RFID DELIVERS PRODUCTIVITY GAINS
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D E D I C AT E D T O R A D I O F R E Q U E N C Y I D E N T I F I C AT I O N A N D I T S B U S I N E S S A P P L I C AT I O N S
• PERSPECTIVE
How Close Is RFID’s Tipping Point? PAGE 8
• VERTICAL FOCUS
Restaurants Put RFID On The Menu PAGE 22
• TUNED IN
More U.S. Retailers Use RFID To Enable
Omnichannel Shopping PAGE 38
www.rfidjournal.com July/August 2016
RFID DELIVERS
PRODUCTIVITY
GAINS
PAGE 14
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CONTENTS
Vol. 13, No. 4 | July/August 2016
FEATURES
EDITORIAL COVER STORY
Mark Roberti, Editor
mroberti@rfidjournal.com 14 RFID and Productivity Growth: Behind
Andrea Linne, Executive Editor/Magazine the Economic Statistics
alinne@rfidjournal.com
Paul Prince, Executive Editor/News
Companies using radio frequency identification to
pprince@rfidjournal.com automatically track and manage assets are lowering
John Hull, Creative Director costs, increasing revenue, and improving customer
jhull@rfidjournal.com
Rich Handley, Managing Editor PAGE 14 satisfaction and employee morale. By Barb Freda
rhandley@rfidjournal.com
Claire Swedberg, Senior Editor
cswedberg@rfidjournal.com VERTICAL FOCUS: RESTAURANTS
Sam Greengard, Contributing Writer 22 On the Menu: RFID
sam@greengard.com
Bob Violino, Contributing Writer
Casual, fast-casual and quick-serve restaurants
bviolino@optonline.net adopt wireless technologies to enhance the customer
Jennifer Zaino, Contributing Writer
jennyzaino@optonline.net experience, ensure food safety and improve
Edson Perin, Brasil Editor PAGE 22 operations. By Jennifer Zaino
eperin@rfidjournal.com
Beth Bacheldor, Senior Editor
bbacheldor@rfidjournal.com PRODUCT DEVELOPMENTS
Rhea Wessel, Contributing Writer/Europe 30 Solutions for Retail and Transportation
rwessel@rfidjournal.com
Avery Dennison’s tags can track totes in the supply
INTERNET OF THINGS JOURNAL
Mary Catherine O’Connor, Editor
chain and perishable items in stores; Keonn’s
mc@iotjournal.com interactive AdvanLook solution engages customers;
RFID JOURNAL EVENTS NXP’s Ucode DNA chip provides cryptographic
Kimberly A. Ray, VP of Events authentication of vehicles. By Bob Violino
kray@rfidjournal.com
Cheryl Johnson
Senior Director of Events Management
cjohnson@rfidjournal.com
PAGE 30 DEPARTMENTS
Debbie Hughes
Senior Editorial Director of Events 5 Editor’s Note
dhughes@rfidjournal.com
Deborah Lambert The return of productivity.
Editorial Coordinator of Events
dlambert@rfidjournal.com
6 Out in Front
SALES
Alan McIntosh, Senior Director of Sales Creating smaller, cheaper passive UHF tags; the
amcintosh@rfidjournal.com internet of clothes; the clothes off our backs.
Matt Singer, Senior Director of Sales
msinger@rfidjournal.com PAGE 6
SUBSCRIPTIONS
8 Perspective
subscriptions@rfidjournal.com Experts weigh in on RFID’s tipping point; can passive
ARTICLE REPRINTS
UHF RFID get any better? advances in passive UHF
customerservice@rfidjournal.com systems.
RFID JOURNAL LLC
Editorial office:
PO Box 5874
COLUMNS
Hauppauge, NY 11788
Mark Roberti, Chief Executive 38 Tuned In
mroberti@rfidjournal.com
The RFID Lab’s 2016 study shows that more U.S.
COVER ILLUSTRATION: ISTOCKPHOTO
Kathleen Knocker, Director of Finance
kknocker@rfidjournal.com retailers are using RFID to enable omnichannel
Sonja Valenta, VP of Marketing shopping. By Bill Hardgrave
svalenta@rfidjournal.com
Quedah Locket, Marketing Coordinator
qlocket@rfidjournal.com PAGE 41 41 Software Savvy
Lydia Sum, Administrative Assistant
lsum@rfidjournal.com Here’s how to ensure RFID tags and bar codes coexist
Contents © 2016 RFID Journal LLC happily. By Ken Traub
PERSPECTIVE
TUNE IN ONLINE www.rfidjournal.com
Find New Business Opportunities Ideas Exchange
RFID providers now have a source
Top 10 Search Terms in July RFID Journal maintains an
where they can find companies world- 1 Retail 6 Harsh Ask the Experts forum, where you
wide that are actively seeking to environment can submit questions about RFID
deploy the technology. RFID Requests technology and its applications. Your
for Proposals is updated regularly, 2 RTLS 7 Automotive questions will be answered by RFID
with new RFPs from companies in Journal editors or outside experts.
diverse industries. Each RFP includes Recent questions include:
3 Impinj 8 Library
detailed information, contacts and
• Are any companies using RFID to
submission deadlines.
control HVAC equipment?
4 Bar code 9 Printer
• Could RFID stop motel towel theft?
• Are application programming
5 Enterprise 10 Hospital
resource planning interfaces available for a Tibero
systems database?
• Can RFID tags be integrated with a
Warehouse and Inventory Management, Most-Read Stories in July retail point-of-sale system?
September 13
• IKEA Canada Engages Customers • What affects a UHF RFID system’s
With RFID at Pop-up Store read range?
RFID Journal Virtual Events
These live interactive programs offer a • Impinj Hopes to Raise $60M From IPO • Is tag collision a problem with Near-
convenient way to learn why and how • McDonald’s, Other Companies Test Field Communication?
companies are using RFID to improve TAG Sensors’ RFID Temperature
the way they do business. Presenters Loggers The Inside Scoop
will answer your questions. If you What are end users saying behind the
miss an event, check our archive for • Can RFID Pinpoint a Moving Object’s scenes? Why should the RFID commu-
on-demand viewing. Location? nity be optimistic about the industry?
