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Reading Article : Lessons from 1400 RFID case studies

2007-07-19T23:36:00.000+07:00

Lessons from 1400 RFID case studies
May 18, 2005

IDTechEx has recently celebrated reaching 1400 case studies of RFID in action. This is more than ten times the number of case studies amassed by any other company and it lists technical detail as well as giving extensive commentary and analysis where possible. It spans 68 countries and the activities of 1529 organisations at the time of writing. However, our team are adding case studies at a rapid rate while continuously updating the existing studies. By the time of Smart Labels USA in Baltimore in June there will be 1500 case studies. So what are the lessons?

Paybacks – no surprises

Some aspects are not changing. For example, paybacks are still most commonly found in the one to two year range, though many of the case studies cover trials and rollouts where paybacks are uncertain. It is still true that retailing and consumer goods involves the largest number of RFID projects, but, although deliveries of tags to this sector have now risen to the region of 10 million per month that is far from being the most important sector in term of value or number of tags or value of infrastructure. The RFID business remains a smart card/ payment key fob business in value of tags and infrastructure. The largest projects have not involved EPC tags and they include the $6 billion China national ID card scheme and the delivery last year of 50 million RFID tickets for Osaka World Fair by Toppan Printing using Hitachi Mu Solutions RFID inlets.

EPC is not yet the big market

The ICAO RFID passport scheme involves around 30 countries and 300 passports working at High Frequency HF. It has got off to a slow start but it will rise in importance in the next three years perhaps reaching 20 million yearly. That may not seem much but, like most RFID smart cards, these labels and inserts cost 15 times as much as a retailer's EPC tag - the chip alone costs two dollars in a passport because of the large memory, sophisticated security and use of a microprocessor. RFID smart cards also have sophisticated security and microprocessors. The China ID card is an exception as it has hard wired logic and no microprocessor but it still costs $1.25, 6.25 times the cost of today's retailer's EPC tag and the gap will widen as EPC tags sell in larger numbers and their costs tumble further.

Animal tagging by law means expensive tags

It may be that the high unit price of animal tags will, together with legislation in many countries mandating their use on livestock, lead to this being the second largest market for RFID tags by value this year but, although we note suppliers of these Low Frequency LF tags with necessarily sophisticated encapsulation for ruggedness, biocompatibility etc are doubling and trebling output that may or may not be enough for demand and case studies of the tags in action are difficult to obtain.

Changes in the listing of most important countries

The countries that are most important for RFID in numbers of projects are changing. As the histogram below shows, China and Japan are now more important than when we last reported, jumping up the league table to number three and number five. We expect to report unusually large activity in Korea as well and China will rise to the top in number of case studies, number of tags and by many other criteria. Japan will probably overtake the UK in number of case studies soon. However, the bigger surprise is how slowly RFID is moving in continental Europe, leaving the UK well ahead of the rest of Europe in number of case studies. Where is the continental equivalent of the $1.6 billion London bus/ train RFID order, the Tesco purchase of 4000 interrogators for $8 million or so or Marks and Spencer's rollout of apparel tagging? Which continental military organisation is matching UK spend on military RFID?
Surprises
We are very surprised by this. The German economy and population is much larger than that of the UK. When IDTechEx moved its Smart Labels Europe conference from the UK to the South of France last year, it was still mainly Americans and British attending and we now realise that it was because, in the West, the UK and US remains where the action is. French companies in RFID tell us they sell most of their product outside France. In continental Europe, only the Netherlands has high RFID spend per head but Finland will start to qualify with RFID in a large proportion of Nokia's new cellphones. In manufacture of RFID tags and systems there is a very different picture again with UPM Rafsec of Finland in the first division globally for library and pallet/ case tags and many French and German companies with world class output.

With passport tagging, nearly all the projects represent foreigners getting the orders - Oberthur of France got Belgium, Setec of Finland got Sweden and the US granting trials to Israeli and European companies among others. Explanations on a postcard please.

To view the charts containing the data, click here.

Applications

Analysing applications is fraught with difficulty because everyone has different definitions and one has to decide, for example, whether to report every marathon where a tag is behind the runners number (eg from UPM Rafsec) or in the runner's shoe (eg Texas Instruments) or do one case study for all of them. Some applications fall into two categories. We take a middle road and some truths emerge.

