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Role of RFID in Supply Chain Management by Siddharth Patnaik & R. Janaki * Part - VI RFID over the years It was first developed by the British during World War II to determine whether an approaching aircraft was a friend or foe. During the 1960s and 1970s, RFID technology became widely used to help ensure the security of nuclear material. In the 1990s, the automotive industry employed the technology in its remote keyless entry systems. RFID in its present form has been in existence for more than 20 years and has been extensively used in applications such as toll collection, access control, ticketing, and car immobilization devices (also called immobilizers). In recent years, the technology has received increased attention due to a confluence of actions including technology advancement, heightened security concerns, supply chain automation, and a continuing emphasis on cost control within industrial systems. RFID Vs. Barcodes There is often a comparison between the advantages of RFID and bar codes. RFID is not necessarily "better" than bar codes. The two are different technologies and have different applications, which sometimes overlap. The big difference between the two is bar codes are line-of-sight technology. That is, a scanner has to "see" the bar code to read it, which means people usually have to orient the bar code towards a scanner for it to be read. Radio frequency identification, by contrast, doesn't require line of sight. RFID tags can be read as long as they are within range of a reader.
Bar codes have other shortcomings as well. If a label is ripped, soiled or falls off, there is no way to scan the item. And standard bar codes identify only the manufacturer and product, not the unique item. The bar code on one milk carton is the same as every other, making it impossible to identify which one might pass its expiration date first. * Contributed by - |
