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DEDICATED TO RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIF ICATION AND ITS BUSINESS APPLICATIONS
• PERSPECTIVESteering A Path To Mass Adoptionpage 6
• VERTICAL FOCUS: EDUCATIONSchools Use RFID To Improve Teacher Efficiency And Ensure Student Safetypage 28
• SOFTWARE SAVVY A Top-Level Tagging Plan For Apparel Suppliers page 39
PAGE 10
HonoringExcellence
And The Winners Are:Cisco
Intel Corp.
BP
HP Brazil
Omni-ID
Bill Hardgrave
For advertising information, please contact:
Alan McIntosh: Director of Sales [email protected] (212) 584-9400 ext. 4
Matthew Singer: Director of [email protected](212) 584-9400 ext. 6
Our webinars and virtual events are FREE to attend—but space is limited, so register early.
RFID in RetailJUNE 12, 2012Platinum Sponsors:Zebra Technologies,Mid-South Marking SystemsGold Sponsor:Tageos
RFID in Aerospace and AviationJUNE 26, 2012Deployment Guide Sponsor:OATSystems, a Division of Checkpoint
RFID in DefenseSEPT. 13, 2012
RFID in Harsh EnvironmentsOCT. 2, 2012
For the most up-to-date calendar, visit www.rfidjournalevents.com.
The Industry’s Most Innovative OnlineMarketing Vehicles
Upcoming Virtual Events
Find us on:
C O V E R S T O R I E S : A W A R D W I N N E R S
13 Cisco’s Business-Driven RFID Strategy The network giant adopts the technology to manage fixedassets at 70 U.S. data centers and R&D labs.By John Edwards
16 A new Tool for Electronics Companies Intel has linked RFID to its microprocessors in computers,tablets and other devices, enabling myriad applications—frommanufacturing to supply chain and retail. By Jill Gambon
19 BP Refines Maintenance Operations The international oil and gas company developed an RFIDsolution that streamlines processes, making work safer andmore cost-efficient. By Samuel Greengard
22 Extracting new Value From Old Printers HP Brazil is leveraging the RFID information in its tagged ink-jet printers to recycle plastic materials.By Jennifer Zaino
25 RFID Issues Instructions on the Fly Omni-ID’s “visual tags” tell workers what to do with the assetsand work-in-process being tracked. By Paul Prince
27 Giving RFID Credibility Bill Hardgrave led an independent team that proved the business benefits of using RFID to track apparel items. By Mark Roberti
V E R T I C A L F O C U S : E D U C A T I O N
28 RFID Goes to SchoolThe technology earned mixed grades when first deployedin schools. Now, its use is growing, slowly but steadily, withapplications focused on improving teacher efficiency andensuring student safety. By Mary Catherine O’Connor
contents
features
departments
3 Editor’s noteExcellence found.
4 Out in Front Managing hazardous waste; theobject is the antenna; bulging atthe waste.
6 Perspective Vendors must steer a path to massadoption; six tips for marketing in the “bowling alley.”
EDITORIAL
Mark Roberti, [email protected]
Andrea Linne, Executive Editor/[email protected]
Paul Prince, Executive Editor/[email protected]
John Hull, Art Director [email protected]
Rich Handley, Managing [email protected]
Beth Bacheldor, Senior [email protected]
Mary Catherine O’ConnorSenior [email protected]
Claire Swedberg, Senior [email protected]
Edson Perin, Brasil [email protected]
John EdwardsContributing [email protected]
Rhea Wessel Contributing Writer/[email protected]
Jennifer ZainoContributing Writer [email protected]
RFID JOuRnAL EVEnTS
Kimberly A. Ray, VP of [email protected]
Cheryl JohnsonDirector of Events [email protected]
Debbie Hughes Editorial Director of [email protected]
Deborah LambertAdministrative Assistant of [email protected]
SALES
Alan McIntosh, Director of [email protected]
Matt Singer, Director of [email protected]
SuBSCRIPTIOnS
ARTICLE REPRInTS
RFID JOuRnAL LLC
Editorial office:38 Kings Highway, Suite 1Hauppauge, NY 11788
Mark Roberti, Chief Executive [email protected]
Kathleen Knocker, Business Manager [email protected]
Sonja Valenta, Director of [email protected]
Kathy Roach, Marketing [email protected]
Lydia Sum, Administrative [email protected]
Contents © 2012 RFID Journal LLC
Vol. 9, No. 3 May/June 2012
columns
37 Inside the LabsEncrypt instead of “kill.”By Junyu Wang and Xi Tan
39 Software SavvyA serialization roadmap.By Ken Traub
40 Ashton’s View RFID goes bananas.By Kevin Ashton
COVER PHOTO: TOM HURST
RFID Journal • May/June 20122
tune in onlineMost-Read Stories In April
• Kiss Another RFID Company Good-Bye
• RFID Helps Disney Employees GetInto Character
• RFID-Enabled Lexus Ad Debuts inPages of Wired Magazine
• Hanmi Pharmaceutical Uses RFID To Automate Picking, Shipping
• That ‘Internet of Things’ Thing
Top 10 Search TermsOn RFIDJournal.com
1 Walmart
2 NFC
3 Cisco
4 American Apparel
5 E-Lock
6 Cost
7 Disney
8 Hospital
9 Library
10 RTLS
www.rfidjournal.com
The Inside Scoop
What are end users sayingbehind the scenes? Whyshould the RFID communitybe optimistic about the industry? Who’s spreadingmisinformation? Get insightand perspective at the RFID Journal Blog.
Ideas Exchange
RFID Journal maintains an Ask the Experts forum,where you can submit questions about RFIDtechnology and its applications. Your questionswill be answered by RFIDJournal editors or outsideexperts. Recent questions include:
• Can RFID readers and tagsfrom different companiescommunicate?
• Could RFID be used in a jailsetting?
• How can RFID be applied inthe coal-mining industry totrack truck deliveries?
• Where can I find multifac-eted RFID middleware?
• How does anticollisionwork?
“
“RFID Journal’s interactive map shows howwidespread RFID adoption has become. Thedots are color-coded according to industry, in-cluding aerospace, agriculture, apparel, defense,health care, logistics, manufacturing, pharma-ceutical and retail. You can get more informa-tion about a particular deployment by clickingon one of the dots—a pop-up will appear.
To put your company’s RFID deployment on themap, click here and fill out the form. It takesonly a few minutes.
Coming soon to RFIDJournal.com
Virtual Events:These live interactive programs offer acon venient way to learn why and howcompanies are employing RFID to improve
the way they do business. Presenters will answer yourindividual questions.
• RFID in Retail: Retailers worldwide are using RFID to track individual items and improve inventory accuracy, so they can have products on shelves when customers want to buy them. June 12, 11 am to 1 pm EDT
• RFID in Aerospace and Aviation: Designed for air-ports, airlines, aircraft manufacturers, maintenancefirms and others that want to use RFID to improvesupply chains and reduce costs.June 26, 11 am to 1 pm EDT
• RFID in Defense: Suppliers to the U.S. Department of Defense can meet tagging mandates and achievebenefits, both internally and across supply chains.Sept. 13, 11 am to 1 pm EDT
• RFID in Harsh Environments: Companies in the oiland gas, chemical, mining, construction and energy industries are using RFID technologies to increase operational safety and efficiency. Oct. 2, 10 am to 12 pm EDT
RFIDconnect.com: See why nearly 9,000 people have joined RFID Journal’s online community.
Worldwide RFID Deployment Map
3RFID Journal • May/June 2012
editor’s note
In AprIl, rFID JournAl hosteD its 10th annualRFID Journal LIVE! conference and exhibition.I know beforehand each year, of course, who theguest speakers will be and which RFIDproviders will showcase their technologies. Yet,I’m still impressed by the many ways compa-nies have found to use RFID to improve the waythey do business, and each year, I’m amazed tosee how far the technology has evolved.
For the past six years, RFIDJournAl has been bestowingthe RFID Journal Awards onthose companies that havedemonstrated excellence in theway they use RFID. I always lookforward to reading the entries,because I don’t know what toexpect. I’m often surprised andwowed by the creative wayscompanies are employing RFIDto boost efficiencies or enhancetheir products or services. Thisyear’s submissions includedsome of the largest and most sophisticated deployments todate—so, once again, the inde-pendent experts who judged theentries complained that it was
tough to choose one winner in each category.(That’s a problem I’m happy to live with.)
Fortunately, in the coming months, you canlearn about some of the excellent entries thatdidn’t make the final cut; look for case studiesabout these RFID projects in “This Week’s Fea-tured Story” on our Web site. And in this issue,you can read about each winner’s deployment.
Cisco Systems earned the Best RFID Imple-mentation Award for its solution to track andmanage more than 1 million IT assets at 70 U.S.data centers and labs. The project managers reveal how the solution more than met thecompany’s expectations, improving inventory
accuracy and reducing the time required to locate assets. They also share the secrets to theirsuccess.
When Intel Corp. introduced its new plat-form at LIVE! 2012, it created quite a buzz, so I’mguessing some attendees weren’t surprised tosee the manufacturer walk away with the awardfor Best Use of RFID to Enhance a Product orService. The platform will enable electronicscompanies to add new features and capabilitiesto computers, tablets and other electronic devices.
The award for Most Innovative Use of RFIDwent to BP for its solution to make maintenanceoperations at oil refineries safer and more cost-efficient. Interestingly, the idea for the systemcame from a plant operator who was using another RFID application.
Hewlett-Packard Brazil is our first two-timewinner. In 2007, the manufacturer won the BestImplementation award for using RFID to trackprinters through production and distribution.This year, it won the Green Award for leverag-ing the RFID information in the tagged printersto recycle plastic components.
Bill Hardgrave received the Special Achieve-ment Award for his pioneering research on thereal-world impact RFID has on apparel retailing.And Omni-ID took home the Best in ShowAward, which goes to the company with the bestnew product at this year’s LIVE! event. Its VisualTagging System issues on-the-fly instructionsto workers.
I hope you’ll submit your project for nextyear’s awards competition. We look forward towriting about your company in these pages.