Leisure applications are largely one offs like marathons and venue events. There are a large number of case studies in this category but more money is being spent, for now, in Retail/ consumers goods, in land and sea logistics/ postal, and, above all, financial/ security/ safety, with this latter sector being boosted by Visa and MasterCard starting a serious move to RFID credit and debit cards this year. Passenger Transport/ automotive at number two has even more cases and the car clicker and intermodal transport card still represent some of the largest and most lucrative projects in RFID for both tags and systems.

Surprisingly, of the smaller RFID sectors, Books/ libraries/ archiving seems to be moving forward faster than the application of RFID in Manufacturing as measured by number of case studies and anecdotal evidence of the size of the projects, possibly because there are more paybacks. The small number of laundries using RFID is increasing slowly but they still absorb double the number of tags used in libraries.

To view the charts containing the data, click here.

HF still the dominant frequency

Obviously numbers of case studies is only one criterion for what is going on. Indeed, when we look at frequency, we see HF still in the lead, as it is on any criterion, but UHF coming up fast. However, the uses of UHF are nearly all trials and rollouts with, as yet, modest numbers of tags and spend on infrastructure. We all know that will change and UHF may even be the most popular frequency next year and for a few years later but with a high probability of reversion to HF being dominant as the largest applications of all - item level - grow with HF as the preferred, though not the only frequency. That is the lesson of somewhat problematic trials of UHF on drugs for example, and drug companies seeming to prefer HF on current experience. A major supplier of both UHF and HF tags has recently confirmed this view when we visited them.

The most popular shapes are changing

The most popular tag shapes include "buttons" and "bullets" for animals, manufacturing parts and so on but it is now cards by gross value, labels by numbers and rapidly trending to labels by any criterion. This largely reflects the largest or most prevalent applications over the years but there has been some move to labels caused by cost reduction of tags that were previously moulded in plastic for certain applications such as road tolling and logistics. For active tags - 15% of our case studies and 23% of all tags ever sold, we now see button batteries as by far the most common power source, not the AA and customised batteries of times past. That means active tags are smaller, with matchbox and disc shapes replacing boxes of electronics and large plastic mouldings. Smart active labels - basically active RFID in the form of labels with printed batteries no more than 0.5 mm thick - are not selling in more than millions yearly nor are there many SAL projects to report. This is despite the excellent efforts of the Smart Active Labels Consortium but their time will come.

Payback surprises

RFID paybacks are still mainly in the acceptable range of one to two years. The shortest paybacks claimed involve changes to working practices as a result of the new visibility. Paybacks are commonly believed to revolve around cost reduction and our 1400 studies bear this out. However, customer service improvement is not far behind, from smart cards you can use when wet to reducing empty shelves in shops and queues in libraries. In the military that translates into the ability to mount operations that would be impossible previously. Most can be quantified.

Project size

The size of the projects varies from a few thousand dollars to six billion dollars. That means that the largest reported RFID project in the world is more than three times the size of the largest five years ago and ten times the size of the largest ten years ago. The larger figures involve system integration and sometimes facilities management. Projects costing millions and tens of millions of dollars are increasingly commonplace.

The number of tags involved in a given project varies from under ten units to one billion units and we expect larger projects to be reported soon. Procter and Gamble has 2.5 billion pallets and cases at any one time for example and they must be tagged as soon as the physics is conquered. Marks and Spencer in the UK is moving rapidly towards tagging 350 million items of apparel yearly and Metro Germany may tag even more produce if it starts to move as fast. Metro's systematic commissioning of different applications one at a time is proving sound.

Of course, the value of the IDTechEx Knowledgebase of over 1400 case studies of RFID in action goes beyond statistical analysis of trends. Manufacturers use it to find new markets and to track competition. Users check out suppliers and their clients' opinions of them. All can benchmark best practice and lessons of failures such as the US school that tagged all pupils without consultation and withdrew the scheme in the face of energetic protest from both students and their parents. However, other schools have spotted the potential for saving lives and increasing efficiency and intend to do it properly. Benetton of Italy pulled out of apparel tagging seeing no payback and facing privacy protests: companies in Japan and elsewhere are going ahead with it as fast as they reasonably can. The evolving case studies will track who was right.

