All eyes are on the success of RFID technology in the US, as it leads the way in the global IT revolution, but while Conneticut research firm Gartner Inc believes that RFID is the future, users should be prepared to wait for the effects to take shape and manifest themselves.
Retailers around the world, the most prominent of which of course is Wal-Mart, have already begun to put strict timetables in place for their suppliers to become RFID-led. But the report suggests that 50 per cent of the RFID projects that have begun to date will fail by 2007.
It is of course the risk that pioneers of new technology take. The failure rate during the dotcom revolution was far higher. But Gartner research analyst Jeff Woods says in the report: “It took 20 years for businesses to begin effectively using bar code data in operation management. It won’t take as long for RFID to become mainstream, but it will take a long time.”
Woods did point out that Wal-Mart, which has been analysing the RFID potential since the mid 1990s and has set a mid 2005 deadline in place for its suppliers, has a greater risk cushion because of its financial might, but he warned smaller businesses that the Wal-Mart model might not be one to follow. “This isn’t to say that Wal-Mart doesn’t have a business case, but the prospects of sharing RFID tag costs across multiple beneficiaries are looking grim,” he predicts.
One of the major obstacles to the RFID takeover is cost. Forecasts of its dominance have largely been based on the assumption that the price of tags will fall quickly as take-up increases, but a recent report doubted the oft-quoted drop from 20 cents plus to five cents a chip can be reached before 2008 - too late for many projects and a problem even for Wal-Mart with its short timelines and deep pockets.
Wal-Mart’s Bruce Peterson told the US press recently that RFID technology will achieve the desired goals for the produce industry, but agreed that it would take time. “That’s the promise of RFID, that you could have a supply chain that is both seamless and instantaneous,” he says. “As the various industries work towards that, the benefits continue to manifest themselves even in the short term.
“There is nobody I know that says that RFID is the cure-all for every supply chain woe in the next 30 days,” Peterson adds. “Everybody recognises that RFID is a journey. The difference in where RFID is today with respect to 18 months ago is that a number of large organisations are planting flags on some deadlines to get this thing moving.”
He said that the systems and processes put in place by retailers could have a big effect on their success in achieving cost efficiencies, citing the suitability of Wal-Mart’s reusable plastic containers (RPCs) to RFID effectiveness. “I think the chip costs are coming down dramatically. If you think about chips with respect to RPCs, it’s a fraction of the cost because that chip cost is leveraged over the cost of the container,” he says.
The Produce Marketing Association’s vice president of industry technology and standards Gary Fleming likened the stage RFID is at to “doing the Rubik’s Cube”. He says: “They have one side all the way done, but they have another side that needs to be looked at. They are going to figure it out, but it’s just going to take a while.”
In the meantime, he suggests, the produce industry needs to look at the benefits it can glean from RFID in the short term. “”For the short term, RFID is primarily used from a transportation and storage and handling aspect,” he said. “That’s where the big gains are.”
He adds that before companies begin to look further down the road at the different applications of RFID within their businesses, they should concentrate on understanding the fundamentals.
“That’s very premature,” according to Fleming, “because that’s going to be a significant increase in human resources and capital in general to address those issues.”
An on-going dispute in the US over patent rights for RFID technology threatens to keep prices at their existing levels. And many sellers are already reporting shortages and backlogs in orders as demand surges further with every passing month.
So the clear message on the future of RFID is that the RFID future is far from clear.
WINDOWS - THE FULL XP
A response from Tony Rose, integration director, Anglia Business Solutions Ltd, to the following question sent to ithhelpdesk@freshinfo.com
I have seen a lot of media coverage regarding Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 - some positive and negative points have been raised. Should my organisation be making the upgrade now and are there any experiences or advice that you can pass on to us?
Windows XP Service Pack 2 (WXP SP2) has now been with us for some time and you can start to feel sure that you are no longer an “early adopter”. However, that is not to say that the installation will be trouble free and that all of the possible problems have been identified. Microsoft stress that it is not possible to test the results of WXP SP2 deployment with every possible combination of software and hardware.
