Supply Chain Sensors

Supply Chain Sensors

Imagine starting a business from scratch, how can a business gain competitively advantage when there are many other competitors? Gaining an advantage through technology is one of the methods. Technology is evolving at an incredible speed and businesses that have the latest equipment could potentially oust other businesses that do not. In order to not fall behind to their competitors, businesses have to be aware of the latest technology trends since the technological aspect within the business is essential for organizing data and being efficient. One of the recent trends in the supply chain process is smart sensors that are used to track the amount of objects in a location. For an example, there are sensors that detect various changes in temperature, vibration, light, motion, and pressure. These features in the sensor are beneficial when businesses demand top quality items from the supplier. In practice, the sensors would keep the supplier updated on the items’ status through the means of computer or other devices without having to use much labor force.

The general process of the sensors in use would be an inventory warehouse attaching it into their products. Install the reader to monitor the situation of the inventory and the real time movement of its products. Then the managing team could determine whether the inventory is operating at an optimal state. The sensors could be applied in retail stores as well. For instance, an aisle could be filled with products that have a sensor attached and with a reader device applied in a set location. The employees could then monitor the flow of inventory within their store in real time and replenish when necessary.    

A specific type of technology regarding sensor operation would be radio frequency identification or RFID for short. It is a technology that uses radio waves to identify physical objects. The main differences from the traditional bar codes from the RFID tagging is that the traditional bar codes could only be read and does not have the ability to output information. Bar codes also require line of sight. Whereas RFID has the capability to both receive and transmit information and function regardless whether the object is in line of sight or not (Michael, McCathie, 2005). In order to do this, RFID have a microchip and an antenna. The purpose of the microchip is to store unique information of the object. The antenna is then used to allow transmission of the object information. At the same time, it translates the output information to a format that the computer recognizes. The tags have a variety of features; it could be active, passive, or semi-passive (Angeles, 2007). The key difference between the three is that the active uses a battery and semi-passive uses a combination of battery and electromagnetic waves while the passive tags rely only on electromagnetic waves. Therefore, the active and semi-passive tags are often used for more expensive products since they cost more per unit due to the additional hardware. The range which the expensive tags can be read is 100 feet at a frequency of 850 to 950 MHz and is able to increase its range by using more batteries (Bonsor, Fenlon, 2007).

 In recent years, the cost of the basic passive tags is around $.10 to $.50 cents USD while active tags ranges from $.50 cents to $50 dollars and up, depending on additional features (Coustasse, Cunningham, Deslich, Willson, & Meadows, 2015). For reader devices on the other hand, there is also a variety to suit the business needs. To list a few, there are handheld, fixed position, and active readers.  Handheld devices require a human to scan the assets; it is priced at about $3,000 each. The fixed position devices are installed at doorways to detect assets moving in or out, priced at $10,000 to $20,000 each. The active readers read tags on an area that covers about 3,000 square feet to detect any movements; it cost about $1,250 to $1,500 each (Watson).

The history behind RFID sensors originated back from 1948, when the idea of communication through reflected power came into play. An early paper by Harry Stockman titled “Communication by Means of Reflect Power”, published in 1948 stated that there were still a substantial amount of development work to be accomplished in addition to basic problems within the reflected power communication. The 1950s marked the exploration of RFID techniques such as long distance transponder system for aircrafts and DB Harris’s work, “Radio transmission systems with modulatable passive responder” (Landt, 2005). The next decade is the beginning of the RFID usage in the commercial setting, its purpose was for merchandise theft detection. The 1970s was highlighted by various entities such as companies, institutions, and government laboratories for their participation in the RFID and advancements. The intended use of the technology expanded from merchandise detection to animal tracking, vehicle tracking, and factory automation in this period (Landt, 2005). In addition, further improvements were made to the tag’s hardware which includes reduction in size and better functionality.