To view the charts containing the data, click here

To investigate further and subscribe if you wish see www.rfidbase.com.

Smart Labels USA 2005 covers many of these applications. See www.smartlabelsusa.com.
Dr Peter Harrop

By Dr Peter Harrop

Reference : http://www.idtechex.com/products/en/articles/00000176.asp

Thanks a lot about this article.

Tradition Running

2007-07-07T01:13:00.000+07:00

It's Tradition of Faculty of Engineering,Kasetsart University(BangKhen).Seniors will teach their Freshman to sacrifice yourself to other(aqquire "SOTUS").To run with friends in every 5-man row and your arm over friend's nece,you can't press or pull friend's nece (increase pain to your friend).If your friend down,your row will out of the running row.Until your friend recover,you can get in.
Every action,make reasonable utility.Keep the utility and throw all things you look over it's not good thing.
Dedicated to all of my brothers and sisters of Eng Kaset.

Let's bike!

2007-07-01T12:02:00.000+07:00

in 70's or 80's (not sure),Kasetsart University was recorded to be the place where had the most bicycle park lot in Thailand.Nowaday there is a few of bicycle in KU BangKhen.
Bicycle make me breath the fresh air(No smoke) and comfortable to travel around the campus.
In my last year in KU,I wanna have my ride.
Check it at the shop!
http://www.la-bicycle.com/th/index.php

Wi-Fi 802.11n is comin'

2007-06-28T00:34:00.000+07:00

Wi-Fi Alliance® Begins Testing of Next-Generation Wi-Fi Gear

Wide range of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ 802.11n draft 2.0 products expected to be available in time for back-to-school purchases

AUSTIN, TEXAS, June 25, 2007 - Interoperability certification for high-performance Wi-Fi gear is now underway. Wi-Fi Alliance Authorized Test Laboratories began testing products today, and Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 802.11n draft 2.0 products are anticipated to arrive on store shelves this summer - in time for students returning to school to do so with the very latest generation of Wi-Fi gear.

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 802.11n draft 2.0 products have been tested for interoperability across vendors, adherence to WPA2™ (Wi-Fi Protected Access) security protocols, and backward compatibility with more than 3,500 Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 802.11n a/b/g products. Products based on the new IEEE 802.11n draft deliver up to five times the throughput and up to twice the range of those based on previous standards, enabling a wide range of content-rich applications, and delivering those applications over a larger footprint. The certification program also includes WMM® (Wi-Fi Mutlimedia) quality of service, which helps deliver the best user experience with applications such as video, voice, and gaming.

"Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 802.11n draft 2.0 Wi-Fi brings the digital home of the future to life today, and revolutionizes the capabilities of enterprise networking. It is the most important advance for Wi-Fi technology since its invention," said Wi-Fi Alliance managing director Frank Hanzlik. "With the launch of this certification program, the industry as a whole has come together to deliver the very best user experience - helping ensure that consumers and enterprises can purchase with confidence and make the most of advanced Wi-Fi technology today."

"With the advancements offered by 802.11n, Wi-Fi takes center stage as a key technology for networked digital home applications such as streaming high-definition video and interactive gaming," said Kurt Scherf, vice president and principal analyst with Parks Associates. "Because Wi-Fi is so easy to use, and certification means different brands of gear work together, we expect the momentum to continue. There will be substantial implementation of 802.11n Wi-Fi in certain consumer electronics products."

With a strong pipeline of products already scheduled for certification testing, the Alliance expects very high demand for certification testing. The following laboratories will begin testing this week for the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 802.11n draft 2.0 program to help ensure that testing services are available to member companies in every region:

* AT4 wireless (Malaga, Spain)
* ADT (Taoyuan Hsien, Taiwan)
* Allion (Taipei Taiwan)
* CETECOM Inc. (Milpitas, California)
* SGS (Yokohama, Japan)
* SGS (Taipei, Taiwan)
* TUV Rheinland (Yokohama, Japan)
* TUV Rheinland (Pleasanton, California)

Wi-Fi Alliance Authorized Test Laboratories are independent, ISO-accredited testing facilities.

