Prices start at $49.

European Airline Aims To Delight Passengers Through RFID Bag Tracking
Event-Driven Solution Lowers Costs While Promoting Happy Travelers
July 15, 2009 , 17 pages
by Mike Gilpin
Processing lost bags costs airlines a lot of money: more than $1,200 per thousand passengers, not to mention the inconvenience to passengers. Thus, airlines are highly motivated to apply new technology to solving this problem. Through an innovative combination of clever engineering, good architecture, and powerful middleware, a European airline has successfully implemented the first stage of its radio frequency identification (RFID) baggage-handling solution at one airport and is moving toward a full implementation of bag-level tracking that will dramatically reduce the number of lost bags and improve customers' overall travel experience. This project teaches a number of important lessons that application development professionals and enterprise architects should apply when implementing a large-scale program of new technology. The most important lesson? Don't be afraid to use your business needs to drive your architectural vision, even when key suppliers offer different solutions. It's the only way to get the right results in the end and is a common experience for RFID projects.

The ROI Of RFID For Asset Tracking
A Total Economic Impact™ Analysis Uncovers Big Benefits When Minimal Inventory Controls Are In Place
July 29, 2008 , 15 pages
by Patrick M. Connaughton, Roy C. Wildeman
Asset tracking using active Wi-Fi-enabled RFID tags is getting more interest these days. Why? For one, even with the high cost of tags, there's actually a clear ROI in sight for these investments. To illustrate this, we created two conservative ROI models profiling sample companies tagging more than 1,000 assets in a three-year period. The first sample company is a parts supplier to auto OEMs tracking reusable containers. The second is a hospital tracking mobile equipment. The biggest differences between the two scenarios were the number of inventory audits currently being performed and the amount of time it took staff to locate the asset when they needed to use it. The result: For the highly controlled parts manufacturer, an estimated 9% ROI. However, for the hospital with limited preexisting controls and staff that spend an inordinate amount of time searching for assets, the estimated return jumps way up to 69% ROI with cumulative benefits of more than a million dollars. Plus, future rewards like using the data to analyze and improve process flows are just as exciting.

The ROI Of RFID For Supply Chain Visibility
A Total Economic Impact™ Analysis Links Gains To Depth Of Systems Integration
July 18, 2008 , 18 pages
by Roy C. Wildeman, Patrick M. Connaughton
Among the various applications of radio frequency identification (RFID), employing the technology for supply chain visibility has generated particular enthusiasm and controversy for manufacturers and distributors across a variety of industries. Amid the hype, the business value of deploying RFID technology across these trading partners has been blurred by questions about costs, benefits, and scope whose answers are elusive. A Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) analysis of RFID for item-level visibility across manufacturing and distribution operations shows that investment with minimal systems integration is not likely to produce a return on investment (ROI) — at least not at today's prices. However, combining RFID-generated event data with the right business context from enterprise apps will produce a modest ROI and positive business benefits in a typical manufacturing and distribution supply chain.

More recent RFID research »