RFID tags now work on metal

There has been a long standing rumor in the marketplace that RFID tags are not compatible with metal surfaces. While this may have been true at one time, new developments in the technology make this a problem of the past.

A number of vendors now make metal mount RFID tags, this month ODIN technologies has published a benchmark study of different products that are now available in the marketplace which make metal mounting possible.

Many companies who have wanted to utilize RFID have hedged because of this problem. The tags in the study were read in operational settings where metal surfaces such as shelves or server racks were present and potentially inhibit successful tag reads. You can see the study here. In short, the following tags were tested and deemed appropriate for adhesion to metal surfaces:

• Avery Dennison: AD-900, AD-902, AD-908
• Confidex: Halo, Ironside, Steelwave
• Emerson & Cummings: Ecopad
• Intermec: Large Rigid, Small Rigid
• Omni-ID: Flex, Micro, Mini
• Sontec: C0101, P01016BTTROI: MMT-3001, MMT-3004, PC-102

You can read the report here:

Metal Mount RFID Tags Benchmarked By ODIN Technologies

How can BizTalk and RFID work together?

Radio Frequency Identification tags (RFID) are becoming widely adopted by business as a cost cutting tool. BizTalk Server is also widely adopted for its ability to integrate systems and by proxy cut costs. BizTalk is ideal for RFID solutions to transition the physical event to a digital process in an automated way. Let’s take a look at a real world example of how they can work together.

BizTalk interfaces with RFID in one of 2 ways:

• At the moment an RFID tag is printed
• At the moment an RFID tag is read

BizTalk initiates and correlates a print job

Let’s say you manufacture computers, and your computers are made to order. You want to make sure your customer gets the computer they actually ordered, so it’s important to identify it.

So your customer places an order on your B2B website. A BizTalk workflow is initiated that gathers up all the requirements for the order and passes it on to the ERP system for fulfillment. Once the ERP system shows the order fulfilled, BizTalk is then tasked with tagging the machine for delivery. BizTalk initiates the printing of the RFID tag and correlates it to that specific order; the printed sticker is attached to the new computer.

RFID and BizTalk initiate the delivery cycle

So the new computer is built, checked and packaged for delivery. A truck arrives at the loading dock, and a forklift places a load of orders on a palette and moves it to the loading bay. While in the process of loading the palette on the truck the passive RFID tags pass under an RFID reader.

This action is sensed by BizTalk because the RFID reader is attached to a BizTalk server which is ‘subscribed’ for listening to messages from that reader and kicks off an advanced shipping notice message to the client. At the same time, BizTalk checks to make sure that the RFID reader’s location matches the truck in that location to make sure the correct truck is delivering the order. The advanced shipping notice is received by the customer to notify them their order is on its way, and the invoicing process begins.


Uh oh, one year later, computer breaks

So your company has a great warranty plan and unfortunately something went wrong with that computer that was purchased a year ago. How can RFID be of help?

Well, your call center logs a call and BizTalk receives a message that this computer (with a known RFID tag) will be sent to the service center to be repaired. Eventually it will arrive and when it does, the RFID reader at the shipping dock will recognize the tag and notify BizTalk of its arrival. BizTalk updates the call center’s call with this status. The customer can now know the computer arrived for repair.

A technician is assigned to the repair, and BizTalk passed the details of this computer to that technicians work queue.

BizTalk waits for the repair to take place and notifies the call center when it’s complete. The computer is working again and needs to be sent back to the client.

The RFID tagged computer goes under an RFID reader when it’s being loaded and same ‘workflow’ that happened when the computer was originally sent takes place with an advanced shipping notice and, since its under warranty, a 0$ invoice is created.

Automation

If you’ll notice, all the steps here took place with almost no human intervention. There was no person at the loading dock checking off shipments, nobody faxing invoices or shipping notices, and nobody needed to reconcile the shipments at the end of the day.

If it were just BizTalk being used, some level of automation would be present, but with the combination of BizTalk and RFID, it’s possible to automate it all and that is where using them together is such a cost saver: less human interaction means less man-hours and fewer mistakes.

RFID Presentation at MICSUG, Reston VA

This week I presented on Microsoft BizTalk RFID at the MICSUG (Microsoft Integration and Connected Systems User Group) for the Washington, DC area. The presentation was held at the Microsoft office in Reston.

The main topics that were addressed were architecture of the RFID code base, RFID as a platform, and case studies which demonstrated significant ROI’s. In addition we discussed how RFID and BizTalk work together.

RFID demonstrates a big step forward in BizTalk Server’s capabilities because it now enables connectivity to actual devices rather than software to software transactions which are traditional means of using BizTalk. It’s a brand new paradigm and the audience sensed the shift as the realization that almost any device can be tied into an enterprise using BizTalk.

Exciting times.