Parcel - January/February 2009 - (Page 31)

• Active RFID tags have an internal battery that can broadcast their ID at signiﬁcant distances. However, such tags are relatively expensive, comparatively large and will need to be replaced every few years. • Passive RFID tags are comparatively economical, but have relatively short read ranges (i.e. typically less than a metre). • Hybrid tags, which combine both passive and active elements, are becoming more common and have some signiﬁcant advantages. • Some RFID tags are read-only, having a factory-embedded serial number in them. Some are inﬁnitely readable/writable and can have on-board memory to hold thousands of characters of data. Many tags can be written-to only once. • The EPC (Electronic Product Code) is an emerging RFID-based technology that uniquely identiﬁes and indicates ever ything about the thing it’s attached to. That is, it might not only identify a can of pop as a 355ml can of Coke, but also the fact that it was the 370th one produced in the Edmonton plant on the 31st of May, 2008! • RFID tags can be read with ﬁxed-in-place readers or mobile readers. Because mobile readers have signiﬁcantly less electrical power at their disposal, expect them to have considerably shorter read ranges. • Generally speaking, the bigger an RFID tag’s antenna is, the further away it can be read. So don’t expect a pea-sized tag to be readable from many meters away! • The best ROI for RFID technology is currently in “closed loop” systems. That is, systems that you can design and use within your four walls or operations that don’t involve trading partners or other entities. • A signiﬁcant application for RFID that’s commonly overlooked is product authentication. Industries based in everything from pharmaceuticals to sports memorabilia are adopting it. • Before an RFID-based system becomes an item or person tracking project, it must ﬁrst be an engineering project. Plan on spending a lot of time and money researching and testing RFID technology in a given application environment before a full-scale system rollout. Using a knowledgeable RFID-experienced system developer and integrator will help you to determine a given application’s viability from the outset and ensure its technological success. Ian W. Bowden is the Founder and President of Aurora Barcode Technologies Ltd., an Edmonton-based company which has provided barcode and RFID based system solutions to clients throughout North America for over two decades. He can be reached at 800.689.7696 x126 or ian.bowden@aurorabarcode.com p www.PARCELindustry.com / JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2009 31 http://www.transportationimpact.com http://www.PARCELindustry.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Parcel - January/February 2009

Parcel - January/February 2009 Contents Editor’s Note Going Global Transportation ABCs Mastering Management Regional Alternatives Practical IT Best Practices Packaging 12th Annual UPS Rate Analysis Navigating Dim Weight Charges More than Just a Postscript Understanding RFID PARCEL Counsel New Products Reality Check

Parcel - January/February 2009

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