RFID TECHNOLOGY FOR BEGINNERS
TO LAB OR NOT TO LAB BEYOND A SWANKY WHITE LAB COAT: THE TOOLS YOU NEED FOR SUCCESSFUL TESTING SETTING UP YOUR LAB X-RAY MARKS THE SPOT: FIND THE PERFECT LOCATION PHYSICS EYE FOR THE LAB GUY: DESIGN THE PHYSICAL LAYOUT SET UP THE TEST EQUIPMENT BUILD SPECIFIC TEST EQUIPMENT DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT STANDARDIZED TEST PROCEDURES READY, SET, TEST! LOOKING AT THE MATERIAL COMPOSITION OF THE ITEMS YOU’RE TAGGING EXAMINING RF TRANSPARENT, REFLECTING, AND ABSORBING MATERIALS USING THE RF FRIENDLINESS PYRAMID TO UNDERSTAND THE OPTIMAL SPOT FOR TESTING CHOOSING A TAG TO TEST TESTING TAGS IN AN APPLICATIONS TEST FACILITY SETTING UP THE TESTING ENVIRONMENT CARRYING OUT THE TEST FREQUENCY RESPONSE CHARACTERIZATION: TESTING TAGS WITH PHYSICS ENCODING AND APPLYING TAGS TAG AND SHIP INLINE PRODUCTION APPLICATION THE SECRETS OF READ SUCCESS AVOIDING CROSS TALK ENSURING HIGH-SPEED READS EXECUTING FULL PALLET READS CHOOSING A HAND-HELD, MOBILE, OR FIXED-LOCATION READER READING BETWEEN THE LINES: CRITICAL BUYING CRITERIA CONSIDER ALL THE COSTS INVOLVED TEST READER PERFORMANCE ASSESS CONNECTIVITY EVALUATE HOW WELL THE READER CAN BE FINE-TUNED INSTALLING A READER AND ANTENNAS MOUNT THE READER MOUNT AND CONNECT THE ANTENNAS POWER UP THE READER TEST THE INTERROGATION ZONE FOR RF PATH LOSS FILTER, SMOOTH, ROUTE: UNDERSTANDING WHAT YOU NEED MIDDLEWARE TO DO EXPLORING MIDDLEWARE VENDORS AND THEIR OFFERINGS PIECING TOGETHER A MIDDLEWARE ARCHITECTURE NO MORE TIERS: GRASPING THE MANY LEVELS OF A MIDDLEWARE ARCHITECTURE TAKING STOCK OF EXISTING INVESTMENTS AND SKILLS EARLY BIRD OR LATE BLOOMER? PRIORITIZING YOUR MIDDLEWARE NEEDS GETTING THE MOST FROM YOUR RFID MIDDLEWARE PART IV: RAISING THE BEAMS FOR YOUR NETWORK CREATING A PILOT PROJECT PLAN START WITH YOUR MAJOR TASKS AND TIMELINE DELIVERABLE TRACKER THERE’S ALWAYS AN ISSUE WITH YOU: TRACKING AND RESOLVING PROBLEMS THERE IS NO I IN TEAM (BUT THERE IS AN M AND AN E) FACTORS FOR A SUCCESSFUL PILOT TEST CLEARLY DEFINED SCOPE EXPERIENCED PROJECT MANAGER KEY EXECUTIVE SUPPORT USER INVOLVEMENT SPECIFIC MEASUREMENTS AND METRICS RISK MITIGATION PHASED APPROACH MOVING FROM PILOT TO PRODUCTION GETTING THE MOST OF YOUR PILOT DATA: THE PROJECT DEBRIEF TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL PRODUCTION SYSTEM CONFIGURING AND SETTING UP TAG READERS BEFORE YOU BEGIN STEPPING THROUGH A READER SETUP CREATING CONFIGURATION CLASSES GETTING THE DIGITS A SIMPLE HIERARCHY FOR ASSIGNING NUMBERS ALLOCATING UNIQUE NUMBERS ACROSS MANY LINES AND LOCATIONS APPLYING TAGS TO OBJECTS APPLYING TAGS WITHOUT BREAKING THEM NORTH BY NORTHWEST AS THE CORRUGATION TRAVELS: ORIENTING TAGS ON OBJECTS SENDING OBJECTS THROUGH YOUR BUSINESS LINING UP TAGS AND READERS JUST LIKE THE NEONATAL WARD: HANDLE WITH CARE SCHOOL’S IN SESSION — TRAINING YOUR STAFF STARTING READERS MANUALLY IDENTIFYING AND RESPONDING TO MISSED READS REINFORCING PROCESSES VERSUS CHANGING THEM EXPLAINING HOW RFID AFFECTS EMPLOYEES WHY MONITOR AN RFID STATION? SETTING