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Most large companies have a wide range of potential passive RFID based asset tracking applications, such as:

			Keeping track of high value mobile assets
			Maintaining current maintenance status
			Establishing accurate on or off-site storage location data
			Locating assets to be pulled for end-of-life disposition
			Conducting efficient check in / check out procedures
			Improving security and reducing theft
			Providing real-time asset movement alerts
			Maintaining timely calibration procedures

If you are interested in tackling any from this list or have a couple of others of your own and you think that RFID technology will provide you with a solution, I recommend you first ask yourself the following question, “What are the hard earned lessons from others who have purchased and installed portals before you?”

Here’s the first lesson for the non-RFID professional: Leave the fast moving RFID hardware world to an expert. Call in an independent RFID expert that has the experience and knowledge to advise you on the proper hardware decision. This will save you time, headache and mitigate your risk of purchasing and installing a portal solution that turns out to be ill fitted and poorly supported for your application. Granted, if you have a technical background and the time, you can surely understand and intelligently select a quality reader and antenna combination that will technically fit your application. However, you can learn the technology, make the right hardware selection and still have a post RFID portal installation disaster on your hands.

And that’s because of the second hard earned lesson about portals…..

No vendor or manufacturer producing passive RFID portal fixed readers and antennas will truthfully guarantee that their portal solution will read “100% of your tags, 100% of the time.” Initially, most RFID project manager rookies believe that because RFID tags can be read “automatically” using a fixed reader…all the tags will be read all the time…and that is just not true. Several technical reasons beside the reader and antenna selection can create this dilemma. Here are just four of dozens of reasons:
 

			The number of tags in the field at the same time. (The more tags, the tougher it is to read them all, all the time.)
			The speed with which tagged items pass through the portal (The faster tags are taken through the portal, the tougher it is to read them all, all the time.)
			The sensitivity of the tag and the size/design of the antenna.
			The orientation of the tag antenna to the portal antennas. (You have little control in this area.)

It’s all about getting passive RFID portal performance expectations in line with reality. You have to tell yourself first and then your senior management that portals are not fool-proof and you therefore cannot guarantee that your recommended RFID system will always be able track all your assets 100% of the time. If I had to identify the toughest part of many passive RFID system design efforts…it’s making sure that everyone on the team understands clearly what passive RFID portals can and cannot do.

This should help you get started. Good luck.

Jim Ferguson
jferguson@dataspan.com

Added on 12/07/2011

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