Raybright is system
integrator focused on providing comprehensive solution in automatic
data collection technologies such as Barcode, RFID, Smart card and
Biometrics
The business case for RFID rest upon the ability to recognise
opportunity, assess the risks and to structure and implement
a strategy for change that clearly identifies a favourable return
on investment.
Opportunities for applying RFID can be found in virtually
any sector of commercial endeavour and at various levels of process
or service engagement, including for example:
• Reduction of supply chain shrinkage - Opportunities
for reducing shrinkage within supply chains as a result of diversion
of goods or losses are ostensibly in the region of 50% at case level
and between 10-15% at pallet level • Sortation of
items - Opportunities for enhancing item sortation processes,
such as those encountered in clothing manufacture and distribution,
wherein time and associated cost savings of greater than 40% may
be achieved
• Flexible manufacturing - Opportunities
for more item-specific manufacturing operations to be performed
using automated read and control functions to achieve more efficient
processes, wherein process improvements of greater than 10% may
be achieved
• Item identification in condition monitoring
- Opportunities for improved identification of system components
and tools for conditioning monitoring purposes, wherein the management
may be achieved more efficiently with potential cost savings greater
than 10%
• Reductions in inventory - Opportunities
to reduce inventory by more than 5% or more in appropriately selected
circumstances
• Improved asset management and maintenance
- Opportunities for improved management and utilisation of assets,
such as reusable containers, wherein savings in time and associated
cost and maintenance could be greater than 10%
• Enhanced field services - Opportunities
for location, plant and item tagging that can facilitate more efficient
and effective field maintenance and support services, wherein savings
in time and associated costs could be greater than 20%
• Labour and more efficient time-and-attendance management
- Opportunities for improved labour management and associated costings
yielding savings in excess of 20%
| Cost Justifying RFID Applications |
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| Two important considerations impact upon the
economics and viability of RFID applications. One is identifying
the appropriate opportunities for applying the technology and
the other is in identifying the total costs involved in the
applications.
Recognising the Opportunities
By way of summary, the most prominent capabilities include:
• Accuracy of identification and captured data, relatable
directly to the items concerned. This is linked with the avoidance
or elimination of errors (see below) which will yield significant
economic benefits in business processes.
• Speed of data transfer, with attendant benefits with
respect to identification, information and knowledge of items
– such as real-time inventory and “Quick response”
applications, all of which will yield economic benefits and
bottom-line improvement.
• Immediacy of information from the item-attendant data
carrier or through rapid access to information stored elsewhere
concerning the item(s) with immediate usage of that information
for decision support and process functionality. This supports
the realisation of “Just-in-Time” applications.
Immediacy of information, appropriately used, will also improve
efficiency and yield attendant economic benefits.
• Elimination of errors in manual data entry will be
avoided – these are errors and associated misinformation
and actions, such as an item being sent to a wrong destination.
This can often result in cascading costs in rectifying the
error.
• Integrated electronic working, wherein the use of
RFID and other data carriers, suitably integrated into e-business
applications can significantly improve process efficiency
and reduce the amount of manual data entry and paperwork.
Costs and Justification
One of the benefits of effectively applying data carrier technologies
such as RFID is that the return-on-investment (ROI) is often
of the order of months rather than years.
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