Developing an RFID Strategy 500 Foot View

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Developing an RFID Strategy500 Foot View

• Charlie Schmidt
• AbeTech

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Brief History

• 70 employees
• Maple Grove MN
• Midwest focused with national integration
• Bar coding, data collection, wireless integration
• RFID next in line
• 3 years history/exploration/technology
  tendencies/viable business pursuit
• Find parallels to existing business and merge

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Business Case or Cost of Business?

• EPC Compliance vs. Infrastructure
• Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, etc.
• Internal process improvement
• Vastly different ventures
• Provide ROI vs. Create ROI
• Technologies available
• Mandated vs. Chosen

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Process Improvement

• Repetitive
• Adj 1 persistently continual
• Adj 2 marked by tedious repetition

Manufacturing a product Manufacturing a
pallet LEAN
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Bar Code Timeline

• Punch card concept in 1932
• US Patent 2,612,994 in 1952
• Proprietary commercial usage in 1966
• Universal Grocery Product Identification Code
  (UGPIC) in 1970 to UPC in 1973
• 1974 Commercial standardized UPC scanned
• Compliance labeling inventory tracking
  document tracking etc.
• 2005 still implementing bar coding in all facets

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Maximized Data Capture?

• Processes fine tuned
• Big Guys maxxed out technology
• WMS, EDI, Voice Picking, GPS Logistics, etc.
• Data integration seamless
• Competition catching up
• Next? Labor savings (healthcare) through
  technology competitive pricing
• Reality is cutting when you can

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EPC Compliance

• Congratulations!
• Mayo Clinic of Technology
• Willing participant?
• Yes, No, Maybe
• EPCglobal
• Internal ROI?
• Strategy?
• Bare minimum
• Learn from others
• Costs coming down

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ROI? Please?

• Two sides to ROI story
• Todays strategy depends on vision and technology
  capabilities
• EPC hardware crowd is competitive good for you
• Tag pricing is competitive (and dropping) good
  for you
• Integration is competitive yet unproven
  commercially
• Outside the box to use EPC internally jury is
  out
• Competitive Advantage

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Infrastructure Evaluation

• Look internally then look again
• Core processes traditionally steady
• Secondary tasks (product movement, data gathering
  and movement, product touching) often seen as
  non-essential FALSE.
• Competitive Advantage
• Investment in the future Wal-Marts core was
  solid but had the foresight to evaluate future
  needs do you?

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Real Time Data Capture

• Bar Coding currently?
• Accuracy (1300 to 1300,000)
• Mobility
• Real Time data
• Labor savings
• Clock In/Out
• Work In Process
• Inventory Accuracy
• Warehouse Management System
• Employee Knows Best?

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RFID Exploration Team

• Discussion of current processes
• Interconnecting systems affected by process
  changes or new process implementation.
• Can your back end system handle data?
• Internal resources?
• Nothing turnkey yet.
• Prepare to spend
• Consulting
• Implementation

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RFID Options

• NOT frequency dependent
• 125 KHz
• Building access, PC access
• 13.56 MHz
• Near contact, flexible OEM modules
• 900 MHz
• Longer range, standards, competitive pricing

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Its Your Call

• All about process improvement
• ROI justification and scalability
• Dont let RFID buzz cloud options or choices
• Not mandated
• No timeline
• Investigate all options

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RFID Solution Formula

• Educational resources trusted advisor
  relationship with an integrator business and
  common sense Improving Your Productivity

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Questions???

• Thank You!

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RFID Case Studies

• Charlie Schmidt
• AbeTech

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Brief History

• 70 employees
• Maple Grove MN
• Midwest focused with national integration
• Bar coding, data collection, wireless integration
• RFID next in line
• 3 years history/exploration/technology
  tendencies/viable business pursuit
• Find parallels to existing business and merge

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Improved Infrastructure via RFID

Loss Prevention and Job Costing
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Tooling Company

• Problem Open warehouse within a tool crib
  losing 15-20K/year in unaccounted for tools and
  tooling dies and associated accurate job costing
  data
• Existing check in/out system not used
• Identified problem, unable to identify problem
  personnel
• Wanted an unobtrusive RFID solution
• Unlimited budget to solve the problem
• End of meeting 1

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Process Improvement Team

• Shop Floor Manager (fall guy)
• Vice President (numbers guy)
• President (big guy)
• AbeTech Account Manager (enough said)
• AbeTech Systems Integrator (reality guy)