Warehouse and Inventory • What Is the Read Range of a Passive Who’s spreading misinformation?
Management, Sept. 13 RFID Tag? Get insight and perspective at the
Food Industry, Oct. 26 RFID Journal Blog.
Don’t Miss These Premium Online Stories
Volvo’s Global RFID Initiative
The auto manufacturer shifts production into a higher gear, driving
improvements and cost savings.
Belgian Company Gets an ROI From Its Warehouse-
Management Solution
RFID Connect ENGIE Fabricom RFID-tracks nearly 90,000 assets at eight locations
Find products that can help you within the country.
deploy RFID successfully, such as
MonsoonRF’s RFID Lantern, designed Community Hospital Finds RFID Is a Good Fit
to make EPC UHF reader installations Wayne HealthCare uses the technology to lower the cost of managing
cheap, easy and invisible. The system IT assets and improve patient services.
consists of an RFID reader built into a
canister for an LED light bulb.
2 RFID Journal • JULY/AUGUST 2016
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PERSPECTIVE
EDITOR’S NOTE
The Return of Productivity
P
roductivity in the United States ration date. It can inform its supplier, so
and other industrial countries the supplier can have the canisters ready
has been down for the past six for delivery when they are needed, and
years, and economists have been Delta can send them to airports via the
debating the reasons. Pessimists say most cost-effective means and install
technology has delivered all the big them just before the expiration date. All
benefits, and most of the recent digital this increases productivity throughout
innovations—Facebook, Twitter and the supply chain.
Snapchat, for example—provide no Restaurants and food-service outlets
economic value. Optimists say there is have been among the laggards when it
still plenty of room for technology to comes to investing in new technologies,
deliver gains. but RFID is beginning to have an impact
No one will be surprised to learn that in that sector (see Vertical Focus). K&N
I fall into the latter camp. As we reveal in Management, for example, is using RFID
our cover story, RFID and Productivity at its four Mighty Fine Burgers, Fries &
Growth: Behind the Economic Statistics, Shakes fast-casual restaurants, in
big productivity gains are being achieved Austin, Texas, to speed delivery of food
by organizations in health care, logistics, to tables and increase table turns, and
manufacturing, retail and other sectors. therefore revenue. Other restaurants
It’s not just that RFID can reduce the are using RFID sensors to ensure food
amount of time required to count items freshness without investing a lot of
by upward of 98 percent. It’s that being labor in checking manual data loggers.
able to capture data so much more effi- Food retailers in the United States
ciently allows companies to do so more and Europe are beginning to track totes
often and in more places without raising in the supply chain and perishable items
costs or disrupting normal business in stores (see Product Developments).
operations. The pilot programs indicate RFID can
Why is that important? Consider improve inventory productivity, mar-
Delta Air Lines, which is using RFID to gins, store-operations execution and
check expiration dates on oxygen gener- overall customer experience.
ators aboard a 757 aircraft. It used to take Of course, RFID doesn’t automati-
eight man-hours to do the job, which cally—or magically—make an inefficient
meant the airline could capture the in- company efficient. But it does provide
formation only when a plane was in for a means to cost-effectively collect the
maintenance. Now, Delta can capture information needed to dramatically
that data in less than a minute, which boost productivity.
means one person with a handheld
reader can check expiration dates while
a plane is being cleaned and readied for
P H O T O : TOM HURST
its next flight.
That means Delta can plan how many
oxygen canisters it will need in the fu-
ture to replace those nearing their expi- Mark Roberti, Founder and Editor, RFID Journal
RFID JOURNAL • JULY/AUGUST 2016 5
PERSPECTIVE
OUT IN FRONT
TECHNOLOGY
Creating Smaller, Cheaper Passive
UHF Tags
Researchers at North Carolina State University have applied a new
technology called RF-only logic to create passive RFID chips that are
25 percent smaller than today’s integrated circuits.
A smaller, less expensive
microchip is the holy
grail of the radio fre-
quency identification industry.
An inexpensive chip would reduce
The biggest challenge was
overcoming the fact that energy
could only be delivered to the
chip during half of the RF wave
cycle. The circuits the re-
Several Ph.D. students are working
to build a prototype and ensure it can
comply with existing RFID standards. If
successful, the approach could lead to
smaller, less expensive ICs, which
the total cost of a transponder— searchers developed prevent the would lower overall tag costs.
and cheaper transponders would Paul Franzon energy from leaking away until The one downside of this approach
enable companies to track and more energy is delivered, so the is that tags will likely have a shorter
manage more assets, including low-cost chip gets a steady stream of electricity. read range than conventional RFID
items. Researchers at North Carolina The innovative approach was the re- transponders, but they could be useful
State University may have discovered a sult of a “curiosity-driven project,” says for applications in which read range is
way to reduce the cost of a passive ultra- Paul Franzon, a professor of electrical not critical. And over time, Franzon
high-frequency RFID chip by 25 percent. and computer engineering at NC State. “A says, techniques could be developed to
The researchers have applied a new group of us were brainstorming a circuit store more energy for longer reads.
approach called RF-only logic. They that could run off of harvested RF power. Franzon has filed for a patent and
eliminated a circuit called the rectifier, We speculated that you could have a expects to license the RF-only logic
which takes the alternating current distributed power rectification system. approach to RFID chip producers. “If
(AC) signal received from a nearby RFID Then, we thought about where such an it doesn’t work out,” he says, “we might
reader and turns it into direct current approach might be beneficial, and we be interested in starting our own
(DC) to power a chip’s logic circuits. realized RFID was a good application.” venture.” —Mark Roberti
INNOVATION the United Kingdom, hopes to help peo-
ple—men as well as women—use clothing
The Internet of Clothes more efficiently and consume less by
tracking garment usage and linking it to
the internet with radio frequency identi-
A research project aims to link clothing fication. “Your clothes should remind you
PHOTO: NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY
that you aren’t using them,” he says.
to the internet so items can be shared or The concept was sparked by an artistic
donated automatically to charities when project called Brad the Toaster, by Italian
designer Simone Rebaudengo, Brill says.
they are no longer being worn. “Brad was linked to other toasters via the
internet. He could compare himself to
B ack in the 1930s, the typical
American woman owned nine
outfits. Today, she owns 64, and
some of those garments are rarely, if ever,
worn. Mark Brill, a senior lecturer in future
media at Birmingham City University in
how often other toasters were used, and
if he wasn’t being used enough, he put
himself on eBay.”
