Top 5 Trends for RFID Metal Tags in 2012: Part 2

As last week’s blog pointed out, RFID usage is expected to take on harsher environments in 2012, driving more extreme vertical application solutions. In this blog, we take a look at the remaining three trends that we predict for RFID metal tags in the coming year.

Healthcare: Going beyond patient monitoring and asset tracking

While implementations of RFID, both Active and Passive technologies, for use in healthcare has been on the rise in the past several years, applications of the technology has generally been relegated to patient tracking and locationing of hospital assets. The use-case emphasis has primarily been on “what, or who, is it” – identification, and “where is it” – locationing; the traditional asset tracking use case premises. However, the management or physical state of each of those assets (or even people) has become the next level, or second phase, of requirements that is becoming more evident. For instance, it is no longer enough to know where the resuscitator cart is, but what is the state of the resuscitation equipment itself… when was it last inspected, cleaned, date of last maintenance or calibration, number is use cycles, state of warranty or service agreement, manufacturer, model number, etc.?

Furthermore, with the introduction of passive UHF RFID tags small and rugged enough to be attached to individual surgical instruments, the extension of asset tracking and asset management capabilities to the granularity of the surgical instruments themselves is now a reality.

Any given medical procedure can require dozens or even hundreds of different surgical instruments, from complex scopes to tiny sponges. Every one of these instruments and sponges must be accounted for both pre-procedure and post procedure for obvious reasons. The time to do the inventorying of assets and instruments both before and after a procedure can sometimes take as long as the procedure itself. Considering the case that the cost of OR time can be between $150 to $400 per minute, reducing the time of inventorying can provide a significant cost reduction to the hospital by allowing them to make more efficient use of limited OR facilities and equipment. The benefit to patients is self-evident. Fast and accurate accounting of surgical instruments utilized in the procedure can reduce the risk of infection. Additional benefits are derived by the fact that many instruments need to be maintained (adjusted, sharpened, etc.) after a specific number of use-case cycles, and that their “state of sterilization” of course, is critical to everyone involved.

High Data Storage Tags: What’s in store for aerospace manufacturers and their parts suppliers

Aircraft manufacturers created high memory RFID standards for flyable aircraft parts – the Aviation Transportation Association Spec2000, Chapter 9 – providing the standard formats for automatic identification and data capture with RFID. This standard is already being used in Airbus’ new A350 XWB (extra-wide body) project, where Airbus has mandated that thousands of pressurized and non-pressurized parts and components use high memory RFID tags.

As this project, as well as other new builds get under way, we expect to see wide scale adoption of high memory RFID in the industry. From maintenance records storage to tracing aircraft parts manufacturing, the types of applications that will require high memory RFID are manifold. These include inventory control, tracking assets without network access, recording high value asset life histories, and sensor recording and monitoring.

Sourcing tagging: Are we ready for the Internet of Things?

As Chris Forgione of OATSystems blogged earlier this year, we will begin to see greater adoption for RFID in Manufacturing, integrated with LEAN/Six Sigma initiatives, as industrial firms look to drive more operational efficiency. There is new emphasis on risk mitigation – for instance, many RFID Tool Tracking projects are deployed not just to reduce costs, but also to avoid quality errors, foreign object debris (FOD) and regulatory fines.

“The ability to embed a small form EPC RFID transponder without sacrificing performance, particularly in metals and plastics, should create significant opportunity in a diversity of markets, from IT asset tracking to WIP to Consumer Electronics and beyond,” says Drew Nathanson, the director of research operations at VDC Research Group. “A high performing embedded EPC tag is expected to not only provide track-and-trace functionality, but also further enable source-tagging and authentication.”