On November 4, 2003, the world's largest chain supermarket group - US Wal-Mart announced a major decision, requiring 100 largest suppliers before the product package before January 1, 2005
Installing the RFID tag (RFIT, also known as electronic tag); the remaining more than 80,000 suppliers will adopt this technology before January 1, 2006. Historically, barcode technology is promoted by Global Chain Supermarkets such as Wal-Mart, so this is likely to be RFID's application in commercial logistics is about to spread, and a significant sign of the mainstream status of barcode technology. In addition, industry giant manufacturers such as IBM, Intel and Microsoft also announced the development of RFID technology; many relevant organizations and governments also actively develop relevant standards and policies. These seem to consistently show that commercial applications in RFID have entered practical, rapid development.
The revolutionary RFID technology RFID is characterized by wireless waves to transmit identification information, not subject to spatial restrictions, can quickly perform item tracking and data exchange. When working, the RFID tag and "reader" have a distance of tens of meters or even hundreds of meters. Automatic identification and automation management can be automatically identified by non-touching information acquisitions for long-distance targets (objects, devices, vehicles, and personnel) of high-speed (high-speed movement or stationary). Since RFID technologies except for artificial intervention during tracking, it can greatly improve work efficiency while saving a lot of manpower, so it has huge attractions to logistics and supply chain management. RFID is two-way communication in wirelessly, and its greatest advantage is that non-contact, which can realize batch reading and remote reading, which can identify high-speed moving objects to realize real "one code". This system can greatly simplify the inventory management of items to meet the increasing information flow and the continuous improvement of information processing speed. RFID technology is revolutionary, some people call "Online Revolution", which connects all items to the network. In the foreseeable time, the RFID tag will develop rapidly and coexist with the barcode. RFID tags and barcodes are suitable for different situations: the barcodes are suitable for items with extremely low cost, while RFID is suitable for high-speed movement or multi-objective simultaneous identification environments. At present, RFID technology is mainly concentrated in transportation industries in China. It has a more mature application: the national railway vehicle number identification system, Shanghai City Tieming bead control system, Dalian Port container management. In addition, applications in access control, park management and highway toll management are also taken. The EPC and "IoT" Application Standardization Working Group of China Standardization Association have been investigated and analyzed in China's RFID application market. The main object of investigation is the 2003 China 500 companies. The chief scientist Chen 11, said: "After the investigation, the Working Group expects the future in the RFID label, China (annual) will take more than 3 billion RFID tags. Among them, electronic consumer goods will take 83 million labels; cigarette products 800 million labels will be required; alcohol products will take 130 million labels; IT products need 1.3 billion to 1.4 billion labels. "
The huge value of RFID in business logistics is not long ago, IBM's RFID test and program center officially launched in La Gaude, France. IBM's RFID solution is for a variety of industries, such as medical, retail, logistical, processing, electronics, government and transportation, etc., which will also provide technical prototypes to potential customers in special industries. Delta Airlines plans to invest 15 million to $ 25 million to RFID technology. Air transport giant Boeing and Airbus have announced that they are testing RFID technology and establishing standards for aviation industries. RFID is currently the most valuable application area, is the logistics management of daily products. Recently, Gartner has selected the top ten technologies including RFID. The company believes that using RFID can track the life cycle of the product, provide more, more in-depth product records, and improve market benefits. The RFID tag can be embedded in a product packaging that is required to monitor temperature, vibration, time and other parameters in the process of shipping from the warehouse to the store. RFID technology will completely solve the automation of information collection in logistics management. The RFID tags attached to a single commodity, box or tray, can provide two-way communication of product stream and information flow in supply chain management, and transmit data collected from the label via the Internet. Compared with the same barcode technology, RFID technology can greatly reduce artificial costs for product information, and automate many links in the supply chain. The German Rhineburg Madro Store (Metro) has shown that the RFID tag is very successful regardless of the identification of the tray or the identification of a single commodity on the shelf. It can accelerate inventory turnover, do not have to use artificial booking or goods, and save the work of artificial access to data. Modern logistics involves a large number of complex products, and its supply chain is extremely complex, often has a large geographical span, so the accuracy and timely demand of information are very high. Mit Auto-ID Center shows a survey of a consumer goods company, a distribution center spent 11000 hours a year in artificial finish cargo and scan barcode. RFID technology overcomes these defects of the barcode, automating the process, providing instant data for the supply chain. Forrester Research retail analysts believe that if RFID is used, Wal-Mart can save $ 8.35 billion each year, most of which is the human cost of scanning bar. In addition, RFID can solve the loss of retail items, theft and supply chain, and the loss of Wal-Mart has reached 2 billion US dollars per year. For RFID applications, more examples are still used in retail supply chains: Professional logistics service provider DHL plans to replace barcode scanning with RFID technology at its logistics center at the end of 2004; UPS uses RFID for parcel divergence process and parcel accurate Location determination; Dell is always written to the RFID tab during the computer assembly process, so that customers will understand the production process of the order in purchase; Unilever and Nestlé and other companies use similar systems to track material tracking And quality control. At present, some large global shipping companies (such as Hong Kong and Remember Hanto, Singapore Port Agency) have installed radiofrequency reading devices in some international ports, and through the "Internet of Things" to get the arrival and transfer information of the goods and Data, realize logistics information visualization, and has achieved good economic benefits. The schemes used are in the container, the tray-free label is used in the small package freight box and the single product simultaneously using passive RFID tags and barcodes. In order to ensure the safety of goods, RF electronic blocking is also installed on the container, once the container is illegally opened, it will automatically alarm within a few seconds.