6 RFID JOURNAL • JULY/AUGUST 2016
OUT IN FRONT
Brill was familiar with Near-Field Com- indicates how often he expects to wear
munication, a short-range form of RFID, them. Each time he puts on an item, he
because he’d used it in some of his com- waves the tag near the reader. If he hasn’t
mercial marketing work. It seemed a nat- worn an item or has donned it far less
ural way to track how often clothes were frequently than he expected, the system
being worn, so he built a prototype system sends an alert to his mobile phone.
using off-the-shelf NFC tags and The project is one of 12 that has
readers. With the help of a commer- been short-listed for a Network for
cial software firm he’d worked with Innovations in Culture and Cre-
previously, he created an online ativity in Europe Award, which is
database for tracking and sharing organized by the European Centre
information about how often each
item is worn.
for Creative Economy. Brill hopes
to be among the four winners so he
The Clothes
Brill hung an NFC reader in his Mark Brill
closet and put NFC laundry tags,
can use the modest prize money to
purchase more hardware.
Off Our Backs
which are encased in plastic to protect The next step is to improve the hard- Amount of one’s clothing the
them during washing, on some of his ware and software and share it with beta average U.S. citizen actually
garments. He tags and enters via the web testers. Brill would like to create an ultra- wears:
application any new clothes he buys and high-frequency RFID version as well, since 20 percent
many clothing items are
already being tagged with
Amount of one’s clothing the
passive UHF RFID
average U.K. citizen actually
tags for inventory-tracking
wears:
purposes. “If the clothing
manufacturers put a tag in 44 percent
permanently, then you
could put a UHF reader Amount of clothing that ends
above your bedroom door up in U.S. landfills annually:
and it could automatically
track what you wore each 11 million tons
day,” he says. “Our goal is to
have beta testers use both Amount of clothing that ends
the NFC and UHF versions up in U.K. landfills annually:
and give us feedback.”
The long-term goal is
350,000 tons
to create a network of
people sharing informa- Amount of used clothing
tion about their clothing, American citizens recycle
and exchanging or donat- or donate annually:
ILLUSTRATION: ADOBE STOCK: DIMASHIPER; ARGUS
ing items they don’t wear 15 percent
very often. “If we can re-
duce wasteful consump-
Amount of used clothing
tion of clothing and
British citizens recycle or
encourage more ethical
donate annually:
production and use of
57 percent
PHOTOS: MARK BRILL
clothing,” Brill says, “then
ultimately, that’s good for
individuals and society —Rich Handley
An NFC reader monitors garments identified with NFC laundry tags.
as a whole.” —M.R.
RFID JOURNAL • JULY/AUGUST 2016 7
PERSPECTIVE
PERSPECTIVE THE STORY BEHIND THE NEWS
Experts Weigh In on
RFID’s Tipping Point
A survey of more than 800 technology professionals found that
most believe more than 1 trillion objects will be connected to the
internet by 2022, using RFID and other technologies.
ast year, the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda identification, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, ZigBee and other wireless
L Council on the Future of Software & Society launched
the Technological Tipping Points survey, which asked
respondents for their views on 21 “tipping points”—moments
technologies.
“With continuously increasing computing power and
falling hardware prices (still in line with Moore’s Law), it is
when specific technological shifts hit mainstream society. economically feasible to connect literally anything to the
The aim was to provide insights into the expectations of internet,” the report states. “Intelligent sensors are already
information and communications technology experts on key available at very competitive prices. All things will be
emerging technologies. smart and connected to the internet, enabling greater
The survey asked respondents for their perception of when communication and new data-driven services based on
I L LU S T R AT I O N : I S TO C K P H OTO
these tipping points have occurred or will occur. Choices increased analytics capabilities.”
included “It has already happened,” “20+ years” and “never.” It’s not clear, of course, what the experts meant by Internet
The World Economic Forum received 816 responses, which of Things technologies. Some people don’t consider RFID an
were aggregated and analyzed. The results showed that, on IoT technology (even though the term emerged from the RFID
average, the experts believe that by 2022, more than 1 trillion industry). If you discount RFID, then it is hard to imagine 1
objects will be connected to the internet via radio frequency trillion items being linked to the internet by 2022. Here’s why.
8 RFID JOURNAL • JULY/AUGUST 2016PERSPECTIVE: THE STORY BEHIND THE NEWS
Most IoT technologies except passive RFID require a power reduce power consumption).
source, usually a battery. There are several things that will A final issue is size. Devices with batteries tend to be larger
inhibit wide-scale use of these technologies to connect and bulkier, which makes them harder to integrate into—or
everyday objects to the internet. First, not everything in the stick onto—some objects.
world has a power source to tap into. Even with some items So it’s likely that passive RFID will be used for the majority
that do have batteries, such as power tools, you might not of items connected to the internet. And it’s highly likely that
want to connect to the internet using the object’s battery there will be more than 1 trillion passive tags used on—or in—
power because that could shorten battery life. objects. Clothing is one area in which RFID adoption is quickly
Another issue is maintenance. Batteries eventually die and gathering momentum. The global market for clothing, tex-
must be replaced. This means that connecting hundreds of tiles, footwear and luxury goods is roughly $3 trillion. If each
billions of objects to the internet with battery-powered item sold costs $10 on average, that would mean 300 billion
radios would require armies of people to change batteries. clothing items, shoes and accessories are sold each year.
A third issue is cost. An inexpenisve Bluetooth device If all retailers are using RFID to track apparel, footwear and
costs roughly $10. That’s too expensive to put into billions of accessories, it’s likely that books, cosmetics, jewelry, elec-
objects. Of course, the cost of the electronic components will tronics, health-care products, home improvement, liquor,
come down as volumes ramp up. But the cost of batteries pharmaceutical, sporting goods and other retail categories
could remain an issue. A three-volt lithium coin battery will also adopt RFID as the technology improves and prices
costs roughly a dollar, and it might not provide enough come down. Whether all these categories will be using RFID
energy to power a Bluetooth device for very long (though en masse by 2022 is an open question. But if the experts are
manufacturers are continually improving radio devices to off, it is likely to be only by a couple of years. —Mark Roberti
Other Tipping Points Expected by 2025
Here is a list of technological milestones and the percentage of the 816 professionals surveyed by the World Economic
Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Software & Society who expect each one to happen by 2025.