Excellence Found
Mark Roberti, Founder and EditorPHOTO
: TOM H
URST
| RIFID
JOURNAL
out in front
RFID Journal • May/June 20124
ReseaRcheRs at the NoRth Dakota StateUniversity (NDSU) Center for NanoscaleScience and Engineering (CNSE) have devel-oped an antennaless RFID tag that essentiallyturns a metal object into the device’s antenna.“I came up with the idea when I was workingwith the U.S. Department of the Navy, whichwanted a thin tag that could go on metal,” saysCherish Bauer-Reich, a research engineer atCNSE. “Most RFID tags used on metal have aspacer, but tags that stick up from the surfaceof an object being tracked are prone to beingdamaged or knocked off.”The challenge was coming up with a tag
that could lie flat on just about any metalobject and remain readable. If the antenna ofa conventional passive ultrahigh-frequencytag touches the metal surface of the objectbeing tracked, the tag is hard to read. On non-metal objects, the RF energy from a readercreates an electrical charge that is captured bya passive tag and used to reflect a signal. Butwhen a tag is on a metal object, the RF energycreates an induced charge on the metal,
negating the charge captured by the tag.Rather than limiting the induced charge,
which is the way most metal-mount tags work,Bauer-Reich came up with the idea of using it topower the chip. But she had to get the inducedcharge to flow into the RFID microchip. Hersolution was to use magnetic material to forcethe charge through the chip. She designed asmall metal loop that straddles a strip of mag-netic material. When the object is zapped withenergy from the reader, an electric field is created. The magnetic material helps capturethe charge induced on the metal and diverts itinto the loop, where it powers the chip. Michael Reich, a senior research engineer at
NDSU, helped choose and test a variety of spe-cial materials. The researchers decided to useoff-the-shelf ferrites. Layne Berge, an under-graduate student, built and tested prototypetags. The team now has a working prototype,which uses an Alien Higgs 3 RFID chip. The tagcan be read on aluminum plates, coffee cansand electronic devices with metal cases, fromdistances of 3 to 6 feet. While this isn’t as goodas a conventional metal-mount tag with aspacer to keep the antenna away from themetal, Bauer-Reich believes that with furtherrefinement—changing the properties of themagnetic material, for example—the team willbe able to increase the tag’s read range. The patent-pending technology is avail-
able for licensing. “We’re hoping to find companies that are interested in workingwith us to take the concept to the next level,”she says. “The tag could be optimized for par-ticular applications. For instance, the DOD isinterested in tagging ordnance [military sup-plies]. A tag designed to work on ordnancecould be optimized to get a longer readrange.” —Mark Roberti
T E C H N O L O G Y
The Object Is the AntennaAn antennaless tag turns any metal object into an RFID transponder.
From left: Michael Reich,Cherish Bauer-Reich and Layne Bergewith
5RFID Journal • May/June 2012
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Bulgingat theWasteMetric tons ofhazardous wastegenerated by theUnited Statesannually:260,108,000
Metric tons ofhazardous wastegenerated by thePhilippines in 2008:164,939,000
Metric tons ofhazardous wastegenerated by theRussian Federationin 2009:141,019,000
Metric tons ofhazardous wastegenerated byGermany in 2008:22,323,000
Metric tons ofhazardous wastegenerated by Chinain 2009:14,300,000
Metric tons ofhazardous wastegenerated by theUnited Kingdomin 2008:7,285,000
—Rich Handley
C O N S T R U C T I O N
Managing Hazardous WasteResearchers at Staffordshire University have developed an RFID system to ensurecontractors dispose of plasterboard in designated landfills.
each yeaR, the UNiteD kiNgDom produces 1 million metric tons of plasterboard waste.Only about 7 percent of this is recycled, and therest ends up in landfills. But the gypsum inplasterboard—sometimes called gypsum boardor sheetrock—can mix with organic waste toproduce hydrogen sulfide gas, a colorless andpoisonous mixture that can cause significanthealth problems. In November 2008, the U.K. government
began requiring contractors to separate plas-terboard from other waste materials, so theplasterboard can be disposed of at one of four“mono-cell” landfills. But currently, there isno way to monitor whether contractors arecomplying with these regulations. TonyAtkins, a member of Applied Computing inthe Faculty of Computing, Engineering andTechnology at Staffordshire University, andcolleagues Lizong Zhang and Hongnian Yu,have developed a system for tracking plaster-board to monitor compliance. The system involves tagging shipments of
plasterboard for a new building or one that isbeing renovated, to track how much plaster-board is used. Plasterboard waste—either “off-cuts” from new construction or old plaster-board that is removed—is loaded intocontainers equipped with passive ultrahigh-frequency RFID tags. When these are filled,
the system estimates the volume and weightof the waste, based on the container size. Thattonnage is compared with the estimatedwaste, based on an analysis of the building’sblueprint and amount of new plasterboardbrought to the site. If there is less plasterboardremoved than consumed, it might indicatethat some of the plasterboard being removedwas disposed of improperly.GPS would be used to track the shipment to
ensure the waste is hauled to the correct dis-posal site. (The process of filling the containerwith plasterboard could be videotaped, andthe RFID transponder could store a link to thevideo on the Web.) “Our system lets you calculate the volume
and tonnages, and do the track-and-trace toshow that you are a responsible contractorand have disposed of this waste properly,”Atkins says. “This is not a requirement today,but it could become a requirement becausethe amount of construction waste continuesto increase every year.”Atkins envisions using ant colony optimiza-
tion—algorithms that determine the most effi-cient route given a set of variables—to find themost efficient and cost-effective way to truckcontainers of plasterboard waste to recyclingfacilities or special landfills. This would helpreduce the cost burden on contractors. “We have talked to a recycling plant in this
area about our systems,” Atkins says. “Ideally,it should be adopted by the companies thatproduce the plasterboard. We plan to see ifthey are interested in adopting our system. Iflegislation changes to require proof that plasterboard has been disposed of properly,contractors might be more interested in usingit. The technology already exists to make itfeasible.” —M.R.P
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Previously in this section, we have writ-ten about Geoffrey Moore’s technology adop-tion life cycle and how it applies to radio frequency identification. Specifically, we havelooked at how close the RFID industry is tomeeting the criteria he says are essential for atechnology to achieve mass adoption: a globalstandard, a problem no other technologysolves, a whole product, a “gorilla” (dominantprovider) and a critical mass of end users.
RFID technology has matured and is beingadopted by many companies in myriad indus-tries. But in an interview for the special 10thanniversary edition of this magazine(March/April 2012), Moore, author of Crossingthe Chasm and Inside the Tornado, raises thepossibility that RFID might never go main-stream—that it could remain forever in whathe calls the “bowling-alley” phase of the tech-nology adoption life cycle. There is a chasm
perspective
A D O P T I O N
Vendors Must Steer a PathTo Mass AdoptionSolution providers need to gain broad usage of RFID in one industry and thenadapt vertical applications to other sectors.
T H E S T O R Y B E H I N D T H E N E W S
RFID Journal • May/June 20126
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7RFID Journal • May/June 2012
between early adopters of a new technologyand the majority of companies that adoptlater, once the technology has gone main-stream, Moore says. When a technology crosses that chasm by proving its benefits, itenters the bowling alley. “The bowling alley represents that part of
the technology adoption life cycle in whichyour product gains acceptance from compa-nies within the mainstream market but hasyet to achieve general, widespread adop-tion,” Moore writes. “The goal of bowling-alley marketing is to keep moving forwardtoward the tornado [mass adoption], toprogress from niche to niche, developingmomentum. Each niche is like a bowlingpin, something that can be knocked over initself, but can also help knock over one ormore additional pins.”Is it possible that RFID will remain in the
bowling alley? Yes. “For many customers,there is still plenty of life left in the old para-digm [technology] you are displacing,” Moorewrites. “They might see the attraction of thenew paradigm you are offering, but they haveno compelling reason to move. Since infra-structure changes of any kind always entailhidden consequences, this part of the marketinstinctively holds back.” Some high-value technologies get exploited
economically, but they never become massmarket, Moore tells RFID Journal. “Unix work-stations are an example,” he says. “[Unix] isvery valuable technology with a long life cycle,but [it] never became ubiquitous.” But it is just as possible that RFID will
knock down those bowling pins—if solutionproviders pursue the right strategies. Somevendors insist on trying to sell generic solu-tions. But during the bowling-alley phase,Moore says, it’s important for solutionproviders to focus on one vertical industry inwhich RFID can provide a huge benefit, suchas apparel retail, because the technology cannot achieve mass adoption until it provesits advantages in at least one sector.
Solution providers also must make RFIDeasier to deploy. Currently, end users have todeal with the physics of radio waves, changesto operational practices, integration of newdata and so on. What’s more, they often needto buy tags from one provider, readers fromanother and software from a third (at leastwith passive systems).Once these issues are addressed, RFID will
be ready to transition from the bowling alleyto mass adoption. To take that step, the tech-nology, ironically, must revert to being moregeneralized. A solution designed specificallyto address the challenges of apparel retailers,for example, must be able to solve businessproblems in other industries as well.There seems little question that active
RFID technology could go mainstream. It isbeing used in many hospitals to track medicalequipment. There is a problem other tech-nologies can’t solve (a need to track assets inreal time) and vendors offer whole solutions.But two factors continue to prevent more hos-pitals from deploying—lack of agreement on astandard and lack of a dominant player. Oncethose last two factors change, the health-carebowling pin will fall, and active RFID-basedreal-time location systems will become generalized for manufacturing, energy andother sectors. Complexity is the main challenge for pas-
sive ultrahigh-frequency systems to over-come on the path to becoming a mainstreamtechnology. Apparel retailers are using GS1’ssecond-generation Electronic Product Codestandard to improve inventory management.UHF technology has become easier to deploy.Tags are easier to read, readers haveimproved, and there’s a greater variety of formfactors and antennas for different applica-tions. The software for tracking inventory andother applications also has advanced.But companies have to purchase tags from
one vendor, readers from another and softwarefrom yet another, and then hire a systems inte-grator to put it all together and integrate it with
Retail apparel isthe kingpin onthe path to massadoption ofpassive UHFRFID solutions.
perspective
RegisteR now to save €300 off on-site rates—use promotional code NEDP formaximum savings! For more information, visit www.rfidjournalevents.com/europe.
Manufacturers, retailers, logisticsfirms, food and energy companies,and other enterprises across Europeare employing radio frequency identification (RFID) to cut costs, enhance visibility, improve asset-utilization rates, streamline businessprocesses, improve inventory accuracyand achieve many other benefits.
REGARDLESS OF YOUR APPLICATION, THIS IS THE EVENT TO ATTEND IF YOU WANT TO LEARN FROMTHOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY DEPLOYED RFID—AND MEET THE SOLUTIONS PROVIDERS THAT HAVE THERIGHT TECHNOLOGY FOR YOUR PARTICULAR APPLICATION!
BY ATTENDING LIVE! EUROPE—SCANDINAVIA 2012, YOU WILL:› Hear speakers from leading end-user companies discuss how they areachieving significant business benefits with RFID today › Select your area of interest from sessions ranging from how to leverage RFIDto enhance visibility and traceability to improving operational efficiency› Learn how to employ RFID to improve construction and energy operations,during a special preconference seminar› See the latest RFID solutions offered by the leading technology companies› And so much more!
HEAR REAL-WORLD CASE STUDIES FROM THE LEADING END USERS
LEARN FROM THESE AND OTHER FEATURED SPEAKERS WHO ARE DEPLOYING RFID TECHNOLOGIES:
José Manuel Delicado
Graham Fenton
Glyn Matthews
Eskil Forås
Tom Romanich
Mikko Särkkä
BI Norwegian School of Management
The DOD nowhas morethan 4,000suppliers tag-ging ship-ments.
