Application

RFID: past the pilot stage

RFID deployments are live and kicking, says Abhinav Singh.

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology is working wonders at India Inc. Be it the University of Pune Library, Pantaloons and Madura Garments in retail or the Chitale Dairy Farm in Maharashtra—a slew of deployments are underscoring the fact that RFID's time has come.

Chitale produces more than 60 million litres of milk annually. It is using RFID technology to effectively track feeds, milking and breeding information related to buffalos. The dairy farm has achieved considerable success. Sources at the farm say that it has witnessed more than 20 percent improvement in total milk yield as a result of deploying RFID technology. Similarly, the University of Pune Library has been successful in preventing pilferage of books; stock (books) verification has become easier because the library has kissed the cumbersome manual process good-bye. Pantaloon is also quite satisfied with the technology, and expects to adopt it in a big way in the near future.

The perfect tracker

With more than four lakh books, the library of the University of Pune was finding it very difficult to manage its vast collection. There are 5,000 students and faculty who are members of the library. Incidents of pilfering were frequent, and rare reference books were getting lost. It was very difficult for the library staff to monitor the books continuously. Additionally, it was difficult for them to take stock of the books. In came RFID to the rescue. The implementation streamlined things. Explains Dr S K Patil, Librarian and Head, Information Science Department of the university, “Our former vice-chancellor, Dr Kolaskar, was highly inspired by the usage of RFID tech at the Chitale Dairy Farm, and wanted to experiment with the same in our library as well. Although this technology is quite expensive, it has yielded excellent results for us.”

As part of the tech implementation, an RFID tag has been implanted in each and every book of the library, and the complete book database has been entered into the software. Now whenever any book is issued to a member, the information pertaining to that book is read by the RFID reader from the tag. The reader transfers the data into the software, and the book is smoothly issued in a second with a minimum of manual intervention. As the member takes the book outside the library, antennas placed at the exit gate automatically read the information contained on the RFID tag to verify whether the book has been issued properly. In case the book has not been issued as per library norms, the antennas sense it, give an instant alert, and pilferage is prevented.

In a similar manner, Pantaloon went in for RFID for its simplicity of tagging, efficacy of use, product buffering, ability to keep track of over-produced items, and ability to monitor product-line lead-time at the warehouse. The RFID application developed by Wipro Infotech was tailored to the overall solution in line with Pantaloon’s business processes and IT landscape in order to capture real-time data. When the RFID-tagged merchandise comes through the inward gate of the warehouse, all related information such as purchase and delivery orders would be fed in the inward terminals in real-time. After correlating the requirements of specific outlets with the merchandise in the warehouse, the consignments for different outlets are prepared. The tags are removed once the RFID-tagged goods pass through the outward terminal of the warehouse.

Faster transactions

The library at the University of Pune is witnessing a smooth stock taking exercise using RFID technology. In the past, manual stock taking was a prolonged exercise as each and every book’s detail had to be manually entered into the system. Now with the introduction of the new technology it has become easy for the library to just place a hand scanner on top of the book; the scanner automatically passes on this information to the common database. However, this technology has come at a high price for the library authorities. Reveals Patil, “Each RFID tag costs Rs 40, and there are three RFID readers installed in the library premises. The complete project cost us around Rs 60 lakh, including the antennas. But as the technology becomes more popular the cost is expected to come down further and we will see mass deployment in different sectors.”

Adds N P Singh, Vice-president of IT at Madura, “If a customer is looking around a store for a blue stripe shirt of size 42, he may only find one available in size 40. Chances are that the salesman may also say that size 42 is not available. But by using RFID tags it is possible to determine whether a blue stripe shirt of size 42 is lying in the store, and if it is, to quickly deliver it to the customer.” Madura is also planning to use RFID at its warehouses and factory for tracking stock.

Better than bar-code

Pantaloon has got many benefits from the technology as recording data became smooth at the inward and outward terminals of its warehouse, which in turn helped the company save time and gain accuracy. Before the RFID implementation, each item used to be scanned through the bar-code recorder. After the implementation, the time saved on the same is about 80 percent in inward warehouse processing and 12 percent in outward. Real-time visibility of items during all stages of the supply chain improved to 98 percent. The company is now aiming to extend the application to production routing and scheduling, product recall and returns, and real-time data for effective forecasting for category managers. It expects that RFID applications will help it improve the shopping experience, store layout and any inventory situation. Going forward, Pantaloon will contemplate using the technology to improve collaboration across its supply chain right up to the point of sale.

Poised for popularity

RFID technology is set to become more popular in India with more deployments in the offing. It has been proved that the technology reduces labour costs, results in efficient business processes, and leads to tighter connections with business partners and suppliers. The demand for RFID technology will be strong in established applications such as toll collection, automobile immobilisation, security and access control. Falling prices and increasing end-user knowledge, are expected to spur deployment in more stable segments such as point of sale and baggage tracking.