You should also remember that SP2 represents a major upgrade, not far short of a new operating system, and some of the technologies which are being employed affect the operating system at its very core.
i) The benefits of the upgrade far outweigh the disadvantages of not having it, therefore it should be deployed.
ii) Deployment should be tested. Take a standard machine for your organisation with all of the regular applications loaded and run the upgrade. Test the results and then ask users to test the results. If there are no unforeseen problems look at rolling the upgrade out.
iii) It is also important to realise that WXP SP2 has the potential to break some bespoke and packaged applications. Most applications can be made to run with WXP SP2, but it does take some testing to determine which applications will need attention.
For example, if you are running Microsoft Business Solutions CRM Sales for Outlook versions 1.0 or 1.2, you will need to download a fix before installing WXP SP2.
iv) Beware of non-standard PC’s, particularly laptops or machines which may have been altered in some way by end users. You never know what software may have been loaded, with the best of intentions (personal firewalls, spyware blockers, etc). All of these may cause problems with the upgrade.
v) Beware of all of the recommendations made by Microsoft prior to carrying out the upgrade. It is easy to become blasé after successfully completing a couple of upgrades. A typical non-technical problem is to fail to check the amount of disk space available. If there is insufficient disk space available you will need to abort the upgrade, clean down the machine, before starting again.
In summary this is a critical update and we would strongly recommend that you carry it out but err on the side of caution and test everything thoroughly first.
Microsoft states that worldwide 20 million copies have now been downloaded and that they are anticipating that to reach 100 million by the end of next month. You will not be alone in carrying out this upgrade now.
WXP SP2 can be downloaded for free from www.microsoft.com/protect
DRIZZLE DEAL
I have heard about Drizzle Technology. Can you explain to me what it is and how it might benefit my company?
Drizzle Technology (DT) is the enabler for communication between mobile devices and a base repository of data. DT lets you replicate data over slow or partially existent connection.
For example a field worker may use a handheld computer but is reliant on using a mobile phone connection when available to synchronise data with a base server.
DT lets mobile devices periodically or on demand synchronise data. The synchronisation is bidirectional and is optimised from the ground up to maximise limited amounts on bandwidth. Synchronisation is computed on both the mobile device and base repository to ensure that the available bandwidth is utilised optimally. Additionally, if a connection is unexpectedly lost the system picks up from the point where the connection was dropped with no loss of data.
DT is also able to filter data on the base repository of data to ensure only prudent data is transmitted. For example a salesman may only want to have available customer information prudent to the territory they look after.
DT has the advantage that it lets the mobile user manipulate large volumes of data effortlessly. Large price lists or stock inventory can be sent over to the mobile device. DT only transmits the changes on individual items which makes working with massive volumes of data fast and reflective quickly of change.
The synchronisation of data can be implemented over any type of data network including private corporate (lan/wan), wireless (RF/802.11x/Spread Spectrum), public phone network, mobile phone network (GSM/GPRS/CDMA). The entire synchronisation process uses strong encryption to ensure that data to and from the mobile device are kept totally secure, even when operating over the public Internet.
DT is built from the ground up using Microsoft products. The technology employed is built around Microsoft SQL Server and robust .NET components which have been optimised for this application. The entire environment can be used to deliver data from not only SQL Server but connect effortlessly to ERP systems such as Microsoft Navision, or connect to third party databases and applications.
CODE QUICKFIRE
Marks & Spencer has endorsed Quickfire to its fresh produce supply base in order to aid the management of its Field to Fork code of practice.
Commenting on the value of Quickfire, Andrew Sharp, technical manager for M&S, fruit, salads and vegetables, says: “A few Marks & Spencer suppliers are already using Quickfire with the benefit of reducing auditing resource and enhancing performance management post-assessment.”
With pressure for compliance mounting within the UK food industry, and with retailers tightening up on supplier conformance, never before has there been such an urgent need or opportunity for a system to help businesses manage this growing burden.
Quickfire from Muddy Boots Software, has been launched into this market as an innovative electronic audit and inspection management system. Billed as ‘platform independent’, Quickfire can be used on either a Pocket PC, the new Tablet PC, Laptop or desktop for quick and simple remote data capture.
