is working
on an RFID platform
Passive transponder A tag that only operates when
triggered by a reader (active transponders have their own power
source and operate universally)
Read/write The ability to update the data a tag
carries as well as read it
RFID Radio frequency identification tagging
SRD A short-range device: less than 100mm.