It is recognized that the bottleneck of RFID development is recognized, and the biggest obstacles that currently restrict RFID development are technical standards. The world has 117 RFID protocol standards for data exchange. There are excessive abuse of agreement, leading to non-unity, limited the standard in practice. More importantly, there is currently a lack of authoritative unity of the world. Originally developed is the responsibility of the ISO Technical Committee. As the supply chain has become one of the most important components of future economic operations, 1999 Mit Auto ID Center proposed EPC (Electronic Product Code) standard with the support of the UCC (US Unified Code Committee). In November 2003, the UCC and EAN (International Item Coding Association) were established, and EPC Global, presided over the promotion and application of EPC global. This establishes the status of EPC in the business sector, but also accelerates RFID technology in large-scale application processes in business areas. EPC is more than just a simple coding standard, but has actually expanded into a "Internet of Things" architecture combined with RFID technology and network technology. EPC has been adopted by many famous companies around the world (such as Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, Clarofort, etc., is therefore expected to be a new generation of UPC (General Commodity Code) standards. Due to many aspects involved, the standard work is complex. For example, in mid-June 2004, the third meeting of the China Automatic Identity Association held in Chongqing failed to form a unified advice on my country's EPC standard. There is also the battle between RFIDs in the formulation of standards. To achieve information exchange in the global logistics field with RFID technology, there must be a global unified logistics RFID band. However, the United States uses 915MHz in the United States with 805.8MHz, Japan is set at 960MHz, while China is still discussing. The price is still a key factor in restricting the size of RFID development and the price of RFID tags has decreased significantly compared to the past two years. According to the latest news, foreign 5 cents have been implemented abroad (STMicro is provided, but it is necessary to take 100,000 batches, do not include antenna and package costs), the lowest price in China is the RMB. Despite this, the price of RFID tags and reading equipment is still too high for large-scale promotion. The price and scale are another pair of contradictions. Manufacturers want to enlarge the cost by expanding the scale, while more users will enter after waiting for the price. Although the industry is generally optimistic about RFID technology, there is not much system that truly forms a scale. AMR Research's research report shows that a supplier meets the basic requirements of Wal-Mart's RFID, approximately 1.3 million to 2 million US dollars, plus related hardware and software facilities, integrated services, system testing and training, etc., the cost of investment annually Increase $ 9.13 million. In China, we must solve the price bottleneck of RFID, and must also solve the localization of label and imaging equipment. At present, there are only two companies to master core technology and the production capacity of the equipment with independent intellectual property rights, and for labels, there seem to be independently produced. Consumers' concerns about privacy Some consumers think that the RFID tag that can be tracked by personal purchase habits is the violation of their privacy. The Senate, California, has proposed the bill, requiring the use of RFID tags in the region, which applies to any business and government departments that use RFID technology tracking goods or people. In Europe, Italian ready-made manufacturer Benetton has plans to embed the RFID tags provided by Philips in our own clothing. However, the program announced that the voice of criticism has also contributed to a boycott. BENETTON finally was forced to announce the revocation of the plan.
Thoughts on China 's Development RFID Choose the right application for entry point, the biggest problem in the country is that most companies are waiting to wait, they are not willing to be early receptors. This aspect shows the steadyness of the company's decision makers, and also shows the conservative side. SAP and Auto-ID China's survey of 200 companies show that 48% of companies hope that the use of RFID technology, 16% of companies should wait for the market to completely mature and take action, 3% of companies do not intend to adopt price problems RFID. Only 32% of companies are prepared to adopt this technology. From the perspective of global trade, only Wal-Mart has 12 billion US dollars from China from China. From the perspective of global supply chain, China as a manufacturing big country is an important part of the world's manufacturing center. It is an important part of global trade. It must be in line with internationally, which is a driving force for the formation of RFID applications. Historical experiences have shown that if developing countries cannot keep up with the world advanced technology, they will inevitably be subject to technical barriers to developed countries. The author believes that in response to the actual situation of my country's supply chain management, the author should choose the right business, find suitable cut points and application models, carry out application pilots as soon as possible, and adopt "small steps" to achieve effectiveness and experience, and further promotion. Specifically consider the application of applications in current supply chain management (such as supply chain full monitoring) and applications that suitrate RFID features (such as food and drug quality tracking), and use this as a basis for establishing RFID software infrastructure and inspection standards . In the process of RFID promotion, the concept hype should be avoided. EPC is a good idea, but in facts with RFIDs are different concepts, the promotion can be considered and implemented separately, which may be more advantageous for development. Some experts believe that some non-EPC RFID applications should be promoted, so that they can accelerate the development of RFID, unstopped technology concepts, or the foundation for future EPC applications. The author believes that the currently suitable applications are: vehicles and personnel identification of various containers, containers, vehicle identification, communities, parking and channels of warehouses and venues. Attachment of basic research Currently RFID related standards include two categories. One is a standard that is closely related to RFID technology itself, such as operating frequency, transmit power, and electromagnetic compatibility. The other is standard, such as EPC (electronic product code) and related software technology. The previous type must be determined by the national competent function department. The National Standardization Management Committee has established the National Standard Working Group on RFID Tags in January 2004. The author believes that the principle of application after the first basis should be followed during the standard development process. The RFID standard belongs to the basic standard and should be first. The latter type, such as EPC, etc., is closely related to the industry, is the basis for the development of application development. November 2003 EPC Global has launched EPC-1. The author believes that in order to carry out the research work of relevant standards as soon as possible, China should establish a unified EPC item coding standard and internationally in accordance with the situation in various industries. For logistics systems, the EPC architecture that meets the actual situation in China should be established according to the principle of EPC "One Code". ■