The Wi-Fi Alliance has released a white paper entitled "Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 802.11n draft 2.0: Bringing Interoperability to Longer-Range, Higher-Throughput, Multimedia-Grade Networks," which details draft 802.11n enhancements as well as the certification testing program and is available for free download at the Wi-Fi Alliance Web site. A white paper for consumers and retailers entitled "Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 802.11n draft 2.0: Taking Wi-Fi to the Next Level," as well as a product search tool for Wi-Fi CERTIFIED products, are also available at www.wi-fi.org.

ps.thanks a lot to
http://www.wi-fi.org/pressroom_overview.php?newsid=574
and http://www.blognone.com/node/5044

Who you are in Final Fantasy???

2007-06-26T18:39:00.000+07:00

Result is ...

thanks http://www.ff-fan.com for vote

"RFID PROJEKT" decision!!!

2007-06-25T15:30:00.000+07:00

i choose many case-studies to decision what is my project topic
1.RFID in Medical profile of patient(profile,allergy medicine)
2.RFID in Post Office (delivery profile,
3.RFID in Traveling(tourist,information access)
4. ...(update soon)

PS.If you pick my idea to develope your project or else,please comment what you think.It may be useful for me.Thanks so much. (: >

RFID topic on adsense

2007-06-22T09:18:00.000+07:00

adsense ads. help me to open up my vision for topic.Thx google

Facts of Kasetsart(Bangkhen Campus)

2007-06-20T22:13:00.000+07:00

About 2 day,I quiz my CPE freshy many thing about this place:-
1.The Legend of Loving way
2.7-11 close at 4pm
3.where is "Sahapoch"?
4.Where is "Buddhakaset"?
5.Where is "Newer bar"?
6.Where is "Fac. of Fishery" now?
7.Which building is the oldest in Fac. of Engineering?
8.Which building is the newest in Fac. of Engineering(Finished)?
9.Where is "Plant shop" in KU?
10.How many floor in CPE building?
11.What is the name of principle Buddha image in a Buddhakaset?
12.Where is Freshwater aquarium?
13."The Shutter" use location in KU,Where is it?
14."Rice Shape" Flag pole

and more...
i will update all soon as possible

Projekt Idea

2007-06-13T13:25:00.000+07:00

Yesterday,i met my project advisor.Tell him my idea about RFID application to open electronic circuit of office.He said it's so simple.(after i listen to him,i agree with that.)
He guide me an idea of RFID app. "to present the database structure more useable,acceptable cost and can solution real world problem."
all idea i tell him,he think one of them can be work.It is "medical solution".

now,I need to think more...

Two Studies Describe the RFID Workforce

2007-06-09T01:19:00.000+07:00

Two Studies Describe the RFID Workforce
A pair of reports released last week provides insights into the industry's emerging workforce. One says RFID vendors and integrators face a shortage of RFID professionals, while another indicates end users prefer workers with industry-specific hands-on experience.

By Mary Catherine O'Connor

June 7, 2007—Last week, the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), a nonprofit organization providing certifications for technology professionals, released the results of its annual survey of RFID technology resellers, value-added resellers, solution providers, systems integrators and others directly involved in the delivery of IT products and services. In addition, RFID Tribe, an association for RFID professionals, revealed its completion of a 60-page report on the results of a survey it conducted with 100 members currently offering or planning to soon offer RFID integration and deployment services, most based on Electronic Product Code (EPC) technology.

While the available pool of RFID talent is getting bigger, CompTIA reports, it's still not sufficient to meet the current demand for qualified RFID professionals. However, says Steve Ostrowski, CompTIA's corporate public relations manager, the degree to which the need for workers is undermining RFID technology's growth appears to be waning. Slightly less than 70 percent of CompTIA survey respondents said they believe employers currently have an insufficient pool of RFID talent from which to hire. Of that group, Ostrowski states, 68 percent indicated the lack of workers skilled in RFID is negatively impacting the adoption of the technology. "But that's down from the year before," he notes. "In last year's survey, four out of five respondents said it would hinder [RFID] adoption."

Still, opinions on the topic seem highly variable, as only 53 percent of the 2005 survey respondents who deemed the talent pool too low also considered its size a hindrance to adoption. "It's hard to say why the attitude about this is changing, because we speak with different people each year," Ostrowski adds. But it's likely that another year of experience deploying the technology is showing that factors other than talent are creating obstacles to deployment.