RFID Journal • May/June 2012
back-end solutions. It seems likely that a groupof companies will create a partnership and doenough deployments together that the solu-tion will become highly repeatable, and lesscomplex. This group will provide the wholeproduct and emerge as the gorilla.So retail apparel is the kingpin on the path
to mass adoption of passive UHF RFID solu-tions. And a solution for tracking clothingcould easily be applied to retailers sellingelectronics, jewelry, shoes and sportinggoods. Retailers likely will get a lot of valueout of RFID systems. The question, then, is whether the hard-
ware and software developed for the retailsector can be generalized to track anything—inventory, parts, people, returnable transportitems, tools, work-in-process and more. Theanswer is almost certainly yes. Passive UHFRFID likely will become ubiquitous for track-ing medium and small, inexpensive items inindustries such as energy and manufacturing(large high-value equipment will be trackedwith active solutions). RFID tags, readers andsoftware all started as generic products thatwere later tailored to the specific needs ofearly adopters. Insights gained from theprocess of customizing solutions will beincorporated into generic products. Another determining factor is that RFID is
becoming easier to deploy in environmentsand on products less friendly to radio waves.Most radio-based systems improve over timeas the technology evolves. Early Wi-Fi systemswere slow and unsecured, and had spotty datatransfers. Cell phone systems used to dropcalls frequently. But coverage has improved,and the technology has evolved to a state inwhich cell phones are highly reliable.Likewise, today’s RFID tags can be embed-
ded in metal pipes, welded to metal, mountedto metal servers and storage devices in datacenters and so on. Readers will no doubt continue to improve as well. While the tech-nology will never be perfect—no technologyever is—it is likely that its reliability will be
well beyond what most companies need toachieve business benefits.Software also can be adapted. Many RFID
software solutions already incorporate toolsfor configuring a variety of business-processapplications. RFID software also might beabsorbed into enterprise resource planning(ERP) applications or displaced by them—thatis, ERP systems could evolve to encompasswhat RFID software does today.It’s worth noting that bar codes started out
in the retail sector and are now used in theaerospace, chemical, defense, electronics,pharmaceutical and transportation indus-tries. RFID Journal believes RFID technologywill become ubiquitous—as long as vendorspursue a strategy of focusing on a vertical,achieving market dominance in that sectorand then using that leverage to transition toother verticals. —Mark Roberti
Six Tips for MarketingIn the ‘Bowling Alley’
Geoffrey Moore argues in many of his books that providers of a newtechnology must adopt a marketing strategy appropriate to the tech-nology’s current adoption phase. Here are some insights he provides formarketing in the bowling-alley phase.
1 Focus on a particular vertical industry. (Think of Apple’s emphasis on thedesktop publishing industry in the early days of desktop computing.)
2 Pick a niche—one in which a pressing need is unfulfilled, so there is acompelling reason to invest in a new technology solution.
3 Dominate that industry or niche, because pragmatists want to buy thesolution everyone else is using.
4 Commit to completing your customers’ wish list, and build out yoursolution to meet all their needs.
5 Market to businesspeople, because the technology can deliver an economic benefit. The IT department is not interested in investing in anew, relatively unproven technology.
6 Adopt a solutions-oriented business model, in which each solutionrequires a significant amount of customization. (A project-orientedbusiness model, in which the vendor makes money on each project, isappropriate for the early-adopter phase. A product model, in which thesolution is standardized, works in the tornado phase.)
perspective
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A solution fortracking clothingcould easily beapplied toretailers sellingelectronics,jewelry, shoesand sportinggoods.
On April 5, we presented the sixth annual RFID JournalAwards for outstanding achievement in radio frequencyidentification, at RFID Journal LIVE! 2012, our 10th annualconference and exhibition. You can read about each enduser’s RFID project in the following stories. You’ll alsolearn how Omni-ID’s ProView Visual Tagging System letsbusinesses update instructions automatically, on the fly,and why Bill Hardgrave got the retail community excitedabout RFID. This year, we introduced a new award forBest RFID Thesis, to recognize researchers. CeciliaOcchiuzzi was the winner.
Honoring Excellence
The Winners:
Cisco Best RFID Implementation
Intel Best Use of RFID in a Product or Service
BP Most Innovative Use of RFID
HP Brazil RFID Green Award
Omni-ID Best New RFID Product
Bill Hardgrave Special Achievement in RFID
You can view all the presentations and acceptance speeches in the video libraryon our site. From left: Mike Haley, BP; Gaetano Marrocco, accepting for CeciliaOcchiuzzi; Mark Roberti, RFID Journal; Marcelo Pandini, HP Brazil; ShahrokhShahidzadeh, Intel; Bill Hardgrave; Maryanne Flynn and Ted Baumuller, Cisco;and George E. Daddis Jr., Omni-ID.
RFID Journal • May/June 2012 11
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RegisteR now to save €200 off on-site rates—use promotional code LEDP for maximum savings! For more information, visit www.rfidjournalevents.com/uk.
RFID Journal LIVE! Europe—UK, RFID Journal’s first eventin London, will focus on educating end users about how radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is delivering real business benefits across multiple applications in retail, manufacturing and logistics operations.
This one-day program will share how to attain the fullbenefits of RFID-enabled technology, and provide companies with a greater understanding of how RFIDcan be used to improve production processes, increasevisibility, lower labor costs, reduce theft, track inventoryand transform the supply chain.
BY ATTENDING LIVE!—UK 2012, YOU WILL:› Hear speakers from leading end-user companies candidly discuss new applications for RFID, the businessbenefits they deliver and how to overcome implementation challenges› Learn from a range of sessions, including how to leverage RFID to enhance visibility and traceability, aswell as supply chain management and improving operational efficiency›Meet the leading end users, experts and RFID solutionsproviders› And so much more!
LEARN HOW TO TRACK AND MANAGE EVERYTHING
Hear Real-World Case Studies from the Leading End Users
FEATURED SPEAKERS WILL INCLUDE:
Tessilform S.p.A.
Fern
ando Ferreira M
atos
Dan
iel Lanch
o
Loren
zo Tazzi
Kevin
Francis
Dexter House
13RFID Journal • May/June 2012
201
2WINNER
cisco systems didn’t get to be theworld’s largest networking firm by ignoring technologies that could help itoperate smarter and more efficiently. Soit’s not surprising that the San Jose,Calif.-based firm turned to radio fre-quency identification when it needed abetter way to manage and safeguard onemillion-plus servers, network gear andother fixed IT assets at 70 U.S. data centers and research-and-developmentlabs.
Yet, the networking giant chose to ap-proach implementation from a businessangle, considering people, policy andbusiness processes before researchingRFID technologies and vendors anddefining an enterprisewide technical solution.
Cisco’s Fixed Assets Lifecycle RFIDproject got under way in January 2010,when the company’s senior executivesreached a strategic decision to create animproved approach to asset trackingand management. “We wanted to beable, in a very time-effective manner, to
do an inventory of our internal fixed assets networking gear,” says MaryanneFlynn, Cisco’s director of operations,who was selected to co-manage the initiative with Ted Baumuller, thefirm’s director of IT, marketing andCisco.com. “We had been using barcodes, but they are a little bit more dif-ficult to leverage because you need tohave a line of sight to the bar-codereader.” Direct, visible communicationisn’t always possible in a data centerwhere equipment racks, cables andpeople often get in the way.
After the executives green-lighted
the project, a cross-functional steeringcommittee was formed to represent theinterests of the organization’s variousbusiness and technology areas, includ-ing finance, IT, operations and R&D.“We started by looking at our internalpolicies and processes,” Flynn says.“We wanted to find out from our stake-holders—the people who manage theseassets on a daily basis—what weresome of the pieces of the process thatdidn’t work for them.”
As one set of planners tackled stake-holder concerns, another team beganresearching and interviewing leadingRFID systems integrators, hardware andsoftware vendors, using market knowl-edge and insights gleaned from RFIDJournal articles and webinars. “Wethought passive RFID would be a muchmore cost-effective and highly efficientway for us to track and audit our inventory of networking gear,” Flynnexplains.
A 15-member evaluation committeedeveloped and reviewed requests for in-
best rfid implementation
Cisco’s Business-DrivenRFID Strategy
The network giant adopts the technology to manage fixed assetsat 70 U.S. data centers and R&D labs.
By John Edwards
Assets can be tracked with handheld readers.
RFID Journal • May/June 201214
BEST RFID IMPLEMENTATION
formation as well as proposals, oral pre-sentations and solution demonstrationsfrom roughly a dozen RFID providers.The team selected RFID Global Solutionas its systems integrator. “The choice ofour RFID partner was really based onthe fact that they had a good under-standing of the business process behindthe technology,” Flynn states. “It wasn’tjust about getting good read rates.”
Cisco’s planners ultimately settledon technologies from a small group ofvendors. Motorola Solutions was tappedto provide its FX7400 fixed readers,AN480 antennas, and MC9090-Z andMC3190-Z handheld readers. For certainportal configurations with extra-widedoor widths, Impinj was selected for itsSpeedway Revolution R420 readers. Forasset tags, Cisco chose the Omni-IDProx, Flex and Prox-NG passive RFIDtags. The Prox-NG was designed specifi-cally to meet Cisco’s requirements for asingle form factor global tag that couldbe used worldwide.
Deployment Under Way
In November 2010, with its technologyplanning complete, Cisco began deploy-ing its RFID asset-tracking solution atnine U.S. R&D labs and data centers, in asix-month controlled release field trial.The test implementation was designedto help engineers and business expertsevaluate the system’s accuracy and func-tionality. The trial would also providemeaningful insight on the deploymentprocess’ efficiency and effectiveness,the receptivity of Cisco’s lab engineersto a new business process and answersto what change-management activitieswould be necessary to further promoteadoption. Another goal was to gatherbaseline and post-install metrics on theaccuracy and labor time involved in ITasset-inventory management.
Flynn reports that project managerslearned a number of lessons from the
trial deployment, such as the need tohave total consistency in product-nam-ing conventions for both asset typesand data fields, as well as the value ofsetting portal and tag configurationsthat register the best possible read rates.Other insights helped improve equip-ment ordering, inventory stock-leveloptimization, and training and supportrequirements.
By completion of the test phase,RFID equipment had been installed atentry and exit doorways and inside in-terior hallways at more than 35 datacenters and R&D labs, primarily in theSan Jose, Dallas and Research TrianglePark, N.C., metro areas. “By the end of
July, we will have outfitted about 70 in-ternal data centers in the U.S. with thisRFID equipment,” Flynn says. “We willeventually deploy in other countries,but the plan for that hasn’t yet been solidified.”
The final system has been rolled outslowly. “We wanted to make sure thingsworked before we deployed them enmasse,” Flynn says. “The implementa-tion approach we took was to outfit 10sites at a time, and make sure the peoplewho work at the data centers really un-derstand the technology before we goon to the next site.”
In Operation
Three primary business processes areaffected by the Fixed Assets Lifecycleproject: equipment receiving, inventorymanagement and asset sharing. Ciscohas developed brand-new processesand a methodology for deploying RFIDequipment from the assets’ infancythrough their maturity, which enablesgreater visibility and control of the assets, as well as sharing and reuse, cutting capital expenditures.
When a purchase order for a newpiece of equipment is created inCisco’s financial-management appli-cation, information about the incom-ing asset is automatically transmittedto RFID Global Solution’s Visi-Trac ap-plication. “That information consistsof things like who bought the asset,when it was purchased, the manufac-turer it was purchased from, and themake, model number and location it isto be shipped to—it includes all kindsof rich information about the asset,”Flynn says.
As soon as the equipment arrives atCisco’s central receiving facility, it istagged, and employees at the facility as-sociate the tag’s ID number with the assetin Visi-Trac. That information is then au-tomatically forwarded to Cisco’s enter-prise asset-management database, TivoliAsset Management for IT software, soasset databases in the data centers aresynchronized with the asset-manage-ment database at corporate headquarters.
After the asset arrives at a location,its tag is automatically read as the ob-ject passes through a portal. Employeesalso can use a handheld reader or entera seven-digit human-readable code intothe Visi-Trac system. If, instead of beingreceived by Cisco’s central receiving fa-cility, an item is shipped directly to a lo-cation, the group that ordered the assettags the item and registers its locationin the application. If no one enters a tag
Cisco has developedbrand-new processesand a methodology for
deploying RFIDequipment from the
assets’ infancy throughtheir maturity.
