The Hindu Business Line : RFID tech hampered by shortage of qualified hands

US retail behemoth Wal-Mart's announcement about its top 100 suppliers becoming Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)-compliant by January this year is testimony to the expansive role the technology is headed to play in the future.

With more and more retailers moving in the same direction, the potential of the technology is increasing hundred folds by the day. AMR Research has predicted that consumer product manufacturers would spend $1.1 billion during this year on implementing projects, which may grow to $2.6 billion by 2006.

However, IT manufacturers and service companies do not share this optimism mainly due to shortage of `RFID talent' to implement, service, and support the technology. Survey results put out by the Computing Technology Industry Association of the US have already indicated that 80 per cent of IT manufacturers and service companies are a worried over the shortage of qualified personnel to implement the technology.

Two-thirds of the respondents said training and educating employees in RFID technology is one of the biggest challenges they face. In view of this, experts say RFID could turn out to be the `next big thing', opening up a floodgate of opportunities for young IT professionals, particularly in India.

Efficient project management in design and implementation of RFID solutions across industry verticals is a common concern among industrialists and managers, say Mr Ranjith Varma and Mr Sivakumar Thekkenaduvath of US Technology India, based in Technopark.

In a working paper on the subject, they said the advancement of RFID technology in recent times has opened up unbounded business potential in verticals such as retail, healthcare and asset management.

To put the technology into perspective, RFID is a generic term used for detecting and identifying objects using radio signal. The working principle is very simple; when an RFID tag passes through this magnetic field, an inductive coupling is formed, bracing the embedded microchip and setting in motion the identification process.

It is a technology that provides wireless communication to detect and identify objects. The basic element is the RFID tag that emits radio frequency signals.

From a layman's perspective, RFID is an alternative to the bar code. The basic difference is that RFID does not require a direct contact or line-of-sight scanning.

An RFID system consists of antenna, transceiver and transponder. The antenna and the transceiver components are often combined into one reader. In a typical system used for tracking and maintaining containers in a warehouse, RFID tags are put on to the containers. A high resolution RFID reader is mounted near the entrance where the truck with the containers in it moves across.

The RFID reader comprises an antenna and a chip-enabled RF reader. The RFID reader is connected to a PC or laptop, through a cable (normally). Wireless-enabled connectivity also can be used for this connection, but the choice depends on the complexity of the system. The PC in turn connects to a central database where the information gets updated.

RFID advantages: Unlike barcode, which requires strict, line of sight access, RFID tags can be read through a variety of materials, irrespective of orientation. This makes item movement speedy and easy.

One of the limitations of bar code technology is that it can read only one item or object at a time. But several RFID tags can be read at one time, which accelerates scanning activities.

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