In another part of the survey, respondents were asked to name the top three obstacles their firms face today, in terms of growing their RFID service offerings. Those surveyed said the top obstacle is gaining customers (RFID end users). In fact, nearly half of the respondents said they have not yet completed any permanent RFID deployments. The second biggest obstacle identified was an insufficient talent pool, followed by technological problems during RFID system implementation.

The RFID Tribe report takes a broader view of the RFID industry, concentrating not just on the growth of EPC-based applications, but also on the more-established uses of the technology, from mass-transit fare systems and highway toll collection to manufacturing automation and uniform-tracking applications. Based on current RFID-related employment trends, the report predicts, the global RFID workforce will grow to 1 million people by 2017. This will include RFID professionals deploying passive supply chain applications with UHF tags, active real-time location systems for asset tracking, and near-field communication projects aimed at consumer and business applications, as well as transportation and logistics applications.

The study analyzes the current RFID workforce by function (executives, sales and marketing, engineering, research and development), as well as by segment, defined as end-users, vendors, academia, government and quasi-governmental organizations, and geography.

Key findings from the RFID Tribe study, according to Mark Johnson, the association's president, included a markedly high turnover rate among RFID professionals and the emergence of Asia as the region holding the most promise of growth for RFID career seekers.

Johnson found that RFID end users are putting more stock into a firm's past experiences installing and maintaining RFID systems than in the number of its employees able to brandish RFID training certificates from CompTIA and other organizations. He notes that while RFID training and certification plays an important role in growing and maturing the RFID industry, end users would rather hire people with hands-on experience.

"Professional skills certifications do not equate to effectiveness in RFID implementations," Johnson says. "Passing a certification test does not insure that an individual has relevant RFID project experience, or that an individual has the commercial sense to make RFID technology work effectively in a given situation. Certifications based on passing written tests are valuable—but skills certifications are not a panacea for an organization's RFID woes, nor do they guarantee a successful RFID implementation."

The RFID Tribe's workforce study also found that industry domain expertise—in such vertical areas as health care, logistics or payments—can make vendors especially attractive to potential RFID end users interested in deploying or testing the technology in a vertical application. "A professional who has experience in a hospital facility, as well as RFID project experience," Johnson adds, "is more valued by a health-care end-user than a professional who has RFID experience but lacks experience with health-care facilities."

RFID Tribe used an online survey tool to collect data for its report, then conducted follow-up interviews with some of the 100 respondents to clarify answers provided and collect qualitative information. Additionally, the association utilized data from the RFID Talent and Career Center, an RFID technology job board hosted by RFID Tribe. The full report is available for download from the RFID Tribe Web site at a cost of $99 for a single copy. A license for five downloads costs $299.

CompTIA collected 64 responses for its survey, which was also Web-based. CompTIA members can download the full report free by logging into the organization's members-only page, while non-members may purchase the report. Interested parties should send an e-mail to research@comptia.org

from www.rfidjournal.com

New Semester,Countdown 9 month

2007-06-09T01:10:00.000+07:00

Welcome back to KU,I am a senior of CPE which is the oldest of undergraduate.
This year i have a lot of free time but i have to do the project(calculate and equal zero,no different( X< ).
i planned my project indicate about RFID but i have a little information of it,Next Feb is my deadline.

This blog is also my notebook.to memorized my idea.wish u read and thanks everyone who read 'til end.

have a nice day,everyone

good news and bad news

2007-05-20T20:07:00.000+07:00

"Jimmy Kimmel Performance
If you guys missed LP last night on the Jimmy Kimmel Show, you're in luck. You can watch the performance HERE at Youtube.com. LP sang "What I've Done" and "Bleed It out" and did an amazing job. Kudos to LP!" from www.linkin-parkworld.com

Yes,That's the good news for LPSS(Linkin park street soldier) like me,but sadly I am in Thailand.
Youtube is blocked,I can't go to that link directly.WTH

ps.maybe try to use proxy or pray for unblocked youtube from ICT (the 2nd i never think it can be )

new blog,new semester

2007-05-20T19:50:00.000+07:00

Hello everyone
This is my new blog after finding new place to plant my site.
Please visit my site ,i'll try my best to write often
Thanks,kindness visitor