Using radiofrequency identification, RFID, allows businesses in all types of industries to quickly identify individual products and to easily track them throughout the entire production and supply chain cycle. RFID labels, tags, or tickets, created with RFID insertion equipment, help companies to better manage inventory and provide a host of benefits that provide cost-saving efficiencies.
How RFID Helps Manage Inventory Control
RFID technology utilizes radio waves to communicate between an RFID tag or label and an RFID reader. The RFID microchip is inserted into a paper label, a plastic tag, or similar material and affixed to the product it is intended to track. This can include finished goods inventory items, kits of components, shipping containers or pallets, or even delivery trucks. The RFID reader receives and transmits radio signals to and from the RFID tag as the data is collected and processed with special computer software. Readers can be located in various positions throughout a facility for real-time tracking of product movement.
Benefits of RFID for Inventory Management
RFID technology has revolutionized the way companies manage and control inventory across a broad range of industries. RFID provides quick and easy product information and location to improve accurate inventory counts, improved product picking, and increased customer satisfaction. RFID tags improve manufacturing and warehousing inventory operations as well as add a layer of security to retail establishments.
Some of the most recognizable ways that RFID tags improve inventory management include:
- RFID tags can be read up to a distance of several meters without the need for line-of-sight scanning, such as with barcodes
- RFID readers are able to read and process several tags simultaneously
- Tags or labels are assigned unique ID codes to accurately track individual products
- RFID labels or tags can be overwritten to enable updating information aboutproducts, such as when materials are assembled or moved to various staging locations
Some of the greatest benefits realized by companies utilized RFID tags include:
- Reduce time spent on inventory counts and maintaining inventory systems, resulting in less manual work and increased productivity
- Time saved can be spent on other things such as sales, marketing, customer service, or niche manufacturing rather than accounting for inventory products
- Improved material requirements purchasing (MRP) planning with real-time accurate inventory counts
- Improved price forecasting with accurate inventory management
- Better management of returns and internal scrap or defective goods.
- Accurate and timely inventory valuation for financial reporting purposes
- Improved security with RFID tags placed on high-value items in readers located at exits program to trigger alarms
- More efficient inventory management without understocking or overstocking products
- Improved quality control, particularly for products with limited shelf life
RFID technology considerably improves efficient operations within any organization and provides these many benefits for improved inventory management, control, forecasting, and valuation.
RFID Inlay Insertion Equipment
Tamarack® Products offers the MVW Inline RFID inlay insertion equipment to efficiently produce RFID tickets, labels, and tags in a single pass on an existing or new Flexo press. With servo-driven technology, integration into your press is simple and is usually installed after the print stations but prior to the finishing section. Tamarack’s MVW Inline RFID inlay insertion equipment provides solutions to insert wet or dry inlays with operator-friendly controls and options such as static illumination.
Tamarack Products has been providing web finishing equipment solutions for more than 50 years and differs from other machinery suppliers with our technical expertise and ability to customize modular solutions to meet our customer needs. We offer RFID inlay insertion solutions as well as window patching and other web finishing equipment needs. Contact us to learn more about producing RFID inlay labels, tags, or tickets in the many benefits of RFID technology.