ID and location into the system within aspecified period of time, the system re-minds the person responsible for thatasset to do so.
Besides automatically tracking objectmovements, the system allows users tocreate specific permissions and receivealerts. A lab manager might indicate, forinstance, that a particular piece ofequipment is not permitted to leave thefacility. Should the tagged item turn upat an exit, the system would immedi-ately notify the manager.
The RFID solution improves inven-tory management, allowing assets to befound almost instantly, Flynn says. In-ventory audits are conducted with au-tomated RFID technology, rather thanmanually with bar codes and Excelspreadsheets. Cisco has slashed its cyclecount time for conducting inventoriesfrom several weeks to just a few hours,reducing inventory labor and cost.
Asset availability information is nowreadily accessible to Cisco data centerand R&D lab managers, allowing equip-ment to be repurposed and shared between engineering teams.
Exceeding Expectations
The Fixed Assets Lifecycle RFID projecthas more than lived up to its designers’expectations, Flynn says, noting thatCisco already has observed significantimprovements in inventory accuracy,an increased ability to find assets on thefirst pass and a faster cycle count dur-ing audits. Prior to deploying RFID,when conducting a first-pass audit onexisting assets in one of the company’slabs, 45 percent of expected assets werediscovered on the first pass, while theremaining assets had to be found man-ually during an inventory process thatcould take several weeks, she says. Withthe RFID system in place, more than 98
percent of expected assets were foundon the first pass with RFID handheldreaders—a 118 percent improvement—and the remaining 2 percent were dis-covered shortly thereafter.
The system has also reduced theaudit cycle count for a typical-size labfrom more than one week to less thantwo hours—a 95 percent improvementin the time it takes to comply with andsupply reports for mandatory audits.
Flynn credits the project’s success tocareful planning and testing, as well asensuring the final system fully meetsreal-world business needs. She believesthat end-user involvement is critical tothe success of almost any enterpriseRFID initiative. “Really make sure you’reengaging with the people you’re tryingto help,” she says. “Involve them in theprocess design and process solutionsbefore you foist the technology onthem.”
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RFID Journal • May/June 201216
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intel corp. was already the world’slargest manufacturer of microprocessorswhen, in 2005, it began looking for waysto differentiate its products. The com-pany thought it could enhance computersecurity and functionality by adding a“secure vault” to store a variety of infor-mation, such as personal identificationand manufacturing records. This April,at RFID Journal LIVE!, Intel introduced aplatform that enables a secure vault—and many other applications, from lock-ing electronics devices to deter theftduring transit to customizing devices insealed boxes at the point of sale. Theplatform promises to have a wide-reach-ing impact on the consumer electronicsindustry, from manufacturer to retailer,says Shahrokh Shahidzadeh, senior prin-cipal technologist at Intel, who spear-headed the project.
A key feature of the new platform isan ultrahigh-frequency RFID chip em-bedded in the device’s motherboard andwired directly to the microprocessor.The chip is designed with extra memorydedicated to the processor, creating
what Intel describes as “processor-secured storage,” where data can bestored safely and activated whenneeded. The data on the chip can bewritten to or accessed by the Intelprocessor via an inter-integrated circuit(I2C) interface, which is a semiconduc-tor industry standard, and from an ex-ternal handheld or fixed RFID reader.
Intel gave the reference designs forthe new platform to the hardware ven-dors that are making Windows 8 tabletcomputers, which are expected to hitthe market later this year.
RFID Inside
When Intel began its secure vault proj-ect, RFID was considered mainly a sup-ply-chain technology, but the companyrecognized that RFID chips were funda-mentally memory chips, with an addedRF air interface. Intel was looking for away to add secure memory near theprocessor to store critical device identi-fication data, and RFID chips emergedas a viable solution. Intel decided if itcould add a wired interface to an RFID
chip, the chip could be attached to a cir-cuit board and communicate directlywith a computer’s central processingunit.
The company picked UHF RFID forthe project for its relatively low powerconsumption and long read range. Inaddition, UHF chip memory can be pro-grammed multiple times. As the projectadvanced, it became clear that a newchip would have to be created to meetthe emerging requirements: The chiphad to have memory dedicated to theprocessor and the ability to access thatmemory wirelessly. It also had to bescalable, so it could be used in every-thing from mobile phones to servers.
Intel worked with several semicon-ductor firms on the initial concept design for the project. For the chip development, the company partneredwith Impinj, a Seattle-based maker ofUHF chips and readers. The two compa-nies share a common RFID history: In2008, Impinj bought Intel’s RFID divi-sion, which included Intel’s widely usedR1000 RFID reader chip.
best use of rfid in a product or service
A New Tool for ElectronicsCompanies
Intel has linked RFID to its microprocessors in computers,tablets and other devices, enabling myriad applications—
from manufacturing to supply chain and retail.By Jill Gambon
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17RFID Journal • May/June 2012
Impinj created two new RFID chipsfor the project: the Monza X-2K Duraand the Monza X-8K Dura, with 2 kilo-bits and 8 kilobits of memory, respec-tively. Both chips have lockable memoryblocks and support two independent
antennas—a short-range loop antennaon the circuit board and a long-range dipole antenna inside the electronic device’s enclosure. This allows the chipto be read from both the near field (on amanufacturing line, for example) and at
long range (within a warehouse). A cross-section of Intel employees
were involved over the course of theproject, including representatives fromthe engineering, management, manu-facturing and supply-chain groups,software architects, radio frequency designers, CPU and platform designers,and security and privacy experts. In ad-dition to the chip and hardware design,software and firmware that enable com-munication between the processor andthe RFID chip had to be developed.Chris Diorio, chairman and CTO of Impinj, also served as a key consultantto the project.
Developing, Testing, Demonstrating
A project of such scope involved a num-ber of obstacles. The engineering anddesign were complicated. Integratingthe antennas proved particularly chal-lenging due to the devices’ space con-straints. Performance of the RFID chipswas affected by the amount of metal inthe devices, which limited the read and write range. “It was an underdogproject,” Shahidzadeh recalls.
Over time, many of the issues wereresolved as RFID technology maturedand the overall performance of readersand tags improved. As the technologyadvanced, people began to see new waysit could be put to use. “The performanceof chips and readers got better, and theimpossibility faded away,” Shahidzadehsays. “And as we made progress, possi-bilities for new uses opened up.”
Several groups within Intel helpeddevise likely scenarios for use of theRFID-microprocessor integration, alongwith associated business cases and potential benefits. Intel then workedwith its technology partners to developprototypes to demonstrate how theplatform would work.
Intel put the platform through vigor-ous testing to prove that the integration
The RFID chip is embedded in a device’s motherboard and wired directlyto the microprocessor.
PHOTO
: TOM HURST | RIFID JOURNAL
RFID Journal • May/June 201218
of the chip and the antenna could workwithin the small form factor of aportable computer. The company builtthousands of tablets to demonstrate theconcept to customers, retailers andother end users. Windows and Androidsoftware developers also used the prototypes to incorporate RFID func-tionality into their application stacks.
Throughout development, Intelgathered input from electronics manu-
facturers, retailers and customers, andthat feedback drove changes, such asthe amount of memory on the chip andthe security features. “As we listened toour customers, the requirementsevolved,” Shahidzadeh says.
Nearly two dozen potential uses forthe platform have been identified forfurther development and review. Withthe chip connected directly to a micro-processor, RFID can be used in entirelynew ways, Diorio says. “Typically, whenpeople think of UHF RFID, they think ofidentifying pallets and boxes. The con-cept here is that RFID can communicatedirectly with the device that is hosting
it—with the microprocessor of a PC, atablet computer or mobile phone—evenwhen the power is off,” he says.
Benefits Throughout the Value Chain
How much impact the processor-secured storage will have on the con-sumer electronics industry—and Intel’sbottom line—will be determined duringthe months and years ahead, as tabletsand other products containing the new
chips hit the market. Intel maintains itscustomers and other supply-chain part-ners will soon be adapting their distri-bution and retail processes as a result ofthe chip’s capabilities. Device makersand retailers, for instance, will be ableto reduce the number of unique productconfigurations they stock, becausethey’ll be able to customize applicationsand other features at the point of sale bysending code to the chip via an RFIDreader, based on the specifics the cus-tomer wants. The upshot: lower supply-chain costs and higher customersatisfaction, Shahidzadeh says.
Manufacturers will be able to use
radio frequency signals to “lock” the de-vices before they are shipped, renderingthem useless and thus a less attractivetarget for theft. Under this scenario, atablet or other device could be pro-grammed during manufacturing to bein a sort of digital coma until it receivesan activation code from an RFID readerat the checkout counter in a retail store.If a consumer has a tablet shipped to ahome or office, the device could be ac-tivated by downloading a line of codefrom an e-mail message sent by themanufacturer. Alternatively, the chip’smemory could store a key that wouldenable partial functionality, so thetablet could be used to demonstratelimited features. And then, once the device receives the activation code, itwould be fully operational. This samefeature could be used to activate soft-ware applications and other services. Inaddition, warranty and repair informa-tion could be recorded on the chip, pro-viding the product’s life-cycle history.
The chips also open the door to loca-tion-based access control, which meanspermissions to use particular docu-ments or files can be determined bywhere the machine is being used, oncethe identification stored in the chip’smemory is authenticated. A bank, forexample, could limit access to sensitivecustomer documents by making themavailable only in certain locations—anemployee would not be able to accesscustomer records on a notebook PC ortablet while sitting in Starbucks, for instance, but could get into the filesfrom designated bank offices.
Shahidzadeh envisions a time whenevery electronic gadget or portable com-puting device will have new featuresand capabilities thanks to the RFID chipembedded in its circuit board. “This issomething every electronic deviceshould have,” he says. “It has unlimitedpossibilities.”
BEST USE OF RFID IN A PRODUCT OR SERVICE
Chris Diorio (left) and Shahrokh Shahidzadeh at the RFID Journal LIVE! conference.
PHOTO
: TOM HURST | RIFID JOURNAL
19RFID Journal • May/June 2012
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bp operates 11 oil refineries worldwideand each must undergo scheduled main-tenance. During these operations, calledturnarounds (TARs), parts of a facility areclosed for up to 30 days, so the companycan inspect, clean and repair equipment.In addition, BP performs plant upgradesand other improvements. TARs arelabor-intensive, expensive and poten-tially hazardous operations.
Before any TAR-related work can beperformed, the designated section ofthe plant must be shut down, thenpurged of hydrocarbons and allowed tocool. This ensures there are no linger-ing pockets of hydrocarbons or otherexplosive or flammable materials. Inthe end, each part of the refinery is “iso-lated” from connected equipment, toprevent material from one part of thefacility from entering another.
These isolations involve a number ofprocesses, including disconnectingpipes at the flanges (the componentsthat connect the pipes) and fittingblinds (large metal discs) into theflanges. This effectively shuts off the
pipes, so engineers can tackle the main-tenance work safely.
What makes the task so challengingis that the isolations must take place ina specific sequence, and blinds must bematched to specific pipe flanges. A re-cent TAR, for example, required 6,400isolations—and the entire process hadto be carried out at the beginning of theTAR and then reversed before the plantcould be brought back into operation.Simply put, every blind must be fit correctly and then extracted in theproper order.