UP TWO TYPES OF MONITORING CHECKING THAT A READER IS ACTIVE CHOOSING THE RIGHT METHOD A SIMPLE HUMAN INTERFACE: ENABLING OPERATORS TO MONITOR THE SYSTEM MEASURING AND INTERPRETING SYSTEM BEHAVIOR BUILDING A STATISTICAL MONITORING APPROACH BREAKING DATA INTO TIME INTERVALS MEASURE 1: THE AVERAGE TAG TRAFFIC VOLUME (ATTV) MEASURE 2: READ ERRORS TO TOTAL READS (RETR) MEASURE 3: READ ERROR CHANGE RATES (RECR) MEASURE 4: ACTUAL VERSUS PREDICTED TRAFFIC RATE (APTR) MEASURE 5: MEAN TIME BETWEEN FAILURE (MTBF) MONITORING AS YOU EXPAND YOUR RFID NETWORK SETTING UP A MONITORING SYSTEM PART V: HOW TO SPEAK BEAN COUNTER FINDING THE FIRST-ROUND DRAFT PICKS FOR YOUR RFID TEAM A GAME PLAN IS MORE THAN XS AND OS — USE A PROVEN METHODOLOGY STEP 1 REFINE THE PROCESS AND CONDUCT TEAM TRAINING STEP 2 DETERMINE SCOPE AND ASSUMPTIONS STEP 3 DETERMINE DRIVERS, STRATEGIES, AND ENABLERS STEP 4 IDENTIFY AND ASSESS BUSINESS PROCESSES AND INTERFACES STEP 5 IDENTIFY COMPLEMENTARY OR COMPETING BUSINESS INITIATIVES STEP 6 IDENTIFY STRATEGIC AND ECONOMIC BENEFITS STEP 7 DEVELOP INVESTMENT REQUIREMENTS STEP 8 DEVELOP AN IMPLEMENTATION ROAD MAP STEP 9 COMMUNICATE THE BUSINESS CASE JUST IN TIME TO JUSTIFY: OVERCOMING SKEPTICISM WITH STRATEGIC THINKING CALCULATING ROI — A TACTICAL APPROACH TO RFID CHA-CHING! FINDING WAYS TO SAVE WITH RFID TALLYING UP THE ESTIMATED COSTS PUTTING TOGETHER A COSTS/BENEFITS ANALYSIS ROI AS A TOOL FOR STRATEGIC EXPANSION TAG AND YOU’RE IT: RFID AS A COMPETITIVE STRATEGY WHY OUTSOURCE YOUR RFID NETWORK? IDENTIFYING AND AVOIDING THE RISKS IS OUTSOURCING RIGHT FOR YOU? DO YOUR GOALS AND TIMELINE INDICATE A CLEAR NEED TO OUTSOURCE? DO YOU NEED TO RUN OR OWN THE SYSTEM? ANALYZING YOUR RESOURCES MONEY, MONEY, MONEY: COMPARING OUTSOURCING AND INTERNAL COSTS PERFORMANCE ANXIETY: CAN YOU BUILD A NETWORK THAT WORKS? FINDING THE PERFECT MATCH FIGURING OUT THE RFP PROCESS SPELLING OUT YOUR NEEDS IN AN RFP SELECTING POTENTIAL OUTSOURCING PARTNERS EVALUATING RESPONSES TO YOUR RFP SEALING THE DEAL WITH AN SLA DRAFTING THE INITIAL SLA NEGOTIATING AN SLA WITH A VENDOR PART VI: THE PART OF TENS ALIEN TECHNOLOGY ACCU-SORT APPLIED WIRELESS IDENTIFICATIONS (AWID) FOX IV TECHNOLOGIES IMPINJ INTERMEC TECHNOLOGIES MARKEM SYMBOL TECHNOLOGIES, INC (FORMERLY MATRICS) ODIN TECHNOLOGIES OMRON ELECTRONICS SAMSYS TECHNOLOGIES TEXAS INSTRUMENTS (TI) THINGMAGIC RFID JOURNAL ONLINE EPCGLOBAL IDTECHEX RFID SOLUTIONS ONLINE RFID EXCHANGE RFID UPDATE AUTO-ID LABS AUTO-ID LAB @ ADELAIDE THE RFID GAZETTE UCLA’S RFID@WINMEC SITE SLASHDOT CHRIS FENNIG, ODIN TECHNOLOGIES JOE WHITE, SYMBOL TECHNOLOGIES (FORMERLY MATRICS, INC ) DUNCAN MCCOLLUM, COMPUTER SCIENCES CORPORATION (CSC) DR DANIEL ENGELS, MIT AUTO-ID LABS DR PATRICK KING, MICHELIN TIRE CORPORATION STEVE KOWALKE, ACCU-SORT SYSTEMS TEAM TAG-IT, TEXAS INSTRUMENTS KEVIN MACDONALD, LEAD RFID ARCHITECT, SUN MICROSYSTEMS MARK NELSON, SAVI TECHNOLOGY EAN UCC UCCNET ISO/IEC JT1/SC17 ISO/IEC JTC1/SC31/WG4 AIAG CONTAINER SHIPMENTS CONTAINER SECURITY INITIATIVE (CSI) SMART AND SECURE TRADELANES