Advertisment

Killer Applications

author-image
CIOL Bureau
Updated On
New Update

Imagine a crowded temple like Tirupati, pilgrims waiting for

endless hours for a darshan. Given the throng of devotees, can this problem be

managed? Yes, to an extent, by using RFID technology to manage pilgrim queues.

Take, for instance, the Chitale Dairy Farm, located at Bhilawadi, which

produces more than 60 mn litres of milk annually. This farm uses the RFID

technology to effectively track the feeding, milking and breeding information

relating to buffalos.

Advertisment

These are a few RFID applications for the typical Indian

environment. India may not yet be strong on retail but there are numerous

applications-both business and consumer-that can be built around RFID to

deliver greater efficiencies in operations. Though RFID started off primarily

as a retail technology, over the years applications have emerged beyond the

retail segment. Dataquest spoke at length to experts to find out where RFID can

make a difference. And surprisingly, many of the applications suggested are

beyond retail. This is only the beginning, as the market has just started

learning, comprehending and exploring the areas where RFID can be applied.

Rajesh Narang



chief system manager, Center for Railway Information System



RFID technology can be applied to capture the actual arrival

and departure time of trains at stations. This can be then fed into the servers

to answer passenger queries across the counters and on the website. It can also

be used to capture the platform number of each train and the position of each coach

in the trains standing on the platform, to relay them to passengers.

Another possible application can be capturing the movement of

freight. If two trains are coming on the same track they can exchange RFID

signals to avoid accidents. It can also be used to locate the train on its

route in real time. Another application can be in the field of medicine for

tamper prevention of prescription drugs.

Advertisment

Sundarrajan Srinivasan



practice head, RFID, Wipro Technologies



For retailers with distribution centers and manufacturers

with warehouses, deploying RFID for inbound, outbound operations can help them

improve internal supply chain efficiency, reduce operations cost and provide

better inventory visibility with distribution centers and retail back stores.

This will help them to reduce inventory significantly, contributing directly to

the bottom line of the organization. Extending this across trading

partners-suppliers, customers and logistics service providers-with EPCIS network

can help them to collaborate and better plan demand, thereby reducing out of

stock situations. It is also possible to carry out track and trace across the

value chain.

In the pharmaceutical industry, RFID can be used to reduce

counterfeiting by maintaining drug pedigree. It also saves lot of time and

money during product recall situations.

Pradhyumna T Venkat



head, RFID Solutions, Gemini Communication



Enterprise Resource Management (ERM) is the killer RFID application

in India that is pushing the market for immediate solution deployment at

affordable prices. ERM today is the starting point of RFID deployment by

companies. 

Advertisment

ERM keeps automatic track of an organization's key resources-both

men and materials.

For instance, people tracking can be a walk-through solution to

track people as they move through the read points. It can be integrated with

the access control system, PC login or attendance system. People tracking and

access solutions can be used to keep track of staff movement can be used to

restrict personnel access to certain places. Also, with the RFID based asset

management solutions an enterprise can tag various assets within the

organization like IT assets, office assets, books/documents, industrial machinery,

test instruments, office automation equipments, etc. RFID technology can allow

the enterprise to do various types of asset management like asset auditing,

asset monitoring, asset tracking and asset visibility.

Anand P Surana



CEO, Icegen Computing



There are also some large-scale projects planned or underway

by the governments of some Asian countries. This can influence India as well.

Some examples: The Japanese government's efforts to provide RFID-based

identification cards to all citizens. In Singapore efforts are on to provide

RFID tags for new-born babies and patients, and for travel ticket

management. 

Advertisment

In India, the airline industry can adopt ticket management with

RFID: This will help them service their top line executives. For example, when

the executives enter the airport lounge their boarding passes will

automatically be printed and a customer care officer will personally approach

them and greet them while handing over the boarding passes to them.

TS Rangarajan



head, RFID Solutions Group, TCS



RFID wrist bands or loyalty cards for patients can help in

reducing waiting times for patients in hospitals, to be served by doctors,

investigators and other service staff. It will climinate the need for standing

or waiting in queues and enable the patient to move about freely and be

informed when the service is ready to be provided. It will also enable

segmentation of patients for differentiated service levels based on the

category to which the patient belongs. For example, a free patient need not

pass through the billing process.

In pharma, tracking of drugs can be a critical application in a

country where counterfeiting is a huge problem. This is the foremost priority

that should be targeted. If all the drugs in the country can be tagged then the

problem of spurious drugs can be easily overcome.

Source: Dataquest

tech-news