10% of people wearing clothes connected to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . 91% 90% of the population with regular access to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . 79%
90% of people having unlimited and free (ad-supported) storage . . . . . . 91% Driverless cars equaling 10% of all cars on U.S. roads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78%
The first robotic pharmacist in the U.S. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87% The first transplant of a 3D-printed liver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76%
10% of reading glasses connected to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86% 30% of corporate audits performed by artificial intelligence (AI) . . . . . . 75%
80% of people with a digital presence on the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84% Tax collected for the first time by a government via blockchain* . . . . . . . 73%
The first 3D-printed car in production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84% More than 50% of Internet traffic to homes for appliances and devices 70%
I L LU S T R AT I O N : I S TO C K P H OTO
The first government to replace its census with big-data sources . . . . . . 83% Globally more trips/journeys via car sharing than in private cars . . . . . . 67%
The first implantable mobile phone available commercially . . . . . . . . . . . 82% The first city with more than 50,000 people and no traffic lights . . . . . . 64%
5% of consumer products printed in 3D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81% 10% of global gross domestic product stored on blockchain technology 58%
90% of the population using smartphones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81% The first AI machine on a corporate board of directors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45%
*A “blockchain” is a distributed trust mechanism used to track transactions in a distributed way.
RFID JOURNAL • JULY/AUGUST 2016 9PERSPECTIVE: THE STORY BEHIND THE NEWS
Can Passive UHF RFID
Get Any Better?
The technology has made great strides—and there are innovations
on the horizon that will advance it even more.
uring the past five years, passive ultrahigh-fre- a recent report from the European EPC Competence Center,
D quency radio frequency identification systems have
improved markedly. The read range has increased
a Germany-based provider of RFID services, found that
on-metal tags are becoming smaller and increasing in sensi-
I L LU S T R AT I O N : I S TO C K P H OTO
significantly due to the development of more sensitive mi- tivity and reliability (see EECC Benchmark Study Finds UHF
crochips and better antenna design. Security features have Tag Performance Better Than Ever).
been added to prevent cloning and eavesdropping on tag-to- This raises two important questions: Do passive systems
reader communication. And innovations have enabled tags need further improvement and, if so, can they get any better?
to be read on metal products and even to be embedded in The answer to the first question is certainly “yes.” Passive
metal for tracking items such as medical devices. In fact, UHF RFID technology works well for many applications, but
10 RFID JOURNAL • JULY/AUGUST 2016PERSPECTIVE: THE STORY BEHIND THE NEWS
there are some things end users would like it to do or do bet- volumes. This helps make the technology ideal for tracking
ter. These things would dramatically boost adoption levels. high-value goods, such as clothing and pharmaceuticals. But
there are many low-cost, low-margin items, particularly in
the food and grocery sector, that cannot support the cost of a
1. CAPTURE TAG DATA MORE CONSISTENTLY
7-cent tag.
RFID systems are great for reading tags quickly. A single store Are any of these areas likely to improve? A great deal of re-
associate can take inventory of 10,000 apparel items in two search is being conducted at universities worldwide and in the
hours with a handheld RFID reader. It would take the same research and development departments of RFID companies.
associate approximately 50 hours with a bar-code scanner, In the May-June 2016 issue of RFID Journal magazine, for
and the accuracy would not be as high. example, we wrote about a research project by Shadi
Still, retailers would like to move to fixed RFID readers in Ebrahimi-Asl, a Ph.D. student at the Missouri University of
stores and read all the tags on all the items on their shelves. Science and Technology, in Rolla, Mo., that could have a pro-
Today’s overhead readers are typically able to read only 50 found impact on the ability to read tags in close proximity to
percent to 90 percent of the tags. That’s because tags on one another (see ‘Invisible’ Antennas). Ebrahimi-Asl realized
densely packed items often block the reader signal from that energy from the reader antenna reflects off the antennas
reaching tags on other items behind or below them. Getting of passive tags even when they are not communicating with
the read accuracy on overhead fixed readers up to 95 percent the reader. This creates interference that makes it harder for
accuracy levels or higher would boost retail adoption. the reader to receive a signal from the tag with which it’s
communicating.
Ebrahimi-Asl knew that the induced electrical charge on
2. EXCLUDE EXTRANEOUS READS
an antenna can be reduced to reach the antenna’s minimum
In some cases, passive RFID readers are too good at captur- backscatter state (a theoretical state known as an “invisible”
ing tag data. Often, a forklift truck reader will read tags on antenna). She built a backscatter antenna in the lab and
items on shelves, rather than just those on the forklift truck. changed the load on it to make it remain invisible to the
And handheld readers sometimes capture tags on items on reader. She demonstrated that by doing so, she could more
shelves the associate does not intend to inventory. Many end easily read a tag close behind it. This capability, if built into
users say they would like to see the passive UHF read field be passive UHF tags, could make it easier to read tags spaced
more defined or have readers use other methods to exclude closely together. It would also increase the read range of
tags they do not want to read. passive UHF readers by reducing interference from
multiple tags in the read field. In this issue, we write about
research being conducted at North Carolina State Univer-
3. MAKE THE TECHNOLOGY MORE PLUG-AND-PLAY
sity to develop chips that would be 25 percent smaller and,
At an RFID Journal event in 2003, Linda Dillman, then CIO of therefore, cheaper to produce (see Out in Front).