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Problem Breakdown

• Employees not utilizing existing system
• No walls/barriers for tool crib
• Unsupervised access to tool crib 24/7
• Do NOT want to erect fence/partition
• Do NOT want employee to present ID to gain access
• Do NOT believe employee would use portable data
  collection unit
• End of meeting 2

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Want vs. Reality

• Want
• Magic Tracking of employee with date and time
  stamp of tool crib entry
• Unobtrusive to employee
• Existing tool crib to be left as is
• Tagging each tool/part, thumbnail to tire size
  range
• Entering Work Order upon entry, corresponding
  tags to be associated to WO
• Reading X amount of products per instance and
  updating ERP system
• Transactional time frame requirement for
  inventory movement
• Reality
• No common entry/exit point
• Tag management, application development and cost
  undetermined
• Long range RFID has limited penetration
  capabilities
• No visual verification to alert employee of
  recognition
• Data collection integration into ERP system
  required to cost tools/parts
• Employees wont wait for system, efficiency would
  be affected
• End of meeting 3

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Common Points

• Long term cost of losses required altered
  approach to employee requirements and management
  expectations
• NO TURNKEY SOLUTION
• Compromise required
• Technology review and limitation assessment
• Another meeting scheduled.

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New Blood

• Neutral opinion overall picture
• Competitor alert and process change introduction
• Start over
• Meeting 4
• Common point Existing Proximity Security Card

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Solution

• Clear Plexiglas shoulder level wall enclosing
  tool crib with electronic door
• Add building access card reader for Proximity
  Card
• RFID card required for entry/exit to Tool Crib
• Portable data collection unit with data
  collection application into ERP system
• Scan Work Order , scan SKU, badge out of Tool
  Crib
• Report generated from ERP system and card reader
  system with entry/exit and transaction date/time.
• Solid data on employee entry/exit and SKU check
  in/out
• Big Brother effect has inventory at 99 after 3
  months

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Summary

• RFID works (when used properly)!!
• Marriage of competing technologies often the
  solution
• Limitations of RFID not show stoppers
• Turnkey solution TBD too many factors
• Outside the box for customization
• Process change!

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EPC Compliance

• Supplier to Best Buy
• No dedicated internal resources
• Short time frame
• Growing company
• Scalable hardware requirement

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Best Buy Requirements

• 100 read rate at conveyor level reading
• Pallet (SSCC) and Each (SGTIN) level tagging of
  top 3 products
• Serialized EPC list and ASN via email
• Pre-Pilot approval team at Best Buy
• Class 1 96 bit tag requirement
• Hardware/tag independent, supplier selected

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Hardware and Tags

• Zebra R110Xi Powered by ThingMagic
• RFID label generation
• ThingMagic Mercury 4 multi-protocol reader
• Simulate Best Buy dock door receiving environment
• Alien 4 x 6 Class 1 Squiggle tags
• Custom software front end
• ZPL2 printer language with RFID commands
• EPC number database and storage
• Customizable reports for future ASN needs

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Pilot Takeaways

• 100 read rate at conveyor level not dock door
• Gen 2 compatible hardware,
• Scalable RFID tag generation software
• Value Add only, possible cross dock flexibility
  at distribution center

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EPC Compliance

• Supplier to Best Buy
• Vast internal resources
• Short time frame
• Growing company
• Scalable hardware requirement
• Existing serialization scheme

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Best Buy Requirements

• 100 read rate at conveyor level reading
• Pallet (SSCC) and Each (SGTIN) level tagging of
  top 3 products
• Serialized EPC list and ASN via email
• Pre-Pilot approval team at Best Buy
• Class 1 96 bit tag requirement
• Hardware/tag independent, supplier selected

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Current Environment

• Existing Zebra printing infrastructure
• Adding TWO printers for RFID ready product
• Color label prints out of 1st printer indicating
  RFID tagged shipment
• RFID label to come out of 2nd printer
• SSCC labels ONLY existing serial tracking
  system in place

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• Zebra R110Xi Powered by ThingMagic
• RFID label generation
• Alien 4 x 6 Class 1 96 bit Squiggle tags
• Modified software front end
• ZPL2 printer language with RFID commands
• EPC number database and storage

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Solution Takeaways

• Printing 96 bit RFID labels only
• NO verification of tag readability in pilot stage
• Adding SSCC EPC into existing ASN
• EPC ROI? Nothing at this point.