siliconindia | | March 201919by substantially reducing either time spent searching for lost document or the financial and legal impact associ-ated with losing documents.These applications though bring marginal operational ben-efits but don't bring sizeable strategic benefits.High level automation in process plant can be achieved using simple RFID applications. For example, in paint plant of automotive organisa-tions, RFID tags can be used to sense size of the components by which movement of paint application robots are controlled, and thereby improv-ing transfer efficiency ratio and more saving on rupees spent on treating wasted paints in the drains. Another example is, where Process param-eters actually used while manufac-turing individual products, can help in review of the standards based on field feedback. RFID tags can be used in a manu-facturing setting to identify the prod-uct that is being assembled, as well as the constituent parts that are to be installed into the product. At the time of assembly, it is then possible to do an instant check to ascertain what parts need to be installed in the prod-uct, and whether the parts that are installed are the correct parts. Thus, RFID has a role in assuring the qual-ity of the end product. This benefit is particularly valuable if the product is highly customizable.RFID technology can also be used in capturing genealogy of the vehicle that can help in recall of those a few defects instead of recalling entire batch. Robust RFID tags can be used in high temperature, dusty, chemical and other harsh industrial environ-ments where its near impossible for humans to collect on-line data.An interesting application of RFID in the retail sector is the use of smart shelves and item-level tag-ging. Smart shelves are retail shelves that have RFID readers built-in. The main purpose of smart shelves is to prevent out-of-stock situations (OOS) from occurring at the shelf. An out-of-stock situation occurs at the shelf if a customer wants to buy a certain product, but the shelf is empty. Shelf replenishment from the backroom is initiated by a notification from the shelf to the store personnel.In health care industry, patient safety is a big challenge of health-care vertical. Reducing medication errors, meeting new standards, staff shortages, and reducing costs are the plus points of use of RFID solutions. RFID wristbands containing patient records and medication history ad-dress several of these concerns.Naturally, there are limitations to RFID. Some limitations are due to the laws of physics. Metals and liq-uids, for example, effectively block radio waves. This is particularly true for UHF and Microwave frequencies. Thus, it is generally not possible to read RFID tags enclosed in metal or surrounded by liquids. There are some advances in tag and antenna design that allow for RFID tags to be placed on metal objects, as long as the tag is not fully enclosed. But in general, RFID does not work very well in environments where the product is surrounded by metals or liquids. Any manufacturing shop floor is a steel jungle and making the technology work is really a problem. A potential workaround to the prob-lem of fluids and metals blocking RF is to use multiple readers, trying to read a tag from different angles. This will not only improve read rates in the presence of metals and liquids, but also in the general case. But this is expensive. In order to get sizeable benefit, along with RFID technology, IT systems, Analytics, business pro-cess or manufacturing flow should work in healthy ecosystem. RFID, with its ability to locate anything, has been used in a vast number of fields that one may have never even thought of. RFID, with its ability to locate anything, has been used in a vast number of fields that one may have never even thought of
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