Walmart, showed a photo of the back of a smart shelf the Extraneous reads are likely to be addressed with both
retailer was trialing in one store; in the picture, a jumble of hardware and software. A number of vendors have intro-
boxes with wires and cables was going in every direction. duced antennas for fixed RFID readers that more tightly
“This is not deployable in stores,” Dillman said. The technol- control the read zone. It’s also likely that improvements in
ogy has improved since then. Readers come in neat little algorithms will enable software to filter out unwanted reads
boxes and can have integrated or external antennas. Sleek more effectively than it can today.
portals often hide all the hardware. Intel has been one of the first to market with a reader
But passive UHF systems frequently require some designed to be easier to install. Its Retail Sensor Platform
tweaking of power levels and careful positioning of reader consists of UHF RFID readers with integrated antennas, wired
antennas to optimize the read field. Most end users would to an Intel Gateway device that forwards the data to a server.
like to be able to place a reader in a ceiling, doorway or wall The platform also includes an Intel application programming
and begin collecting data. interface (API) that allows RFID systems integrators to write
software for linking the RFID data to a store’s existing software.
Intel says the system is up to 40 percent faster and easier to
4. REDUCE THE COST
install than a conventional reader and antenna deployment.
Tag prices have come down significantly over the years. Expect passive UHF RFID systems to improve in all these
Passive UHF inlays are now available for 7 or 8 cents in large ways during the next five years. —M.R.
RFID JOURNAL • JULY/AUGUST 2016 11PERSPECTIVE: THE STORY BEHIND THE NEWS
Advances in Passive UHF RFID Systems
During the past five years, manufacturers of passive ultrahigh-frequency RFID
tags and readers have invested heavily in improving their offerings. Here are
some of the key innovations RFID Journal has written about.
2016 2015 2014 2013 2012
Alien Releases New View Technologies Impinj Announces GS1 Ratifies EPC Mojix Announces
IC With Longer Read- Launches Long-Range Commercial Gen2v2, Adds Availability of Its
Write Range, Error RTLS for Passive UHF Availability of Its Security Features, Next-Generation RFID
Protection Tags xArray UHF Reader More Memory System
Smartrac, NXP Releases IC for Kathrein RFID Impinj Unveils New Impinj Launches
RFMicron Release Secure Encrypted Announces Beam- UHF Readers for RTLS New High-
Passive RFID UHF Reads switching UHF Reader Applications, Performance RFID
Temperature Sensor Antenna, Handheld Embedding in Other Chips
Technology With ItemSense, UHF Reader Devices
Impinj Aims to Hitachi Chemical
Alien Releases New Simplify “Always On” Alien Markets Small NXP Releases Ucode Markets Tiny UHF Tag
IC With Longer Read- RFID Deployments EPC Tag With Long 7, a Faster and More
Write Range, Error Read Range Sensitive Chip Omni-ID Introduces
Protection Intel Unveils RFID Printable On-Metal
System for Retailers New Impinj Chip Tego Releases 8- RFID Labels
Ubisense Introduces Promises Higher kilobit Dual-Memory
AngleID to Provide New Omni-ID Sensitivity, Read RFID Chip and Tags
Low-Cost, Real-Time Passive UHF Tags Range and Flexibility
Zone Location Endure 225 Degrees
Celsius Omni-ID’s View 10
Sensing New Tag Aims to Replace
Opportunities: Phase Inlay Companies Paperwork at Detroit
IV Engineering’s Testing EM Micro’s Diesel, Other
RFID Sensor Reader Dual NFC and EPC Factories
Chip
U Grok It Releases
Smartrac’s New UHF RFID Reader for
Passive Sensor Phones, Tablets
DogBone Transmits
Moisture Levels Harting’s LocField
Reader Antenna
Promises Flexible
Read Range
12 RFID JOURNAL • JULY/AUGUST 2016TRACK AND
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RFID and Productivity Growth:
Behind the
Economic
Statistics
I L LU S T R AT I O N : I S TO C K P H OTO
14 RFID JOURNAL • JULY/AUGUST 2016COVER STORY
Companies using radio frequency identification
to automatically track and manage assets are
lowering costs, increasing revenue, and improving
customer satisfaction and employee morale.
by barb freda
How productive is your organization? Can you produce more goods and
generate more sales with fewer costs, resources and labor—in less time, with
fewer errors?
That has been the goal of many businesses since the Industrial Revolution.
More recently, technology innovations were expected to deliver big productiv-
ity gains. But according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report released in June,
productivity growth,which measures output (revenue and inventory) per unit
of input (labor and capital), is basically flat across the economy. The Conference
RFID JOURNAL • JULY/AUGUST 2016 15COVER STORY
Board, a global business membership and productivity growth is difficult to measure.
research association, reported in May that it The noise of other variables must be stripped
sees modest global economic growth for the away, he says. When you do that, and look at
remainder of 2016 with little upside for 2017. just one technology such as RFID, it is much
Yet, for several years, RFID Journal has been easier to see the benefits and real growth.
reporting that companies in health care, man- Economists who are pessimistic regarding
ufacturing, retail and other sectors that have the impact of technology on productivity
adopted RFID have been achieving outstanding “don’t understand retail that much,” says Bill
gains in productivity. Why the discrepancy? Hardgrave, dean of Auburn University’s Harbert
It seems broad economic statistics show College of Business and founder of the RFID
just part of the story. First, economists say, Lab. “RFID presents opportunities to squeeze
there is the “lag” effect—it takes time for new efficiencies out of the way we do retail, with
technologies to be harnessed, and RFID is still less handling of product, a reduction of logis-
“Most of the considered an emerging technology. Erik Bryn- tics and better ways to handle counting.”
jolfsson, director of the MIT Initiative on the To understand how RFID delivers produc-
economy Digital Economy and co-author with Andrew tivity gains today, Hardgrave suggests using the
operates much McAfee of The Second Machine Age: Work, basic accounting approach, in which you con-
Progress, and Prosperity in the Time of Brilliant sider direct and indirect benefits. “The beauty
the way it did Technologies (2014), coined the term “produc- of the basic accounting approach,” he says, “is
years ago. My tivity paradox” to explain the lag between the that everything eventually manifests itself in
emphasis is on introduction of new technology and the im- either a variable cost, a fixed cost or revenue.”
plementation that makes productive use of the
how gradual the
change is, how
technical changes.