In September 2010, BP introduced anRFID solution called Isolation Tracker atits refinery in Gelsenkirchen, Germany,to make isolation processes faster, moreaccurate and safer. The solution con-trols TAR tasks, ensuring workprocesses occur in the correct sequenceand maintenance workers isolate theright equipment. It also maintains accurate records and provides updatesin near-real time.
Isolation Tracker has reduced con-tractor costs and generated revenue
from increased plant uptime—savingapproximately $1 million per turn-around, according to Mike Haley, a con-sultant in the chief technology office ofBP’s Information Technology & Servicesgroup. The mobile application has be-come part of the toolset used for TARsand is already in operation at a secondBP refinery in Germany. “This projecthas helped create a new standard for theway we work in the plant,” Haley says.
Leveraging RFID Know-How
BP is no newcomer to RFID. For the pastseveral years, the company has used anRFID-based mobile application calledTask Tracker to manage assets andtasks, including the maintenance ofpipes and other equipment at its re-fineries and platforms. The idea ofusing a mobile RFID application for TARisolations came from a plant operator atthe Gelsenkirchen refinery. “He recog-nized that by extending the use of themobile application with integral RFID,we could address a much bigger oppor-tunity to work faster and more accu-
most innovative use of rfid
BP Refines MaintenanceOperations
The international oil and gas company developed an RFID solution thatstreamlines processes, making work safer and more cost-efficient.
By Samuel Greengard
RFID Journal • May/June 201220
MOST INNOVATIVE USE OF RFID
rately, reduce paper and improve thesafety level of isolations,” Haley says.
The spreadsheet and paper-basedsystem the company was relying oncontributed to a less-than-efficientworkflow, Haley notes. “At other sites,where we used bar-code tags, we foundthat they would not last more than a fewyears,” he says. “This meant that wewould have a maintenance task aheadof each shutdown or large maintenanceactivity just to make sure the bar codeswere still in place and readable.”
The first step, Haley says, was to establish an internal crossfunctionalteam, to understand the requirements
and identify benefits and challenges.The BP CTO team served as the internalproject consultancy and helped identifytechnology solutions. Other partici-pants included an IT manager and project leader who focused on imple-menting the project on site and testingvarious systems; maintenance and operations managers; and a software developer who handled local mobilesoftware development and integrationwith the company’s SAP enterprise re-source planning (ERP) system. BP used aSyclo Agentry platform for the mobileapplication, as well as to connect to SAP.An outside consultant wrote the SAP-
based back-end control-of-work (CoW)software to fit BP’s requirements andstandards.
BP installed a Wi-Fi network and ap-plied roughly 150,000 Tectus high-fre-quency RFID tags on flanges, blinds andother equipment, according to Haley.Each tag was tested and printed with anI-Safe Atex Zone 1 nonerasable stamp,for use in hazardous environments.Then, each tag was crossreferenced andchecked to match the equipment assetrecord in a SAP plant-maintenance ERPapplication. As a result, each mainte-nance work order created contains theRFID number of the associated asset.
Maintenance fitters and electricians receive their assignments, at the plant, on handheld computers with integrated RFID readers.
PHOTO
: BP
21RFID Journal • May/June 2012
Maintenance fitters and electriciansreceive their assignments, at the plant,on eCom iRoc Atex Zone 1 IntrinsicallySafe handheld computers with inte-grated HF RFID readers—they no longerhave to go to the control room to receiveeach assignment. They initiate eachtask by scanning a tagged asset. The tagtriggers the work order assigned to theworker, and the specific tasks associ-ated with that piece of equipment appear on the handheld’s screen. Theworker confirms the start of the task. Ifthe wrong asset is scanned, no workorder appears and the task cannot beinitiated, preventing mistakes. The so-lution also eliminates the trial-and-error process of deciding which blindfits a particular pipe flange, Haley says.
Once the worker completes the joband enters the relevant information ina handheld, an inspector is alerted toinspect the work and sign off wirelessly.The back-end CoW system is updated innear-real time. The lead operator in thecontrol room monitors the status of allthe isolations on a CoW Cockpit screen,and alerts the TAR maintenance crewswhen it’s safe to commence work. “Thesystem recognizes that multiple trades-people may be involved, and tasks canbe dependent on each other,” Haleysays. A blind, for example, cannot be fituntil its pipe has been purged and thepump has been electrically isolated.
Refining the System
BP conducted extensive testing off-linebefore deploying the technology at therefinery. The project team also focusedon system integration, to ensure that anew dashboard designed to track activ-ities would update in real time, so thecontrol-room operator could use it tomanage work in the plant. The teamalso tested various RFID tags and hand-held reader combinations to find themost reliable pairing.
Not surprisingly, the field trial pre-sented a number of formidable chal-lenges. First, there was the task ofattaching the RFID tags to large metalblinds and pipe flanges and makingsure they would stay in place. “Wetested industrial-strength glues beforewe finally found a glue capable of per-manently attaching the tags to the solidmetal blinds,” Haley says.
The flanges presented a differentproblem. “We couldn’t glue tags on, because some pipe flanges are coveredwith a removable insulation,” Haley
says, explaining that tagging the insula-tion was not a reliable option becausethe insulation could be replaced or re-installed in a different place followinga TAR. The BP team solved the problemby encircling the entire pipe flange andinsulation with a thin, tamperproofwire and affixing the tags to it. “Thewire stays in place whether the insula-tion is on or off the pipe,” Haley notes.
Then, there was the problem of con-necting to the Wi-Fi network within therefinery and relaying data back to thecontrol room. Unfortunately, the eComiRoc handhelds couldn’t pick up the Wi-Fi signal throughout the plant. “Thedense, heavy-metal environment of anoil refinery makes ubiquitous wirelesscoverage impossible,” Haley says.
In fact, during the trials, workers had
to wander around the facility to locateWi-Fi signals. Since there was no way toextend the signal into every crack andcrevice of the refinery, BP adopted a decidedly low-tech solution: It postedsigns indicating where wireless recep-tion was available. Ultimately, this ap-proach saves considerable time andaggravation while speeding the process,Haley says.
RFID Fuels Results
It took nearly one year to develop, testand fully implement the RFID solution.Maintenance workers received class-room training, and many found the system intuitive, Haley says. Since Isolation Tracker was deployed, no isolation problems have been reported.This reflects increased safety and effi-ciency. The system has been proposedas a standard for all BP refineries, Haleynotes.
BP is now looking for ways to expandthe scope of the project. The original application has already been extendedfurther into the CoW system used inconjunction with SAP, Haley says. Withthis integration, the company has amore comprehensive view of mainte-nance activities. BP also is testing thesolution at a production facility nearEdinburgh, Scotland, and if this projectgoes well, the firm plans to introducethe RFID solution at offshore oil plat-forms in the North Sea.
Haley expects the RFID system to be-come faster and better during the nextfew years, as the company adopts thenext generation of handheld devices andfurther refines its processes. “This proj-ect set a new standard for mobile appli-cations,” he says. “It makes the workplacesafer and ensures accurate collection ofdata in our industrial setting. This proj-ect has been very important in showingthat applications built on a good RFID infrastructure really deliver value.”
“The dense,heavy-metal
environment of an oilrefinery makes
ubiquitous wirelesscoverage impossible.”
RFID Journal • May/June 201222
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electronics manufacturers that im-plement green strategies for recyclingtheir products, so potentially toxic com-ponents don’t end up in landfills, canhave a huge impact on the environmentand people’s health. That’s a messageHewlett-Packard has taken to heart. Thecompany’s corporate-wide commit-ment to recycling and reuse has led themanufacturer to recover more than 2.3billion pounds of products since 1987.
To do its part, HP Brazil, in 2009, setup drop-off centers around the coun-try, where customers could return ink-jet printers for recycling. The followingyear, it established the SmartWasteproject, to leverage the RFID infra-structure it deployed to track printersusing passive ultrahigh-frequency tagswith Electronic Product Codes (HPBrazil won the 2007 RFID JournalAward for Best Implementation fortracking printers through productionand distribution; see “Keeping Tabs onPrinters”). The goal was to use the taginformation to manage reverse logis-tics for end-of-life products. “We real-
ized we had enough tagged printers inthe market to use them,” says MarceloPandini, HP Brazil’s country operationsmanager.
The forward-thinking company alsobelieved the RFID-based recycling pro-gram would support compliance withthe Brazilian government’s NationalSolid Waste Policy (PNRS) legislation,enacted in August 2010, which makeselectronics manufacturers responsiblefor collecting products and packagesthat can be reused. Brazilian officials es-timate it will take four years until thelegislation is enforced, and there are nomandates about what technology, ifany, should be used to control theprocess, Pandini says. But thanks toRFID, HP Brazil is prepared to share recycling information with the govern-ment. “I think using a standard like EPCthat already exists and is controlled by anonprofit like GS1 could be one goodoption [for managing the recycling pro-gram],” he says.
Meanwhile, HP Brazil has been tak-ing advantage of the valuable tag infor-
mation on each printer. From July 2011,when the company implemented theSmartWaste solution, to the end of Feb-ruary 2012, it has collected 35 tons ofplastics for reuse. The EPC and serialnumbers on each tag link to a databasewith a wealth of information about eachprinter, including its recyclable materi-als, the majority of which are acryloni-trile butadiene styrene (ABS) andhigh-impact polystyrene (HIP) plastics.
“Our principle in recycling is to rein-troduce such material into our supplychain again,” for use in new printerproducts, Pandini says. “To do that, weneed more information control aboutwhat comes back with what we are recycling.”
The tag data lets HP Brazil calculatethe percentage of RFID-enabled printerspurchased and returned during the pastfew years, to inform projections for mar-ket demand. It also helps the manufac-turer figure the percentage and totalweight of returned plastics it may beable to reuse to meet that demand. “Thatinformation is usable to us to measure
rfid green award
Extracting New ValueFrom Old Printers
HP Brazil is leveraging the RFID information in its tagged ink-jet printers to recycle plastics.
By Jennifer Zaino
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23RFID Journal • May/June 2012
how many tons we potentially have totake from the market, and how manyfrom our own material,” Pandini says.
Working With a Non-RFID Partner
The SmartWaste project was a one-yeareffort, with the first six months focusedon design and planning at HP’s RFIDCenter for Excellence, in São Paulo, andthe last six months on the pilot and im-plementation at the Oxil recycling cen-ter, an HP partner, in Paulinia-SãoPaulo. HP Brazil didn’t have employeesstationed at the recycling center tomonitor the process, and didn’t want tointerfere with the recycling operation or
add requirements. But because theprinters were already tagged, the com-pany’s cross-functional team was ableto develop a system to read the tags atthe recycling center and transmit thedata to the manufacturer.
The printers are collected from drop-off centers and sent on pallets to the Oxilrecycling facility, where they are depal-letized. Before the printers move ontothe disassembly line, where parts areseparated manually by type of materials,such as plastic, metals, paper and elec-tronic components, the RFID tags are in-terrogated by Mercury5 readers fromThingMagic (a division of Trimble). The
plant’s conditions are very differentfrom the clean, humidity-controlled environment of the manufacturingfloor, Pandini says. What’s more, theprinters are old and often dirty, con-tributing to a dusty environment.
