RFID now forging ahead in manufacturing and logistics

However, that masks the fact that the manufacturing and logistics sectors are adopting RFID for security, safety, efficiency and other reasons, says the firm’s Dr Peter Harrop. The IDTechEx RFID Knowledgebase of 2959 RFID projects in 98 countries reveals that manufacturing and logistics use of RFID has risen to consume 17.2% of all projects. Indeed, in China it is already 26.3% of all projects. RFID is now being used for everything from theft and counterfeit prevention to increasing sales by reducing stock-outs and managing standing assets more efficiently, while also controlling access to secure areas. Harrop cites Ubiquitous Sensor Networks, where fault tolerant ZigBee networking is being trialled for asset management. He also mentions active RFID and the growing market for real time locating systems (RTLS.) Success stories include Belgravium in the UK, offering RFID for management of standing assets and supply chains in partnership with Ubisense and Sirit. It grew sales 101% last year and achieved profits up 88% at $1.844 million. “In Lockheed Martin in the USA, we estimate that Savi Technology continues to make satisfactory profits as it passes $200 million in gross sales value, up about threefold in three years,” continues Harrop. “Savi uses RFID to manage standing assets and supply chains for military forces in the main, and its joint venture with Hutchison Whampoa [called Savi Networks] is busy applying active RFID to intermodal containers to alert to tampering in real time and provide supply chain visibility.” And he adds: “Assa Abloy has just made its 13th acquisition of an RFID company, while Syscan International has bought three RFID companies this year. In its RFID divisions, Assa Abloy concentrates on access control and personal identification in the main. These applications are common to most RFID sectors. Syscan is involved in logistics RFID including condition monitoring.”