Robert Gordon, professor of economics at
Direct Benefits
Northwestern University and author of The Direct benefits from RFID include lower vari-
our economy is Rise and Fall of American Growth (2016), says able costs to businesses (labor reduction, lower
like an ocean there is plenty of innovation and technical picking costs, and lower transportation and
liner taking a change, but it is having very little impact on supply-chain costs) and increased revenue,
the economy at large. “Most of the economy Hardgrave says. In retail, RFID can improve in-
long time to operates much the way it did years ago,” he ventory accuracy and reduce out-of-stocks, but
turn.” says. “My emphasis is on how gradual the those are not the direct benefits. In terms of
ROBERT GORDON,
change is, how our economy is like an ocean productivity gains, they enable increased sales,
NORTHWESTERN liner taking a long time to turn.” Gordon ac- fewer cycle counts and faster inventory counts,
UNIVERSITY knowledges that a technology such as RFID he says. The time made available by those
will improve productivity, because it improves efficiencies leads to time for employees to sell
inventory management without hand counts. more or produce more, he adds.
Second, economists aren’t looking at indi- In manufacturing, improving operations
vidual technologies such as RFID when they can result in lower variable costs, such as more
discuss broad gains and losses in productivity, efficient labor use and holding less inventory,
says Ygal Bendavid, a professor in the depart- Hardgrave says. “Improved output from
ment of management and technology at the manufacturing means higher output per
Université du Quebec à Montréal. “RFID is a employee,” he says, “which means less variable
data-capture technology. Economists look at cost per unit, which means higher margins.”
composite indicators too large to discriminate Here is a sampling of the companies RFID
the RFID role,” he says. “They are missing the Journal has profiled that have achieved direct
big changes at this level.” productivity benefits from employing RFID.
Sanjay Sarma, VP for open learning at MIT American Woodmark, which manufactures
and co-founder of the Auto-ID Center, says it and distributes kitchen cabinets and vanities,
is a matter of scale—with so much innovation, deployed an RFID solution to track cabinet
16 RFID JOURNAL • JULY/AUGUST 2016COVER STORY
doors and drawer fronts. The company reports Hospitals worldwide that have adopted
that the initiative reduced the labor for cycle RFID real-time location solutions to track
counting by 66 percent, while supporting equipment have been able to reduce the num-
additional counts when errors are discovered. ber of assets they buy or rent. The Medical Uni-
More importantly, count accuracy has im- versity of South Carolina, for example, is using
proved from roughly 80 percent to 100 percent. RFID to track and maintain 6,000 vital assets,
“The system has helped us become far more including bladder scanners. The system en-
competitive, cost-efficient and profitable,” sures that the devices are available, clean and
says David Johnson, American Woodmark’s easy to locate whenever nurses or doctors need
materials technology and product manager. them. The solution also resulted in significant
Delta Air Lines is employing RFID to im- cost savings. Once the RFID system was in
prove the visibility of oxygen generators in- place, the hospital needed to purchase only 38
stalled within its aircraft, and thereby reduce bladder scanners rather than the 100 originally
the amount of waste associated with discarded requested—a savings of more than $750,000. “RFID presents
generators, as well as the time required to Northwestern Memorial Hospital adopted
check the devices’ expiration dates. It used to an RFID solution to track and manage medical opportunities to
take approximately eight man-hours to check supplies. The facility has improved cost squeeze
expiration dates on oxygen generators aboard efficiencies by reducing product loss due to
a 757. With its RFIDAeroCheck solution, it now unused or expired items, and by ensuring
efficiencies out
takes 45 seconds to complete the check on a patients are billed for the products used dur- of the way we
twin-aisle aircraft. ing their stay. “We caught $4 million in charge do retail, with
Bell Helicopter, a civil and military aircraft costs over two years,” says Brian Stepien, who
manufacturer, has brought its on-time deliv- was director of supply-chain distribution and less handling of
ery of parts used during the production of hel- logistics at Northwestern Memorial Health- product, a
icopters to 99.81 percent since installing an Care, parent company of the 900-bed teaching
RFID solution to track the internal movements hospital in Chicago, during the RFID deploy-
reduction of
of parts and containers in 2011. Bell Helicop- ment. “That’s a really nice ROI, Stepien adds. logistics and
ter estimates it recouped its investment within Bantrel, a Canadian subsidiary of U.S. better ways to
a year, according to Aaron Druyvesteyn, the construction giant Bechtel, deployed an RFID
firm’s manager of logistics. The financial re- material-tracking solution to locate 70,000
handle counting.”
turn comes from reducing the number of labor parts during the construction of a multibil- BILL HARDGRAVE,
hours employees spend searching for missing lion-dollar tar-sands project in northern AUBURN UNIVERSITY
parts, as well as performing associated stock Canada. Bantrel estimates that the average
adjustments. In addition, the high traceability time spent locating parts in the field decreased
of parts has dramatically reduced the potential by two-thirds, from 15 minutes on average per
for disruptions to the production schedule. part down to just five minutes. That’s time
Decathlon, the French sporting goods workers used more productively in other ways.
retailer, is RFID-tracking most products Cisco Systems developed an RFID solution
throughout its supply chain—from factories to manage fixed assets in 70 U.S. data centers
to warehouses to stores. Today, RFID is and R&D labs. The networking firm has slashed
improving efficiencies in all Decathlon its cycle count time for conducting inventories
facilities—1,030 stores and 43 warehouses. The from several weeks to just a few hours, reduc-
retailer, which began a global rollout in 2013, ing inventory labor and cost, says Maryanne
saw an 11 percent increase in sales from July Flynn, Cisco’s director of operations. The sys-
2014 to July 2015, and the company attributes tem has also reduced the audit cycle count for
part of that growth to the RFID deployment. In a typical-size lab from more than one week to
addition to increasing product availability on less than two hours—a 95 percent improve-
store shelves, the RFID solution decreased ment in the time it takes to comply with and
product shrinkage by 9 percent in 2014. supply reports for mandatory audits.
