I recently discussed the role of Acqsys in servicing manufacturers' - typically food and beverage companies like Nestle, Heineken and assets such as refrigerators, beer taps, water coolers - assets on the Iberian Peninsula.
To ensure that it has the right tag on the right asset in the right location, Acqsys has a partnership with RFID specialist Intellident which enables it to ensure the tag works effectively.
That's particularly important given RFID's challenges in coping with certain physical characteristics, such as water and metal.
In some cases, the positioning of tags will need to be tailored to meet the demands of where at the end user location the assets are positioned. For example, if the refrigerator is parked against a wall, the tag may be placed in a pre-manufactured recess within the equipment.
The tags - usually active tags with a maximum life of up to 5 years - will have their pulse rate turned down to extend battery life, meaning that when the manufacturers' salespeople visit the end location - or 'bridge to the consumer' - they can still track and create a record that the asset is still in place and has not been moved, displaced or been stolen.
In some parts of the Iberian Peninula, the assets are still identified by bar codes rather than RFID tags, which means the bar codes' condition must be monitored to ensure they are not damaged and cannot be read.
Acqsys' asset tracking and asset servicing business model works on the basis that instead of servicing the assets sitting on their balance sheets, manufacturers would sell the assets to Acqsys which would then create a one-stop-shop servicing model, which improves asset efficiency and releases working capital for the manufacturers.
The partnership with Intellident and use of RFID demonstrates how, for an asset tracking and maintenance operation, RFID has become an integral - and now almost everyday - application.