“When we are talking about a regularmanufacture operation, you can main-tain and keep RFID or any equipmentworking,” Pandini says, noting that on-site technicians and engineers are typi-cally available to intervene if a problemarises. “When you go to a recycling cen-ter, it’s a totally different story. There arefewer resources, technical expertise isreduced because nobody wants to put
HP Brazil doesn’t need to have employees stationed at the recycling center to monitor the process.
PHOTO: HP BRAZIL
RFID Journal • May/June 201224
too much cost into this kind of opera-tion—there’s a different perspective ofdisassembling a used old product vs.building a brand new one.”
To meet the environmental chal-lenges, HP Brazil secured the Mercury5readers in locked, steel-enclosed cases,and reinforced the readers’ antennas tokeep them dust-free. Additionally, itprovided recycling center personnelwith simplified instructions for makingminor adjustments if necessary.
To collect the tag data, HP Brazil didnot want to engineer connections be-
tween its back-end systems and Oxil’slegacy systems, so the team developeddata-collection software in the readers,which identifies the EPC number andsends it and other related informationover the Internet via a wired connectionto HP Brazil. The data is transmitted tobusiness intelligence software that’s in-tegrated into a manufacturing productdatabase, which contains informationabout each tagged printer.
Oxil takes control over whatever re-cyclable components HP Brazil deter-mines it does not need for reinsertioninto new printer products. “Controls arein place to make sure that proper dis-posal is part of the agreement of whatwe don’t take back for our own usage,”Pandini says. “Our partner has to do
everything according to the laws andregulatory agreements.”
Smart Business
The environmental business strategicteam can view customized informationon dashboards, to assess the amount ofmaterials recovered. On-screen graphs,for example, can show the amount ofeach material recycled, including ABS,HIPS and metals and the number ofproducts recycled per month. The infor-mation helps forecast how much recycling material is available for pro-duction. Up to 40 percent of the materi-als in the company’s new products isrecycled from old printers, Pandini says.
But multiple reuses of recycled ma-terials could present a challenge downthe road, when printers that already in-clude recycled materials are returned.The EPC data on the tag will identifythese printers and provide informationHP Brazil can use to determine whichplastics can be reused again and whichwill need to undergo some adjustmentprocess or be disposed of properly. “Theissue, technically speaking, is there is achallenge in terms of material, its con-stitution and the preservation of engi-neering properties of a particularplastic,” Pandini says. “Today, that’s notimpacted, because it’s just one or tworecycles. But that will change.” HP Brazilhas research and development effortsunder way to create formulas for segre-gating and reusing the different types ofplastics in its printers multiple times.
“The great part is that RFID tags arestill alive from five to six years ago,”Pandini says. “You take a read and theinformation is there. This just provesthat the technology can be used for thewhole cycle of a product’s life, not justto control the beginning—the supplychain of producing and shipping to cus-tomers—but to help manage takingback recyclable materials.”
RFID GREEN AWARD
“This justproves that the
technology can be usedfor the whole cycle of aproduct’s life, not just tocontrol the beginning.” only 13 percent of electronic waste
worldwide is currently recycled, manytimes without safety procedures inplace, according to the United Na-tions International Telecommunica-tion Union.In a May 2011 report, the Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency esti-mated that in the United Statesalone, 2.37 million short tons of elec-tronic products were ready for end-of-life management in 2009, butonly about one-quarter of them werecollected for recycling that year. Brazil generates 195,090 tons of
municipal solid waste each day; in2010, only 13 percent was recycled,according to the Business Commit-ment for Recycling (CEMPRE).Brazil loses R$8 billion (US$4
billion) annually by failing to reuserecyclable materials, according to astudy by the Institute for AppliedEconomic Research commissionedby the Ministry of the Environment.—J.Z.
WastedRecyclingOpportunities
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: ISTOCKPHOTO
25RFID Journal • May/June 2012
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2WINNER
many companies use printed cards, la-bels or work orders in their daily opera-tions. In a factory, for example, goodstraveling down an assembly line mightbe accompanied by printed instructionsthat tell workers what color paint toapply or what parts and options to add.At a warehouse, a card attached to a totemight list the items a worker must pickto fill an order.
But sometimes a company needs tochange instructions in mid-operation fora specific product or order, or perhapsacross an entire plant. That can meanhalting production while new cards areprinted, and then having a worker swapthe old paper instructions for the newones. Manual paper-based systems arenot only labor-intensive, they also aretime-consuming, costly (think of all thatpaper and ink) and error-prone.
Omni-ID developed a more efficientsolution: The ProView Visual TaggingSystem lets businesses use RFID to trackassets and work-in-process—and up-date instructions automatically, on thefly. The system features a bistable LCD
screen with an active ultrahigh-fre-quency (869- to 928-MHz) RFID tag andan EPC Gen 2 passive inlay. Omni-ID offers four models of ProView tags, withdisplay screens available in threewidths: 2 inches, 4 inches and 6 inches.A ProView tag controller transmits theinstructions, via a proprietary air-inter-
face protocol. An Omni-ID printerdriver lets the software program beingused to print cards and labels displaythe text or graphics immediately on aProView tag’s screen. (Any standards-based EPC Gen 2 interrogator can reador encode a ProView tag’s passive inlay.)
Several businesses are carrying out
best new rfid product
RFID Issues Instructions On the FlyOmni-ID’s “visual tags” tell workers what to do with
the assets and work-in-process being tracked.
By Paul Prince
Text and graphics can be displayed on the LCD screen.
RFID Journal • May/June 201226
pilot implementations of the ProViewsystem, including an automotive assembly plant, a major appliancesmanufacturer, a hospital and a logisticsservices provider, according to EdNabrotzky, Omni-ID’s CTO and VP ofmarketing. The logistics provider in-stalled ProView display tags on wheeledcontainers at a 1-million-square-footsortation facility. “This was the only tag-ging system on the market that allowedus to put operator-readable informationon moving assets in real time,” says amaterial-handling manager employedby the logistics service provider.
“We project an ROI on the systemcosts in just over 14 months, based onhard savings in consumables,” the lo-gistics manager says. “We expect further‘soft savings’ in utilization of manual
labor, efficiency and quality-of-servicemetrics as the system helps us improveour operations. Any cyclic process—especially one that encounters frequentchanges, relies on operators to make decisions based on printed instructionsor where consumables are used repeti-tively for labeling—can benefit greatlyfrom this technology.”
Nabrotzky sees similar benefits forthe health-care industry. A ProView tagattached to a wheelchair, for example,could display a patient’s name, instructan orderly where that patient is sched-uled to go and issue an alert if the patient is taken to the wrong place.
In the upcoming P-series tags (thecurrent tags are B series), due for releasein mid-June, the EPC Gen 2 inlay is integrated with a 433-MHz active
transponder built into the display tag’sprinted circuit board (PCB), which enables a number of functions.
An EPC Gen 2 reader, for example,could be used to send a wake-up protocol to a P-series tag, allowing itscircuitry to remain dormant when ap-propriate, thereby extending the tag’sbattery life. Another benefit of integra-tion of the EPC inlay with the PCB is thatan EPC Gen 2 reader could be used totrigger a change in any text or graphicspreprogrammed into the tag. For in-
stance, when a ProView tag attached toan item arrives at workstation 1, an EPCGen 2 reader could wake up the tag andcause it to display preprogrammed instructions specific for workstation 1.If the item arrives at the wrong work-station, the reader could detect thaterror and instruct the tag to display animage of a stop sign.
In addition to improving efficien-cies, ProView Visual Tagging System isa green solution. At the sortation plantmentioned earlier, the system has elim-inated the need to print 900,000 sheetsof paper formerly printed annually. Saysthe logistics manager: “The eliminationof paper in our process contributed toward our sustainability goals andmandated targets to reduce environ-mental impact.”
BEST NEW RFID PRODUCT
Omni-ID’s booth at the RFID Journal LIVE! conference.
“This wasthe only tagging system
on the market thatallowed us to putoperator-readable
information on movingassets in real time.”
27RFID Journal • May/June 2012
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2WINNER
bill hardgrave, an academic, didn’tset out to get the retail community ex-cited about RFID, but he has done justthat. It all started in 2003, when Wal-Mart asked Hardgrave, then a professorof information systems at the Sam M.Walton College of Business at the Uni-versity of Arkansas, to work on an ITproject for the company. It was aroundthe same time that Wal-Mart began exploring RFID, and Hardgrave was invited to evaluate that initiative. Hisbusiness perspective and insightproved invaluable, and within a fewmonths, the RFID project was consum-ing the bulk of his time.
In 2005, Hardgrave founded the RFIDResearch Center at the university. It fea-tured a 10,000-square-foot lab, in anarea of a working warehouse. “We sawthe need for an independent laboratorythat could help companies understandRFID and test tags on various products,”he recalls.
Under Hardgrave’s guidance, the RFIDResearch Center conducted a 29-weekstudy, during which university re-searchers collected the out-of-stock rateson approximately 4,000 stock-keepingunits at 12 Wal-Mart stores equippedwith RFID technology, as well as at 12
control stores without the technology.The study, released in October 2005, indicated that RFID helped reduce out-of-stocks by an average of 16 percent.
The business benefits derived fromRFID-tracking pallets and cases, certifiedby an independent academic lab, couldnot be ignored. The study helped propelRFID adoption, and put the RFID Re-search Center on the map. Before long,many other companies were knockingon Hardgrave’s door, and his team helpedtest technologies for myriad applica-tions—from cold chain to tool tracking—
always with a focus on the real-worldbenefits RFID could deliver.
Then, in 2009, the RFID ResearchCenter released the results of somegroundbreaking studies, conducted withBloomingdale’s, Dillard’s and JCPenney.These studies showed that RFID-trackingapparel items could improve inventoryaccuracy in retail stores from 65 percentto 95 percent or better—and they provedthe technology could deliver a return oninvestment. Once again, the businessworld took note. The studies led to en-terprisewide deployments by majorclothing retailers and encouraged manyother retailers to run pilots.
Hardgrave has earned a level of re-spect in the business community that isshared by few. While he is now dean ofAuburn University College of Business,in Alabama, he still consults regularlyon RFID deployments and speaks atevents worldwide about how compa-nies can use the technology to improvethe way they do business.
The RFID Research Center’s workunder Hardgrave’s guidance brought anunprecedented level of credibility to theRFID industry. For all this, he is beinghonored with this year’s RFID JournalSpecial Achievement Award.
special achievement
Giving RFID CredibilityBill Hardgrave led an independent team that proved the business
benefits of using RFID to track apparel items.
By Mark Roberti
Bill Hardgrave at RFID Journal LIVE! 2012
RFID Journal • May/June 201228
RFID Goes to School
29
In the UnIted StateS and many other countries, govern-ments acknowledge that students are their best assets. Butapproaches to improving education vary widely, with issuesranging from school types to classroom sizes and teachingmethods. Still, there are several issues on which govern-ments and educators agree: We must improve attendancerates, keep kids and teachers safe, and devote more time toteaching and less to administrative tasks.
To address these issues, schools, including colleges anduniversities, are beginning to implement RFID identifica-tion, attendance and alert solutions. When schools firstintroduced personal-identification applications, parents
and privacy advocates were afraid thatstudents’ safety could be compro-
mised. Technology providers acknowledged those concernsand have taken steps to secure personal information, as wellas to explain how the technology works. As a result, moreschools and parents understand the benefits of trackingchildren, and RFID’s use in the education sector is growing,slowly but surely.
