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.
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.
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.
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.
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