RFID JOURNAL • JULY/AUGUST 2016 17COVER STORY
Indirect Benefits in transit and the physical conditions at any
given moment,” says Jon Chapman, Kuehne +
Indirect productivity gains include customer Nagel’s global pharmaceutical product man-
satisfaction and employee morale, Hardgrave ager. “There is a growing expectation that this
says. These benefits may be hard to measure, information is available at the touch of a
but they impact an organization’s reputation. In smartphone or tablet screen.”
retail, for example, a customer frustrated by an Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, in
out-of-stock situation just one time may never Toronto, deployed an RFID solution that tracks
come back, he says. Once the sale is lost, the surgery patients to reduce bottlenecks and
merchant may never see that customer again. keep family members and friends informed of
“Customer service is a great driver for RFID,” the patient’s status. The solution also helped
says Timothy Zimmerman, research VP at to foster more collegial relationships among
Gartner. “Those merchants who give customers peers in different surgical-related units, says
Businesses must satisfaction in finding an item and giving good Ellie Lee, business manager of Sunnybrook’s
service are the ones who complete the sale.” OR Information Management Services
understand the Boosting employee morale helps compa- department. Hospital staff members working
data they collect nies maintain a productive workplace and in surgical areas awaiting the transfer of
reduce turnover rates. The costs of hiring a surgical patients have better insight into what
and have a plan new employee include loss of work after is happening elsewhere.
to use that data someone leaves and before a new person is Ruby Memorial Hospital, largest of the West
to improve hired, advertising costs for the open position, Virginia University hospitals, installed RFID-
training costs, and productivity loss while a enabled cabinets to automatically track tagged
operations. “That new employee gets up to speed. tissue and medical devices. Error rates
data allows me Decathlon’s main goal in adopting RFID was tracking products that were implanted in
to improve customer satisfaction. The RFID patients during procedures dropped from 3
to make a more solution has increased product availability on percent to lower than 1 percent, says Kimberly
intelligent store shelves, which has had a direct impact Cheuvront, Ruby Memorial’s perioperative
decision for on the customer experience and sales, says quality assurance coordinator. Waste fell from
Jean-Marc Lieby, the retailer’s RFID project co- 10 percent to 8.9 percent over 24 months, with
business ordinator. “The first source of dissatisfaction an increase in patient flow. In addition, nurses
productivity.” of a customer is failing to find a product on the were freed from the time-consuming job of
TIMOTHY ZIMMERMAN,
shelf,” he adds. monitoring these items. “We want the nurses
GARTNER Macy’s rolled out its RFID inventory-man- to be able to function as nurses and not
agement solution to all 850 Bloomingdale’s and wandering around trying to find product,”
Macy’s stores. RFID enables Macy’s to address Cheuvront says. “The level of nursing
changing shopping habits and become a suc- satisfaction here is great, and you can’t put a
cessful omnichannel retailer. It’s meeting con- price on that.”
sumer demands for an anytime, anywhere At Lufthansa Technik, which overseas
shopping experience, whether in a store, on a logistics and services for German airline
mobile device, on a home computer or by Lufthansa, RFID has revolutionized the way in
phone. And that, in turn, let’s Macy’s better com- which employees work, as well as their atti-
pete with online and brick-and-mortar retailers. tude toward managing inventory items, says
To improve customer service, Kuehne + Kathrin Stromann, RFID project manager. The
Nagel, a global transportation and logistics system, which has approximately a 97 percent
firm, developed an RFID solution to monitor accuracy rate, helped the company trim the
the temperature of sensitive pharmaceutical amount of time it spends monitoring supplies
and health-care products in transit on a near- by 80 percent. “In the past, nobody wanted to
real-time basis. “There is an ever-increasing the do the job,” she says. “Touching dirty,
desire to know where a shipment is when it is smelly and sticky containers was annoying.”
18 RFID JOURNAL • JULY/AUGUST 2016RFID End-User
Case-Study DVDs
RFID Journal has created a series of DVDs
containing presentations by end users,
recorded at various live and
online events.
UPDATED WITH NEW CASE STUDIES
RFID Journal holds several face-to-face conferences Hear presentations from
every year, as well as a number of online virtual events RFID Journal events, including:
and webinars. These events feature end users speaking
• RFID in Health Care
objectively about the business reasons that they
deployed an RFID system, the technical hurdles they • RFID in Energy
overcame in doing so and the benefits they now
• RFID in Aerospace
achieve as a result, as well as presentations by
academics, vendors and other experts. Many of the • RFID in Manufacturing
sessions were recorded, and we have compiled these
recordings into seven DVDs that are available for • RFID in Retail and Apparel
purchase for only $99 or free with a one-year premium • RFID in Supply Chain and
membership to RFID Journal. Logistics
TO LEARN MORE, VISIT www.rfidjournal.com/dvdsCOVER STORY
Now, workers are reporting that they enjoy the innovate, productivity growth passes you by.”
task, she adds. “It has created a high-tech ap- Productivity growth also will be impacted
proach and a far more pleasant and desirable by use—both an increase in the number of
way to handle these items.” companies adopting RFID and an increase
in the way firms that have deployed the tech-
A Sea Change nology put it to work. “Some analysts’ num-
bers suggest that only about five percent of
Clearly, RFID enables companies in myriad retail inventory utilizes RFID, and I think that
industries to track and manage assets auto- is probably accurate,” Hardgrave says. “We
matically, accurately and cost-effectively—and have a long way to go. We are just seeing the tip
delivers big productivity gains. But it is the of the iceberg here.”
smart use of data that will power bigger and Lower costs are opening the door for more
sustainable productivity growth. Businesses companies to adopt RFID. “When tags were 60
“The implication must understand the data they collect and to 80 cents each, the business case to use
have a plan to use that data to improve opera- passive UHF technology was more difficult,”
is that for society tions. “That data allows me to make a more in- Zimmerman says. “But now, less expensive tags
as a whole, as telligent decision for business productivity,” are available, and in some cases it is cheaper for
Gartner’s Zimmerman says. a source manufacturer who may be providing
automation and Hardgrave is “bullish on data.” But, he ad- products to multiple clients to put tags on
technology mits, the amount of data RFID generates can be every item, rather than separate it out and run
increase, we are overwhelming. Companies don’t always know two lines. Now, the tags [in these cases] are
what questions to ask or what questions the available at zero cost to retailers or others in the
moving to an data can answer. “If a company is not embrac- supply chain.” When supply-chain partners re-
innovation ing the data and trying to understand the data, ceive tagged assets, he says, it encourages them
it is at a disadvantage,” he says. “They need to to use the technology to optimize processes.