Meanwhile, some schools are adopting RFID solutions tobetter manage valuable assets. Mexico’s UniversidadRegiomontana, for example, is using RFID to prevent theftof laptop computers it issues to staff and faculty. The Paul L.Foster School of Medicine, in Texas, is tracking state-of-the-art equipment to improve inventory management. And uni-versities in the United Arab Emirates are RFID-taggingdiplomas, to ensure the documents’ validity. In addition,
The technology earned mixed grades when first deployed in schools.Now, its use is growing, slowly but steadily, with applications focused
on improving teacher efficiency and ensuring student safety.
By Mary Catherine O’Connor
ScholarChip, a New York-basedprovider of RFID attendance andpayment solutions, has issued closeto 750,000 RFID tags in various formats—ID cards, fobs and stickers.Students hold their RFID-enabled IDbadges to readers as they enter theschool building, and again as theyenter classrooms, where readers aremounted on teachers’ desks.
vertical focus: education
some parents and educators have developedinnovative applications to help students learnand improve their health (see “RFID’sExtracurricular Activities” on opposite page).
Automating Attendance
In early 2005, Brittan Elementary School, inNorthern California, invited a now-defunctstartup to install an RFID-based automatedattendance-tracking system. The schoolwanted to test whether the technology, whichwould collect the identification number
encoded to the RFID-enabled school IDsissued to students, would give teachers moretime to teach and provide accurate records onstudent whereabouts, which would proveuseful in the event of a student disappearanceor other emergency.
But the school earned poor marks for fail-ing to make parents aware of the technologytest, how the system would work and whatsteps would be taken to ensure their chil-dren’s privacy and security. The student IDscontained passive ultrahigh-frequency tags,which can be read from several feet away.Although the IDs contained no student data,some parents feared a predator could read thetags and collect information that couldendanger their kids.
Parents who opposed the system raised theissue with the American Civil Liberties Union.The organization, in turn, joined with technology and privacy watchdog groups theElectronic Frontier Foundation and theElectronic Privacy Information Center andsent a joint letter to the school’s board
requesting it reconsider its use of the technology. The groups’ involvement and theletter attracted national media attention. Theschool quickly decided to remove the RFIDequipment and hasn’t deployed any type ofRFID technology since.
The incident also spurred a national debateon whether RFID should be deployed in theeducation sector and, if so, how best toaddress privacy concerns. Legislators inCalifornia and Rhode Island introduced billsdesigned to regulate the use of RFID in educa-tion, but none of the bills passed into law. In 2008, California made skimming (surrepti-tiously reading) RFID-based identity cards acriminal offense.
ScholarChip, a New York-based provider ofRFID attendance and payment solutions, credits its success to “a lot of education forparents,” including handouts that describehow the technology works, says CTO MagedAtiya. The reaction to the technology has beenpositive, he adds, noting that many parentsare familiar with the technology because theiremployers require them to use RFID key cardsto access their workplaces. ScholarChip useshigh-frequency (13.56-MHz/Mifare) passivetags that have a read range of just a few inches.“We made clear that these are passive tags,without a long read range, as compared to theactive tags used in electronic tolling, such asE-ZPass,” he says. Only a unique ID number isencoded to the card; the numbers associatedwith student names and other information issafeguarded in secure databases.
ScholarChip has issued close to 750,000RFID tags in various formats—ID cards, fobsand stickers—to students in schools rangingfrom small private and charter schools to theSchool District of Philadelphia, in which itworks with 68 secondary schools represent-ing roughly 35 percent of the district’s studentpopulation. Students hold their RFID-enabledID badges to readers as they enter the schoolbuilding, and again as they enter classrooms,where readers are mounted on teachers’desks.
ScholarChip’s software sends the tag num-
RFID Journal • May/June 201230
The incident spurred anational debate onwhether RFID should bedeployed in the educationsector and, if so, how toaddress privacy concerns.
vertical focus: education
31RFID Journal • May/June 2012
RFID’s Extracurricular ActivitiesHere’s a sampling of innovative RFID applications that are help-ing students learn as well as stay fit. You can find out more aboutthese applications at rfidjournal.com.
Children at the Louisiana School for the Deaf are learning signlanguage by playing with RFID-enabled toys. A child uses an RFIDreader to scan a toy’s tag, bringing up a computer video of some-one demonstrating the sign for that item. (See “Deaf ChildrenLearn to Sign by Toying With RFID.”)
In New York City’s Special Education District 75, children previ-ously unable to speak due to autism and other disabilities are start-ing to put together sentences, thanks to the Logan ProxTalker. Thedevice comes with RFID “sound tags”—each containing a word orphrase, and usually a corresponding image—and a reader. When achild moves a tag over the machine, it announces the word that tag
represents. (See “RFID Gives Voice to Nonverbal Children.”)Boltage’s mission is to make walking or biking to school a way
of life. To that end, the multistate program uses RFID to monitorwhich kids walk or bike to school, so it can reward those who areadopting healthy habits. The prototype system was called Freiker,for FREquent bIKER. (See “RFID Motivates Schoolkids to Bike It.”)
BaeJong-soo, a professor at Seoul National University, inSouth Korea, has developed an RFID homework helper for localelementary school students who are stumped by math concepts.RFID tags are embedded in a textbook. When a student holds asmall handheld device containing an RFID reader over a specificlesson, it triggers an explanatory audio file that plays through aspeaker in the device. (See “RFID Technology Meets Education” onYouTube.com.)
ber, along with the time and location it wasread, over a secure virtual private network tothe school’s electronic student records sys-tem. Here, the tag numbers are associatedwith each student’s attendance record,explains Timothy Loranger, IT director atFranklin Towne, a charter high school inPhiladelphia with nearly 1,000 students.
When that school deployed the technologyin 2007, its goal was to reduce the amount oftime teachers spent taking attendance, whichhad been a manual, paper-based system, andto save administrators’ time logging the atten-
dance records. Now, students can also usetheir ID cards as debit cards to purchase
food in the school’s cafeteria. Parentsgo online to replenish their payment
accounts, and students simply hold theircards up to readers at the cashier stations to
pay for meals.“We used to have long lines in the cafete-
ria, and now it takes less than 20minutes for students to get tothe cafeteria, get food and sit
down,” says assistantprincipal Eugenia
Koo. “Instead ofwaiting in line,they can use moreof their lunchperiod for relax-ing and recharg-ing and getting
ready for the rest oftheir day.” The soft-ware also calculatesand applies dis-
counts for students enrolled in government-free or reduced-lunch programs.
In addition, there is some evidence thatstudents are less likely to cut class, since theyknow their attendance is closely monitored.The system enables the school to send auto-mated notifications to parents when studentsare absent or late for class. Since 2007,Franklin Towne’s average daily attendance hasincreased from 86 percent to 96 percent—oneof the highest rates in the state, Loranger says.“Parents have embraced the system,” he adds.
To help reduce truancy, the city of Vitoriada Conquista, in Brazil, is investingUS$600,000 in an RFID-based Smart Uniformproject, designed to track public schoolchild-ren. A survey by the Brazilian FederalDepartment of Education revealed that Vitoriaschools have the highest dropout rate inBrazil. So far, 20,000 students have had RFIDtags sewn into their uniform shirts. Whenchildren enter and leave school, they walkthrough an RFID portal that reads the tags,which contain their name and a personal IDnumber. The information is transmitted tosoftware on the school’s server, and the soft-ware sends a text message to parents’ mobilephones, letting them know their childrenhave arrived at or left school. Parents are alsoalerted if their kids have not shown up 20minutes after classes begin. Although it’s toosoon to know how effective the solution is,Coriolanus Moraes, municipal secretary ofeducation, says by 2013 all 43,000 studentsfrom city schools will be wearing RFID-embedded uniforms.
Safeguarding Students
Brazil’s RFID solution also promises toimprove students’ safety, because parents willknow in real time that their children havearrived at school, as well as what time toexpect them home. In the United States,Zonar’s RFID-based fleet-management solu-tion is designed to ensure that elementaryand secondary school kids who ride schoolbuses arrive and depart safely. The Electronic
RFID Journal • May/June 201232
vertical focus: education
To help reduce truancy,the city of Vitoria daConquista, in Brazil, isinvesting US$600,000 inan RFID-based SmartUniform project.
Vehicle Inspection Report system (EVIR)includes handheld readers and RFID-taggedengine and safety components, to verify thatschool bus drivers perform safety inspectionseach day. Zonar also works with schools toimplement its ZPass solution. Students areissued personal ID cards with embedded pas-sive 125-KHz RFID tags, which have a veryshort read range. They are instructed to holdthe card up to a reader mounted inside theschool bus door as they enter and exit the bus,and to wait for a beep that tells both studentand driver the card has been read. The data istransmitted to the school in real time.
Schools across the United States are drawnto the system for the safety, accountability,security and administrative efficiency it pro-vides, says Chris Oliver, Zonar’s VP of salesand marketing. The ZPass solution has beeninstalled in 3,000 buses, with the cards issuedto roughly 150,000 students. Zonar recentlyintroduced a subscription-based mobile
application parents can use to log into theZPass system to see when their children’s tagswere last read, and they can set up the systemto receive a text message each time the tag isread, showing the child’s location.
Another solution, KidGopher, ensures thatonly appropriate custodians are allowed topick up students at the end of the school day.Parents or other authorized guardians areissued an RFID-enabled card they present to ateacher at the school, who reads the cardusing a handheld device. A photo of theguardian then appears on the teacher’s iPad,which authenticates the guardian. The RFIDsolution, deployed at North SpringsElementary School and Catawba TrailElementary, both near Columbia, S.C., givesparents and teachers peace of mind that stu-dents will be safely escorted off campus. Thesystem also links into child-safety databases,says KidGopher CEO Neil Willis. Should lawenforcement determine that a parent or
33RFID Journal • May/June 2012
In the United States,Zonar’s RFID-based fleet-management solution isdesigned to ensure that elementary and secondaryschool kids who ride schoolbuses arrive and departsafely.
RFID Journal • May/June 201234
guardian is a potential abductor, theKidGopher system alerts teachers andinstructs them not to allow the suspect to pickup or make visual contact with the student.
In Case of Emergency…
The ability to quickly and accurately track stu-dent and teacher attendance is a key reasonWest Cheshire College, a vocational school innorthwest England, turned to RFID technolo-gy in 2010, as it was planning and buildingtwo new campus facilities. But it also wantedthe ability to know where students and facul-ty were located in real time, in order to findthem quickly in an emergency. In addition,the school hopes to analyze data to betterunderstand traffic flow and facility use in itsnew, high-tech buildings. “There is a wealthof powerful data and research to uncover yetregarding how learners learn through usingmodern state-of-the art buildings,” says Kevin
Francis, building services area manager atWest Cheshire College. “We aim to be at theforefront of knowing our learners better.”
The college deployed a real-time locationsystem (RTLS), from Zebra Location Solutions.Full-time students are issued RFID badgeswhen they register for classes, to be worn onlanyards along with their student IDs. WestCheshire College relies on government fund-ing for a large part of its operating budget, andthe school must provide records of how muchtime its students spend in class. The RTLSmakes record keeping automated and accu-rate. Teachers are also issued RFID tags, whichautomatically track their attendance andwork hours. The majority of the college’soperating budget is spent on teacher salaries,and the school must also account for theteachers’ time.
