In this day and age of digital transformation, industries across the production line have adapted themselves to the technological boom. Resorting to the hackneyed way of manual labour not only does curtain the productivity of the workers but also expose the work to numerous errors. In the selfsame way, this technological blitzkrieg has embraced the supply chain industry to such an extent that man-made errors can push a unit of the industry to the dreaded path of redundancy. In this article, one key component of technology and its implications on warehousing, an imperative block of supply chain industry would be discussed.
Inventory accuracy is a factor that can either make or mar a business. Not only does miscalculation of stock lead to overstocking and under-stocking, but it eat into labour productivity and fruitful utilization of time, something nobody can afford to do in these days of competitiveness. Fall in productivity, delay in shipment and unavailability of stock result in failure in customer generation and retention and eventually the failure paves the path for financial setback. Hence it can be vociferously proclaimed that inventory accuracy in warehouse is of greater significance than mere stock-out issues. It has been observed that inaccuracy in inventory counting is mostly seen in warehouses that still align themselves with manual work or generic spreadsheets. An effective warehouse management system can redress almost all the issues that may emanate within the peripheries of the distribution centre. However, there is one element that can aid the WMS in more ways than one and can shoot up inventory accuracy by 99% and that element is RFID.
What is RFID?
RFID, this eponym stands for ‘Radio Frequency Identification Devices’. These are tags that look like simple barcodes but they are much more than that. These tags can digitally interact with radio frequency readers from a distance via electromagnetic waves. Not only do these devices come as tags but can also come in the form of microchips and antennas that can provide real-time location of an object in the GPS tracking systems.
How do these devices function in the warehouse set-up?
Radio frequency identification devices come handy in tracking and tracing items, boxes or pallets in a warehouse. As soon as a shipment arrives in a warehouse, either individual consignments or the entire pallets are tagged with these attachments. From that time onwards, the real-time tracking of the items start occurring. The tags send information pertaining to the items to the readers which are stored in the warehouse database and that data is analysed for further usage and to provide end-to-end visibility to the warehouse managers, manufacturers, transporters and customers. The bigger devices that have microchips installed in them and run on batteries are attached to the vehicles and they keep on notifying the stakeholders on the geo-locations of the shipment vehicles that are in transit.
Benefits you reap...
1. Since RFID provides an end-to-end visibility to all the concerned parties in a transaction, they get to know the real-time location of their consignments which in itself brings relief and satisfaction to them.
2. RFID tags hold a plethora of information in them which consist of the country and the place and the date of a particular product’s manufacture, the batch number, the date of expiry, the code of manufacturers and so on. Having all these information stored in the centralised system of the warehouse, they can analyse them via predictive or prescribed or demonstrative methods and know the trends of the customer behaviour and render help in change of industry standards.
3. These RFID tags can be traced or read from distance. To say it in a different way, the tags need not be in the reader’s line-of-sight, unlike the usual barcode readers. Moreover, multiple tags can be read at the same time and these two features can save a lot of time. If we consider that each item had to be scanned with a hand-held reader, it could have taken at least 5-10 seconds for an operator to scan the tags. Though it sounds pretty much meagre but consider for once that tons of items are being scanned in the similar manner. RFID tags save hours and hours of time that otherwise could have been used in something much more productive.
4. A huge amount of time in a warehouse not aided by RFID can be wasted on singling out an item that is purported to be lost. With the on-time visibility provided by the tags, the rush, the panic, the energy and the time on such meaningless tasks can be slashed significantly.
5. Along with time, with the elimination of operators with hand-held readers, a significant amount of labour cost is also saved.
6. While the operators can track and trace the pallets with greater efficacy, the administrators on the floor are freed from the task of minute supervision and expedition. They can utilise this time on services that can actually reap fruit.
7. With the appropriate streamlining of the work on the DC floor, customer retention or generation can become a cakewalk for the manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers, transporters or even the warehouses. And with greater customer benefits, earning goodwill and profit come as rewarding bonuses.
The objective was the discussion was to highlight the usefulness of RFID in the warehouses. However, there are certain shortcomings as well that need to be kept at the back of the mind while implementing these changes in your system. RFID comes with its own ancillary costs and the badges with microchips and antennas for the trucks can be expensive buys. Furthermore, the influx of data that one may find to be inundated by can be confounding and overwhelming for a person who is not very adept with them. Thus, it is advisable that warehouse executives are recruited or trained in accordance with the demand of the age and the system. As for the cost, it can only be said that it is a good investment; an investment that would ultimately make you gain something. Holding the strains of the initial words of this write-up, it can be said that we live in an era of consumerism where profit has become the elixir to sustain. It cannot be denied that companies and industries are almost on the battlefield to attract and hold consumers. And in this battle, if you gain something on the expense of money, you at least can brace yourselves for the unforeseen days and strengthen yourselves. It is your growth at the end of the day. You do not lose.