By
Julia Deets, VP Sales & Marketing, Metalcraft
When using RFID for your tracking application there is a lot
to remember and it could get a little overwhelming. But it certainly doesn’t
have to be. The following is a short list of do’s and don’ts list from the tag
perspective for when you are thinking about implementing RFID.
Do – Understand the objective
This should be the very first thing you do because without a clear direction of
where you want to go, how can you expect to discover the best way of how to get
there? You may even discover RFID might not be the right technology to achieve
your objective and if that is the case, wouldn’t you want to know that as early
in the process as possible? If you discover it is, then congratulations – you
have made an even stronger case for your application.
Do – Qualify the application
After determining the objective this should be the next thing you do. I could
write an entire article on qualification of the application because this is
something that we focus A LOT on – and for good reason. The labor to apply the
tags is one of the most important expenses in an application so why would you
want to do it more than once? Choose the tag that is going to work best to
achieve your objective even though it may not be the “cheapest” one – it will
end up saving you money in the long run. When we qualify an application at
Metalcraft we look at things like what is the tag going on, how long it needs
to last, what kind of read range is required, what is the environment going to
be like, etc. The more you know about the application, the better match you can
make with your tag requirements and ultimately the tag’s performance.
Do – Test the tags in the actual environment
Metalcraft thoroughly tests all of our tags and publishes all of our results in
our support literature; however, there is no possible way to replicate all of
the environments our tags could be used in. Therefore, we strongly recommend
testing the tags in the actual environment they will be used in prior to
implementing the entire solution in order to minimize or even eliminate any
issues that may arise.
Don’t – Assume all tags work the same
Even though the tag is typically one of the last things users may think about
when implementing an RFID system, they really are a critical aspect
because they provide the link between the item the tag is on and information
about the item. This “don’t” is directly linked to the qualification “do”
listed above. There are so many different tag options out there depending on
the size you want, read range you need, what the tag is going to be applied to
and environment the tag will be exposed to.
Don’t – Make it more complex than it needs to be
We often tell our customers just because there is the ability to write a lot of
data to the RFID tag doesn’t mean you should. We recommend using a “license
plate approach” which basically means you assign a unique serial number to an
asset and they associate the additional information about that asset to it on
the backend. This makes it easier to change information if necessary because
you wouldn’t need to reprogram the tag, rather just change the information
about the asset in the database.
Don’t – Forget about bar code
The majority of RFID tags we produce we also print with a bar code. This adds
very little to the cost of the tag, but offers a lot of benefits. Having the
dual technology within the same tag allows data redundancy if there is a reader
malfunction or if the tag is going to be used in multiple locations where not
all of the locations are RFID enabled. Most of the time the bar code
information printed on the tag is the same information written to the RFID tag,
but that does not have to be the case.
This short list of do’s and don’ts is designed to make you
think before implementing an RFID tracking system. Putting in this effort
beforehand will go a long way in making your system the most effective for your
specific application and ultimately save you time and potential headaches down
the road.