economy. If you know how to process the data and how to make “RFID is a technology such that the more
don’t innovate, decisions about the data. They have to harness you use it, the more efficiencies you gain,”
productivity the data in ways others are not. Going forward, Hardgrave says. “For the retailer, in particular,
data will be the way a company creates or much of the cost of RFID is in infrastructure.
growth passes maintains a competitive advantage, and if they Once in place, the infrastructure ROI improves
you by.” don’t do that, they are going to be in trouble.” with every tagged item. If you install a dock
SANJAY SARMA, MIT
Companies must learn how to use all the door RFID reader, for example, it costs the
data they collect to identify trends, Sarma says, same to read 100 tags as it does 100,000 mil-
adding that trends don’t just leap off the lion tags.” Higher volumes result in quicker
computer screen. Once trends are identified, payback, he says, and increased sales, which
he says, companies need to understand what come with the new RFID efficiencies, will be
they mean. Then, he says, organizations can sustained moving forward with no additional
implement or adjust systems or operations to resources. Also sustainable are the lower
take advantage of the trends, with expected inventory held and reduced shipping costs
increases in sales and/or productivity. (since fewer items are being shipped).
Sarma notes that now is the time for com- “Early innovators in RFID who began with
panies to take stock of the data at hand and inventory management are now seeing some
make decisions about how to move forward really novel ways to create efficiencies and im-
and remain competitive. “They will hire em- prove customer experiences,” Hardgrave says.
ployees who are innovative, people who can “We will see even more.”
give insights and look for patterns,” he says. It may take several more years for RFID to
“The implication is that for society as a whole, impact economic statistics, but there is cer-
as automation and technology increase, we are tainly opportunity for businesses in any in-
moving to an innovation economy. If you don’t dustry to achieve productivity gains today.
20 RFID JOURNAL • JULY/AUGUST 2016See the complete table of contents at
www.rfidjournal.com/howtochoose
How to Choose
the Right RFID Technology
for Your Application
Choosing the proper radio frequency identification system
for your application can be a difficult task. The editors of
RFID Journal provide a guide to choosing the right system
for your needs, and explain the pros and cons of different
RFID solutions for different applications.
Save yourself hundreds of hours of research time
with this new guide for just $295, or only $195 with
a new membership to RFID Journal.
www.rfidjournal.com/howtochooseVERTICAL FOCUS: RESTAURANTS
Casual, fast-casual and quick-serve
restaurants adopt wireless technologies to
I L LU S T R AT I O N : I S TO C K P H OTO
enhance the customer experience, ensure food
safety and improve operations.VERTICAL FOCUS: RESTAURANTS
Mighty Fine Burgers, Fries & Shakes, a chain of four fast-casual
restaurants in Austin, takes pride in its Texas hospitality, so parent
company K&N Management was looking for a way to replace its
practice of calling out customers’ names when their orders were
ready. Guests were afraid they wouldn’t hear their name, explains
Gini Quiroz, K&N’s director of team member engagement, so instead
of waiting comfortably in the dining room or on the patio, they
milled around the counter, further congesting a high-traffic area.
“We want people to enjoy every single quality the longer they sit, so speed is essen-
touchpoint, and the after-order/before-pickup tial, she explains.
touchpoint was causing angst and frustration,” Employees like the solution, too, Quiroz
Quiroz says. “We really like cutting-edge tech- says, because they can concentrate on upcom-
nology, and we thought Table Tracker could be ing orders rather than on calling customer Mighty
a good solution for guest satisfaction.” names to pick up food. The four restaurants
Long Range Systems’ Table Tracker solution compete on how quickly they get food to Fine is ahead
helps eateries like Mighty Fine “cut time out of tables. The information is available in reports of the RFID
their day, turn tables faster and create a better provided by the software, which records data
experience,” says Michelle Strong, LRS’s chief such as the time an order is placed and when
adoption curve
marketing officer. A high-frequency RFID tag the order is closed based on a server clearing a in the restaurant
with a unique ID number is attached to the un- Table Tracker unit once he or she has delivered sector, an
derside of each table. When customers place the food. The local Tracker system can be
an order, they receive a Table Tracker device, cloud-connected to store data for analysis. In industry that
which has a built-in RFID reader and a ZigBee the past, such data was entered manually and isn’t known for
device for transmitting the tag ID number and was not necessarily accurate, Quiroz says.
its own identifier to the local Table Tracker “Now, we can know if things are out of our
technology
software. The software alerts restaurant em- standards for service,” she says. innovation.
ployees to order status and customer location. Mighty Fine is ahead of the RFID adoption
(Restaurants can also integrate the software curve in the restaurant sector, an industry that
with their point-of-sale and kitchen display isn’t known for technology innovation. The find-
systems to create one seamless system.) ings of Hospitality Technology’s 2016 Restaurant
The solution’s ability to get employees Technology Study show that IT budgets represent
quickly and directly to the customer’s table is just 2.5 percent of revenue, with allocations heavy
a key strength, Strong says. A table tent or on core system maintenance. Nearly 30 percent
zonal-location system “that only gets you of survey respondents—who have IT decision-
halfway there could cause confusion,” she making involvement for 32,796 restaurant loca-
says. Speedy delivery keeps patrons happy and tions across quick-service, family-casual and
results in faster customer turnover, which, she fine-dining brands—believe they lag behind
adds, is a revenue plus. when it comes to overall IT innovation. The re-
In 2012, K&N tried Table Tracker at one spondents represented regional (51 percent), na-
Mighty Fine location and, a few months later, tional (24 percent) and global (25 percent) brands.
rolled it out to the three other restaurants in It appears there’s plenty of opportunity for
the chain. The solution shaved roughly a restaurants to distinguish themselves by using
minute off guest wait time for food and hospi- technology in new ways. And Hospitality Tech-
tality scores increased. Patrons can enjoy the nology’s 2016 report indicates that restaurants
music without worrying that they’ll miss their have a growing awareness of possible technol-
order. “As soon as food is ready we bring it out,” ogy benefits—87 percent of respondents said
Quiroz says, “and that means food quality is tech projects will be driven to improve opera-
also better.” Fries, for example, diminish in tional/process efficiency, and just more than
RFID JOURNAL • JULY/AUGUST 2016 23You can also read
