Introduction
Managing your business assets, whether they are tangible or intangible, is not an easy job. After all, spending too much time keeping track of your investments can lead to expensive delays or downtime, wasted labor, and missed deadlines and customer commitments.
Although you can easily solve this problem by using serial numbers or barcode labels, there’s another way you can improve asset management—through the integration of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in your systems. With the help of an RFID asset management system, you can accurately track an asset’s journey, whether it goes through a manufacturing, sterilization, or repair process. This can also aid in your inventory management and keep precise records of repairs, usage, and more.
There are different kinds of RFID asset management systems in the Philippines, so you have to carefully select one that you think is suitable for your business. If you have no idea what to use, you can contact us at Internet of Things Philippines Inc. Our team will gladly aid you with your RFID asset management needs and answer any inquiries you may have about our products and services.
What Is an RFID Inventory System?
An RFID inventory system is an asset management system that relies on automated, low-labor nature. It provides automated data collection and storage within an existing system, effectively eliminating the constraints and issues that any individual experiences when utilizing labels or barcodes for tracking.
The additional benefits of incorporating an RFID inventory system includes the following:
• Labor Cost Reduction – RFID tags can automatically generate and report data once scanned by the system, eliminating the need for manual labor.
• Improved Visibility – Because of automatic generation, more information can be processed and captured, leading to better visibility across your supply chain.
• Added Information – Generating more information helps in tracking and tracing products, allowing you to keep consumers and supply chain partners updated.
• Overstocking and Understocking Prevention – Because all your assets are accurately tracked, you can eradicate stocking issues with your products and improve the security in your facility.
How Does an RFID Tag Tracking System Work?
Similar to barcode technology, the RFID tag tracking system works by utilizing electromagnetic fields, which transmit data from an RFID tag to a reader. An RFID tag is a tiny microchip that contains a range of digital information about a specific item. This product is encapsulated in either plastic, paper, or similar material, then fixed to the product or its packaging.
There are two kinds of RFID tags:
Passive RFID Tags
These RFID tags are usually smaller and less expensive than active tags. However, their read ranges are shorter than their active counterparts because they have fewer components. Passive RFID tags are also power-driven by the radio frequency energy transmitted from RFID readers or antennas, which will be reflected by the reader once done.
If you’re thinking of using passive RFID tags, you must verify first if they are suited for specific materials. This is because they contain fewer components, which may create issues with your existing interface. Other than that, you can use them on materials optimized for metals, ceramic, and plastic.
Active RFID Tags
Active RFID tags are mostly intended for ultra-high frequency (UHF) solutions due to their built-in power source and transmitters. They are larger in size and often used for supporting sensors that measure and transmit conditions, such as temperature, light, and humidity, making them popular in harsher environments.
In contrast with passive RFID tags, active RFID tags are more expensive due to added components and functionality. Because of this, the customizability options are limited, whereas passive RFID tags need some core elements to work. The read range, however, is more impressive than its passive counterpart, being able to emit a radio frequency with which RFID readers can interact.
Where Is RFID Used?
There are numerous ways you can integrate RFID asset management systems in the Philippines. Some common applications include the following:
Healthcare Facilities
RFID technology has been a good asset in the health care sector, saving organizations time and money by providing real-time traceability, medical management, traffic flow optimization in hospitals, and much more. According to a 2014 study, using RFID tags helped reduce misidentification issues in a healthcare setting, improving the safety of patient identity.
Another study conducted in 2010 utilized RFID technology to authenticate patients and medical staff through medication administration, injection, and blood sampling. The researchers examined 27 workflow patterns for each of the clinical interventions, which led to the RFID system correctly identifying all presented data in real time.
Laundry Shops
Owning or managing a laundry business presents a lot of issues and challenges. You have to constantly track which items belong to whom, which batches of laundry are ready for pick up, and the maximum load capacity that your washer can handle. It is also important to monitor other tasks, such as the pressing and folding of clothes.
By attaching RFID tags to each article of clothing, you can minimize the need for manual sorting and achieve a better laundry management system. This technology also allows you to automatically sort the clothes based on which type of textile they fall under. For example, using RFID asset tracking software to segregate your cotton fabric clothes from silk ones can help you direct each laundry to their respective washers. In this way, there’s no need for more people attending to the sorting process.
Retail Stores
Operating a retail business entails every owner to always keep an eye out on different factors, such as stock management, asset tracking, payments and checkouts, security, and many more. When done manually, these tasks can be time-consuming, especially when you’re constantly working to meet consumer demands.
If you install RFID software on your devices, it can present many benefits and opportunities to your business and enhance the shopping experience for your customers. For instance, having RFID inventory management software can help you track sales and monitor your inventory.
You can also apply this technique in clothing stores, specifically if you aim to have a smart fitting room. This refers to a simple use of RFID technology by scanning dressing room items in RFID-powered kiosks, increasing the chances of your customers finding what they’re looking for and determining whether the product is in stock or not.
Corporate Offices
One factor that plays out in the fundamental autonomy rights of every employee is their workplace privacy. According to Jennifer Stoddart, former Canada privacy commissioner, employees spend a significant amount of time in the office. Whatever may happen there can profoundly affect their sense of dignity, freedom, and autonomy.
Through the use of RFID tags, you can customize the access control system of your workplace, leading to the prevention of theft and other security breaches. In addition, you can use RFID tracking on your biometrics systems to determine the people coming in and out of your office for an added layer of security.
Manufacturing Plants
RFID technology’s advanced contribution to the supply chain management of every business is the reason why you should incorporate it in the monitoring process of your manufacturing plant. There are various challenges that you encounter every day in a manufacturing plant, such as quality control, asset management, security risks, and production execution.
