Adopting RFID in pursuit of product excellence

By: Rajneesh Gupta, VP & Head – India & Subcontinent Business, Zebra Technology Asia Pacific

It has consistently contributed to GDP and employed about 20 per cent of India’s workforce, prompting the manufacturing sector to emerge as one of the country’s high-growth sectors.

However, due to incessant lockdowns and labor shortages and mass migration of workers from cities to their hometowns, among other industry challenges, the sector is still plagued by disasters including supply chain disruptions, raw material shortages and more. To address the above problems in the Indian manufacturing sector, the Government of India has introduced a number of initiatives, such as the Commodity Incentive (PLI) project, which requires the adoption of emerging technologies in the industry as the Fourth Industrial Revolution begins. To take shape

While manufacturers can trace inventory at their convenience using handheld barcode scanners or fixed industrial scanners, they must look for other industry solutions that can automatically detect and report individual items once they are out of line, at the loading dock, then out. Opportunity.

Despite the slow implementation of barcoding standards decades ago, the manufacturing industry was one of the first to implement radio frequency identification (RFID) technology for the constant visibility of transit raw materials, products and tots. RFID helps eliminate uncertainty about the status of each item and brings greater transparency to the supply chain ecosystem. This makes it easier to ensure that the right ingredients are integrated into the right product during production, creating sequentially generated records that can be used to quickly identify and pull up inconsistent lists.

How RFID can drive the sector

RFID technology has become one of the best-in-class inventory and asset management tools for manufacturers, as it provides insights needed to improve processes and eliminate wasted speeds, overtime and errors in the supply chain life cycle. This helps manufacturers keep tabs on inventory as it moves further down to distributors or customers. During transit, tags can be read at the dock door or other key handoff points, and key stakeholders can be notified about the status of products, palettes, tots, and more. Data from RFID can also be used to automate billing processes, as it can serve as a delivery and quantity verification tool. There is also the advantage of regulatory consent, as clear data sets are sent to the reporting system in real-time.

Restore control over the supply chain lifecycle

With a fixed RFID reader installed, or staff equipped with a handheld RFID reader, it becomes easier to detect and report products when they arrive, put away, sort, pack, send, or even use. In industrial settings where a wide-area reader may not fit properly, an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) can be used to read RFID tags, verify item locations, and conduct physical inventory calculations.

Whether RFID investments are made to run operations more smoothly or to improve inventory accountability and improve flow across the supply chain, proper implementation can lead to an increased level of customer satisfaction. Moreover, RFID tags are now readable on cold chain products such as metals, liquid-based items, and frozen meats, and there’s really no excuse for sticking to them – which means barcodes. This is the time to track and trace capacity and inventory management at a more automated level.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the original author only. These views and opinions do not represent those of the Indian Express Group or its employees.