The RFID tags serve double duty, becausethey can also track students and staff mem-bers, including those who have first-aid train-
At West Cheshire College, inEngland, RFID tags servedouble duty: They’re usedto quickly and accuratelytake attendance, and locatestudents and faculty in realtime, in the event of anemergency.
vertical focus: education
35RFID Journal • May/June 2012
ing, for emergency situations. Customizedevacuation plans are designed for studentswith special physical or cognitive needs; in anemergency, administrators can use the RTLSto monitor their whereabouts.
“On a year-by-year basis, the public sectorfunding allocation process demands that tax-payers’ money is spent with due diligence inall sectors; part of our responsibility is ensur-ing that we develop systems that improve theefficiency of the services we run,” saysFrancis, who counts the RTLS among theseefficiencies. “If we can become more efficientin our delivery model, we can better servicethe needs of learners and better address ourultimate objective, which is to support learn-ers to develop skills and qualifications inareas to enable them into employment orhigher education. If we retain more learnersand more of them achieve, that is a win-winand a massive ROI for all concerned.”
PinPoint, from RF Technologies, is beingused in two Wisconsin schools to give staffmembers a fast and effective way to summonhelp in an emergency, such as an eruption ofviolence in class. Staff members are issuedRFID-enabled pendants worn on lanyards orcarried in pockets that communicate with theschool’s Wi-Fi network. Pressing a button onone of the devices transmits a distress signalto the school’s central office. By analyzing thetag’s signal, the system can determine thestaff member’s location in the school.
Lessons Learned
In 2008, a Chicago high school failed toinform parents, teachers and students aboutan RFID-based system to ensure that onlyauthorized pupils leave the campus duringlunch. When students discovered the RFIDtags embedded in their IDs, they protested.After the school newspaper ran an articledescribing the RFID technology and how itworks, and explaining how the school wasusing it, the protests ended.
Before Brazil’s Vitoria schools adopted itsRFID-tracking solution, the city’s education
department held several meetings with parentsto explain how the attendance system wouldwork and what actions would be taken to avoidprivacy issues, says Ronaldo Costa Jr., IT man-ager of the city’s department of education andcoordinator of the Smart Uniform project.Parents were very positive about being able tomonitor their children in real time, he adds.
Clearly, it’s essential to inform parents,teachers and older students about any RFID-tracking solution being deployed at a school,as well as to explain how the technologyworks and what mechanisms are used to
protect students’ identities. For the mostpart, privacy concerns are being addressed,according to the educators and vendorsinterviewed for this story.
Parents are increasingly interested in howthey can use technology to monitor their chil-dren’s safety in school, says ScholarChip’sAtiya, who is working with schools to beginusing ScholarChip badges in combinationwith school bus systems, to track studentsgetting on and off buses each day. A smart-phone with Near-Field Communication (NFC)capabilities will be mounted in each bus; stu-dents will hold their RFID badges up to thephones, which will act as RFID readersthrough the NFC interface. Parents are askingwhen the application will be available, Atiyasays. They want to make sure their childrenget to and from school safely.
Additional reporting by Edson Perin, in Brazil.
It’s essential to informparents, teachers andolder students about anyRFID-tracking solutionbeing deployed at aschool, as well as toexplain how thetechnology works.
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Many coMpanies are using RFID tags withElectronic Product Codes to track goods for sup-ply-chain management. Some businesses arealso employing EPC RFID tags to thwart coun-terfeiting and for product authentication. Butthese tags do not use on-chip cryptography al-gorithms to enhance security, because cryptog-raphy algorithms would draw too much power,impeding the long read ranges and high readrates needed to track items in the supply chain.
EPC RFID tags can be disabled at the pointof sale (POS) using a “kill” command, to pro-tect consumers’ privacy. But that means the tagcan no longer be used to access informationabout the product, or to manage warranties, returns and end-of-life applications.
At the Auto-ID Lab at Fudan University, wehave developed a dual-mode EPC tag that ad-dresses both issues. It has an on-chip cryptog-raphy algorithm and can work in either normalEPC mode or secure mode. When a dual-modeEPC tag is used for supply-chain management,the on-chip crypto engine is shut down to savepower and the tag behaves just like any otherEPC tag. Then, at the POS, using a “crypto-en”command, the tag can be changed to securemode, in which the crypto engine is enabled.Just like the kill command, the crypto-en com-mand is not reversible. But in the secure mode,consumers can access information on the tag.
We implemented different crypto engines
for RFID tags, including Tiny Encryption Algo-rithm, International Data Encryption Algo-rithm, Hummingbird 1 and 2, and AdvancedEncryption Standard. Mutual authenticationprotocols and channel encryption methods areapplied for secure tags. The secure tags have amuch higher power consumption than conven-tional EPC tags, reducing read ranges to lessthan 10 centimeters (4 inches). Consumers canuse handheld or mobile devices to read the tagsat a relatively short range, making it unlikelythat someone nearby could surreptitiouslyread the tag.
We also have developed a low-power, low-cost EPC reader system-on-chip that can be easilyembedded in mobile phones, usinga common serial communicationinterface. The highly integratedchip, manufactured using comple-mentary metal-oxide semiconduc-tor (CMOS) technology, includes atransceiver, protocol processor, microcon-troller and power amplifier. EPC-enabled mo-bile phones can verify tags with the support ofa trusted scalable service platform, which canbe maintained by a third party.
Most mobile phones eventually will beequipped with Near-Field Communication(NFC) technology for payment and other short-range applications. The dual-mode EPC tag cancoexist with NFC, so consumers will be able touse their mobile phones to access informationabout tagged products.
The prototype system is scheduled fordemonstration at the Internet of Things 2012conference, in October, in Wuxi, China.
Junyu Wang and Xi Tan are associate directors of the Auto-ID Lab at Fudan University, inShanghai, China.
inside the labs
37RFID Journal • May/June 2012
ILLU
STRATION: ISTOCKPHOTO
Encrypt Instead of ‘Kill’A dual-mode EPC RFID tag works in the supply chain and secures data afteran item is purchased.
By Junyu Wang and Xi Tan
Wang and Tan
Sept. 6, 2012 • Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers • Boston, Mass.
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ILLU
STR
ATI
ON
: IST
OC
KP
HO
TO
software savvy
A growing number ofapparel retailers areadopting item-level RFIDto manage their inventory,which means more apparel suppliers will beasked to tag goods at thepoint of manufacture. MyNovember/December 2011
column, “Identifying Items,” discussed fourways apparel suppliers can assign a uniqueserial number to each item they want to track,using a passive ultrahigh-frequency RFIDtag—a process called “serialization.”
A supplier that manufactures each clothingproduct on a single manufacturing line canchoose any one of the four options. But manysuppliers manufacture in several plants oruse third-party service providers. To avoidduplicating serial numbers—whether youchoose one serialization method or a combi-nation of all four—you need what GS1 US callsa “top-level serialization plan.”
A top-level serialization plan is a writtenstatement identifying the method that will beused to assign serial numbers for a givenproduct, as well as the range of numbers. Ifthe supplier will be using more than onemethod, the plan assigns a different range ofserial numbers to each method, so the num-bers will never be duplicated.
Let’s say, for example, Supplier X doesmost of its tagging on in-house manufactur-ing lines, but supplements with a servicebureau when demand is high. Supplier Xwrites a plan that says products tagged in-house will be assigned numbers one at atime, and the range of serial numbers will be0 through 137 billion—half the availablerange in 96-bit tags. The plan assigns theservice bureau a smaller range of serial num-bers, 138 billion through 206 billion. In addi-
tion to avoiding duplication of numbers, theplan provides a common point of referencefor all parties concerned.
Supplier Y, on the other hand, would like touse the unique “tag identifier” (TID) serialnumber burned into RFID tags by the tag manufacturer to track items. But Supplier Ywants the freedom to use tags from differentmanufacturers, as well as retain the option toassign its own serial numbers down the road.Supplier Y writes a planthat creates eight ranges ofserial numbers, allocatingsome ranges for TIDs andreserving the other rangesfor the future. Supplier Ymust work with each tagprovider to designate TIDs,but now there is a ready-made plan suppliers canadopt. In March, threeleading RFID companiesannounced a coordinatedapproach that designates arange of TIDs for each chipmaker (see “Three RFIDChip Makers Agree onSerialization Approach”).
These are just twoexamples of top-level seri-alization plans. GS1 US is publishing a guidetitled “EPC-enabled RFID SerializationManagement” that explains all four options indetail, as well as how to create a plan. Eachapparel supplier has the flexibility to developits own plan. The point is: You need a plan.
Ken Traub is the founder of Ken TraubConsulting, a Mass.-based firm providingservices to software product companies andenterprises that rely on advanced softwaretechnology to run their businesses.
Serialization RoadmapA top-level tagging plan will help apparel suppliers identify items now, and pave theway for tracking more products in the future.
By Ken Traub
ashton’s view
RFID Journal • May/June 201240
The firsT Time I traveledto Bentonville, Ark., to visitWal-Mart was in 2000,when the company’s VP offresh produce invited meto talk about whether RFIDcould solve one of hisbiggest problems. Heexplained that bananas are
a popular item in any grocery store—nearlyeverybody buys them—and both the price andthe ripeness must be just right. To ensure thatno bunch is too green or too brown, bananasare packed so they ripen in transit. If every-thing goes according toplan, they arrive at thestore delicious and readyto buy. But this creates alogistics nightmare—tim-ing is everything, andbeing too early is as bad asbeing too late. Besides,bananas don’t know any-thing about traffic, andthey don’t sit in the back ofthe truck asking, “Are wethere yet?”
When bananas arrivein bad condition, disaster strikes. The wholetruckload has to be rejected, which meanssending a full truck of fruit to someplace itcan be disposed of safely, and leaving storesperilously close to running out of one of customers’ favorite items.
The Wal-Mart VP wanted to know if therewas a way to use RFID technology to helpimprove the meticulous choreography of thebanana supply chain, as well as the supplychains of other produce. The answer wasmaybe—because banana ripening isn’t justabout timing. Other factors must be consid-ered, the most important of which is a gas
called ethylene. The bright yellow color ofgrocery store bananas is a result of artificialripening by ethylene—naturally ripenedbananas tend to be greener.
So, while RFID tags could help track, traceand time the bananas, they would be able todo a much better job if they were equippedwith sensors that could detect the gases asso-ciated with ripening. RFID plus sensinglooked like the perfect solution. The onlytrouble was, the sensors cost thousands ofdollars. Or they used to.
In a great example of the ongoing innova-tion we are seeing in the RFID industry,
Timothy Swager, a chem-istry professor at theMassachusetts Instituteof Technology, recentlyannounced a 25-centsensor—based on carbonnanotubes—that candetect ethylene and relayits data to the outsideworld via an RFID tag.The devices, whichSwager has patented andhopes to commercialize,can be attached to pro-
duce crates and used to ensure that only per-fectly ripe fruit arrives in stores, helping toeliminate the estimated 10 percent of wastecaused by incorrectly ripened fruit every year.
This is not just a breakthrough in bananatechnology. Swager’s nanotubes, which werefunded by the U.S. Army via MIT’s Institute forSoldier Nanotechnologies, mark the begin-ning of a trend that has been a long time com-ing: the fusion of RFID and sensors—an areathat, it must be said, is ripe for innovation.
Kevin Ashton was cofounder and executivedirector of the Auto-ID Center.
RFID Goes BananasThe latest advance in RFID technology helps keep fruit fresh.
By Kevin Ashton
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