Fitting RFID to the Business

Earlier this year, I wrote here about the importance of taking an operational “process approach” when designing the best type of Auto ID solution for managing assets.  Whether it’s passive or active RFID or GPS – or a combination of wireless devices – the underlying business application and processes must be understood beforehand.  Otherwise, the implementation just becomes another science experiment.

Here, I want to focus more on how RFID and Auto ID solutions must adapt to each business area’s processes even if they seem to be the same across government and commercial enterprises.  We have discovered over more than two decades of providing Auto ID solutions for supply chain and asset management that wireless solutions must fit the existing process – not the other way around. (more…)

High value assets and their movements are of particular interest to operations managers responsible for the usage of these assets within their facilities. There are many options and approaches for managing these assets. Savi Technology’s methodology is to take a “process approach” and let the process dictate the technology that best fits the application. Understanding a process is like understanding the terrain of a racing track. If you don’t spend time studying it, you may find yourself throwing a 12-cylinder turbo charged BMW onto an unpaved, off-road downhill and off a cliff.

The maturity needed for RFID is less about the technology and more about understanding how it can support business applications and the underlying processes. (more…)