Offered as an off-the-shelf solution, Quickfire requires minimal levels of implementation and training. Jeff Goulding, Muddy Boots sales director, said it is available with many of the agri-food industry audits pre-loaded, simple to implement, easy to use and quick to add value to any business by:
• saving time - “up to 40 per cent”
• reducing cost
• increasing audit quality and consistency
• aiding management of audit process, e.g. outstanding tasks, corrective actions etc.
“With the data captured electronically subsequent manipulation is simple and the possibilities huge,” Goulding says. “Reporting is all at the click of the mouse and aids performance monitoring and management analysis, not to mention easy benchmarking and risk assessment.”
Other key features include parallel auditing capability (enabling two or more audits to be completed simultaneously with reports outputted separately); automated corrective action management; audit ‘template’; pre-populate new audit with [differentiated] historical audit data; audit scheduler (interactive calendar view of corrective actions, un-allocated audits, tasks) and full multi-lingual capability.
Muddy Boots will be demonstrating Quickfire along with its QA and traceability management systems at Foodtech 2004 on November 3-4 at Wembley Exhibition Centre, London, stand C106.
Available with the M&S Field to Fork assessment preloaded, Quickfire is also available with many of the other standard industry audits.
For more information on Quickfire please contact Jeff Goulding, details on opposite page.
SPEED REQUIRES GREATER MOBILITY
As business continues to speed up and with more than 22 per cent of the UK workforce operating on a mobile basis, the need to provide them with access to updated customer and product information is growing daily.
In the fresh produce industry, the percentage is higher with field workers, quality controllers, category managers, delivery drivers and executives constantly on the move.
Furthermore, with perishable items such as fresh produce, disruption in the supply chain can result either in significant consignment write-offs or complaints on product quality.
Up to now, the technology to tackle this issue either fell into the “too difficult” or “too expensive” category. In both cases, the solutions if they existed were beyond the budgets and capabilities of many mid-range organisations.
However, the advances provided by industry leaders such as Microsoft with its major investments in .NET technology have thrown a lifeline to solution providers worldwide. As a result, it is now not just feasible but affordable for forward thinking organisations to provide their mobile workforce with dynamic access to relevant, real time business data any time and anywhere in the world.
The issues in tackling the challenges involved in deploying such solutions are security, speed of response, ease of use and suitably rugged mobile equipment. From a security viewpoint, a balance has to be struck between providing mobile users with access to potentially sensitive client data and supplying sufficient relevant information to enable them to carry out their duties. The speed issues revolve around the challenge of transferring massive volumes of data across very limited GPRS airwaves.
Using a combination of the MBS Navision business management system and a unique .NET developed application tool set called Drizzle Technology, Anglia Business Solutions has deployed an award winning solution that met the above challenges.
The customer, a forward thinking manufacturer and distributor of building components, collaborated on the implementation. The business problem was the amount of time and duplication of effort involved in the processing of orders taken by a field sales force of 20.
The solution provided the sales force with instant access to customer and product information as if they were sitting in the office. Orders could be placed and order signatures captured which were automatically uploaded to the main system. Product availability and credit checking takes place while face to face with the customer. As a result of the deployment, the double entry of 500 orders a day was eliminated. Customer service significantly improved and the productivity of the field sales force dramatically increased.
Solutions of this nature will be very relevant to the fresh produce sector. Imagine being in a position to update the core system with quality information of a batch of produce from a field or pack house.
Think of the advantages of providing category managers with updated product information virtually as it happens - even providing access to the Intake QA records while carrying out a store audit. Consider how much administrative duplication could be removed in the management of both internal and remote labour timesheets plus proof of deliveries.
The cost reduction advantages and efficiency improvements could provide your organisation with a vital edge in the battle to retain existing clients as well as win new business.
This technology will be on full display at our special Fresh Produce Industry IT seminar being held at the Anglia Business Solutions offices in Cambridge November 25.
In the next article, I will be returning to the topic of return on investment with other examples of how to make technology pay.
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