Conditions for the use of radio frequency identification in logistics systems

The importance of product identification is crucial for all material flow control systems. The next stage in the development of logistics systems is the application of so-called “electronic labels” to identify loads in production and distribution. One of the primary motives for promoting RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology is the promise of better load movement tracking and faster dissemination of data on the current location of loads in production processes and distribution.

It is expected that in order to register a load in a computer system, it would be sufficient for a pallet with goods to move past an appropriate reader, which receives signals from radio labels attached to individual packages placed on the pallet. Many companies are currently involved in implementing pilot deployments of this technology. However, one might get the impression that the informational aspect of this new technology is being overlooked, assuming it is a type of improvement on a proven identification technique, such as barcodes. It turns out, however, that what lies at the foundation of RFID technology is merely a set of elements enabling the function of reading and transmitting a product number using radio waves. Reading a barcode and reading an electronic label (RFID tag) require a similar set of elements and operate on a similar principle of reflecting a signal sent by a reader. Despite these superficial similarities, each of these methods has completely different properties. Due to these differences, they require different conditions for correct use for the purposes for which they were created. The result of neglecting these differences is the observed failures of attempts to implement RFID technology into logistics practice. During pilot deployments of RFID technology in logistics systems, one can also get the impression of chaos surrounding the introduction of the new technology. Usually, it was only after completing a pilot deployment that the usefulness of the applied solutions was checked, often finding negligible benefits from its introduction. Right at the beginning of implementations, it was determined that tags to which something could be written at any time could not be used for identifying products, and two classes of passive tags were introduced. After this modification, it turned out that this was not enough due to privacy protection. The new tags – in addition to a threefold reduction in dimensions and a tenfold increase in reading speed, have such different properties that systems using tags of both generations ceased to be compatible. In these tags, one can save not only the product number but also a password to protect data from unauthorized reading, and furthermore, the record can be destroyed by the reader.