To help mitigate these issues, you can use passive RFID tags as your intelligent monitors to ensure the delivery of accurate track and trace details throughout the supply chain. You can also use RFID tags to collect timely information about the health of your factory machinery, which includes usage, maintenance history, and overall condition. In this way, you will know if you need to repair some equipment parts or replace them immediately.
Aside from that, your RFID system can generate a damage report and diagnosis on items subjected to unacceptable impacts. By scanning the product on the RFID system, you automatically determine the root cause of the destruction of the goods and prevent it in the future.
Whatever industry your business might be in, there’s always an RFID asset management system in the Philippines that you can use to make your processes more advanced and effortless. Internet of Things Philippines Inc. prides itself on being one of the country’s providers of reliable and high-quality RFID systems. We have partnered with different companies to help improve the operational management of their business and enhance the customer experience of their clients.
The Benefits of RFID Asset Management System in the Philippines
Having an RFID asset management system provides helpful benefits to your supply chain management, such as:
Asset Visibility
With the help of RFID technology, you can now easily locate lost or misplaced items. One of the essential benefits of RFID asset management is conveniently tracking down and monitoring your inventory and assets.
You can do this by attaching RFID tags anywhere in the facility so the employees can immediately identify the location and amount of each item, as well as provide the status of a shipment. This will resolve issues of poor organization and misplacement of products during the manual process.
Employee Productivity
Incorporating an RFID asset management system in your business will not require your employees to always be within the line of sight to locate an asset. This means that they don’t have to waste their time on labor-intensive processes, such as individual scanning of barcodes, searching for misplaced equipment, and manual counting of inventory amounts.
In addition, having an RFID asset management system can allow your employees to increase task speed and project turnover, effectively reducing labor costs, improving the facility’s productivity, and eliminating human error and oversight.
Risk Mitigation
Whether you’re storing items or replenishing and confirming product deliveries in the supply chain management, the RFID asset management system can help you gain quick and easy access to inventory location and information.
By tracking each asset’s movement in the facility, you can mitigate costly risks, reduce misdistribution and loss, combat counterfeiting and theft, and facilitate recalls. After all, these mistakes take time and money to fix and may result in lawsuits, heavy fines, or loss of potential clients.
How To Choose an RFID Asset Management System in the Philippines
Various RFID asset management systems are available for every type of business, and it’s essential to identify what works best for you. Choosing an RFID system unfit for your business operations can slow down your processes, leading to mistake-prone decisions and customer loss.
There are ways on how you can easily select an RFID asset management system:
• Understand How Each of the RFID Types Works
There are different types of RFID tags, and they can all be customized to fit on almost any product to track volume equipment. However, you must take note of their sensor, communication range, price, and best application to ensure that you get the most out of the RFID tag you’re buying.
• Identify Where You Will Apply the RFID Tags
You can apply RFID asset management systems in most business sectors, making this technology beneficial to several industries. However, the system must be intended for your business processes so you can determine the specific requirements.
Here are the following application scenarios of RFID asset management systems:
• One-Stop Management
• Asset Inventory
• Batch Storage
• Automatic Alarm
• Damage Report Analysis
Where Can You Get RFID Asset Management Systems in the Philippines?
Wherever you are in the Philippines, an RFID asset management system can now be within your reach through Internet of Things Philippines Inc. Our company believes in creating embedded intelligence by constantly striving for premium-quality products and exceeding our customers’ expectations. In addition, we offer innovative and unique solutions to our clients for continuous improvement and high performance.
What Is the IOT-AIMMIS Mobile Application
One of the products we offer for RFID asset management systems is our IOT-AIMMIS mobile application. This software is designed to efficiently help you monitor your fixed assets and inventories, as well as track consumables. Because it uses RFID technology, we ensure that every asset in your workplace can easily be managed, tracked, and monitored. In addition, you can set up the repair and maintenance schedules of your items automatically.
What Other Kinds of RFID Tracking Systems Can You Get From IOT Philippines?
Tool Tracking and Inventory System
Are you tired of manually tracking all the products in your inventory? We deliver products from IMPINJ to help you monitor all assets.
Laundry Management
Our laundry and medical RFID tags are small, thin discs that can help ensure accurate item counting and real-time inventory control.
Animal ID Tracking
We offer live stock glass tags that can help optimize livestock production through lifecycle management, monitoring, and feed control.
Returnable Transport Item (RTI) Asset Management
Aside from efficient logistics planning and monitoring, our Returnable Transport Item (RTI) Tracking System offers better traffic flow inside plant facilities.
Inventory Management System
To help you keep track of your products, our company offers a wide range of RFID tags that you can use instead of barcodes for fast reading of item data.
Warehouse and Logistics Tracking System
Determine the shipping status of your items with the IOT Warehouse and Logistics RFID Tracking System. It helps provide real-time monitoring of inbound and outbound items through attached RFID tags and readers.
Hospital Asset and People Tracking System
The healthcare industry has been benefiting from RFID technology. In collaboration with IMPINJ, we deliver item intelligence products for effective asset management.
Document Tracking System
If your business handles heavy piles of documents, our IOT Document Tracking System can help you manage and keep track of these files to avoid losing your data.
Conclusion
Failure to track your assets can make it difficult to precisely tell what is at your disposal, what products are coming and going, and how you use these assets for your business. Hiring employees to keep track of your asset management can help, but having an RFID asset management system is another way to make things easier.
If you’re thinking of installing one, our team at Internet of Things Philippines Inc. will gladly help you with the requirements for your business’s RFID system.
Contact us now for more information. We look forward to hearing from you.