How Using RFID Could Help Your Business
Filed Under Blog
Using RFID, namely radiofrequency identification is a really simple way to increase the activity and efficiency of your business, whilst simultaneously reducing costs. The application of RFID is now proven and can be utilised in many different areas of business; even livestock can now be tagged with RFID!
RFID works by tagging items, products or in fact anything that you want to tag. This can ensure that you keep track of items without having to go through all the work involved in a barcode system and scanning the barcodes. In a sense, RFID is a ‘wireless’ way of scanning barcodes; all you leave out is the scanning. So you can keep a 100% accurate record of your stock levels, without having to physically check items. Thus the process of moving items through the supply chain is a very efficient process which means that the process costs less than if traditional methods were used. Many companies also find that they are able to reduce the amount of stock that they have to retain, simply because they are more in control of the stock.
In turn this scanning also enables companies to have more direct control over all their assets. This includes not only items that are stock items but finished products and goods. Keeping very accurate records of stock, assets and goods ensures that asset management is achieved almost effortlessly and if there is a need to comply with statutory requirements, then this can also be achieved with the minimum of time and effort.
Items can even be tracked from country to country so it is really easy to keep abreast of when stock will arrive. Because cars can also be tagged or tracked it is also easy to check where people are and if they are on the route that they should be on. This can eliminate any wastage in terms of staff taking unauthorised time of work etc.
In addition, the time required to physically check stock levels and then replenish them is substantially reduced by RFID and this means that staff time is saved in terms of stock management, but also that there is less time devoted to planning stock management. This time can then be allocated to other purposes within the business.
Security can be improved utilising RFID, so if there are any items of equipment that need to be kept secure then these can be tagged using RFID. This ensures that in particular small items that may actually be quite valuable can be tracked, so they are less likely to be stolen. This can substantially reduce the incidence of theft. Hence why animals can be tagged, so that if they suddenly ‘disappear’ their whereabouts can be instantly determined, without having to resort to time consuming methods.
Another benefit of RFID is that it is incredibly cheap and although there is a perception that such sophisticated technology must be terribly expensive, this is not in fact the case and the systems can be installed for a very reasonable price.
So although RFID sounds as if it is very much an expensive option for businesses, the reality is that it is very good value for money and will save businesses substantial sums of money within a very short period of time which makes it an incredibly good business investment for a minimal injection of cash.