Webinar Details

How RFID Increases Shipment Accuracy

Thursday June 8^th

1:00pm – 1:45pm Central

Presented By

Tom O’Boyle – Principal RFID Solutions Architect – Barcodes Group

Nat Hillary – Solutions Engineer for Strategic Accounts, Impinj

Why RFID?

Shipments sent to the wrong location, missing items, or containing the wrong items cost time, money and erode customer trust.

Placed on points of transition, RFID technology can identify thousands of items per second, and is capable of achieving a read accuracy above 99% percent.

And it delivers powerful insights into traffic patterns and service level metrics to further optimize your operations.

Discover the Advantages of RFID for Your Organization:

• Automate tracking of shipments moving in and out of dock doors without direct line-of-sight, reducing the need for human intervention and manual scanning
• Read tags on pallets, cases, or items
• Alert teams when a shipment is incomplete, contains the wrong items, or is loaded on the wrong truck
• Experience repeatability and scalability with an easy installation process (no matter the size of your business)

That means RFID tags placed on individual items, pallets, or containers will be read accurately to ensure that the right goods are on the right truck – every time. 

Watch the Full RFID Webinar Recording

The problem of counterfeit products is global, and it’s growing. Knockoff handbags, athletic shoes, wristwatches, and pharmaceuticals cost businesses and consumers billions of dollars every year globally.

Now, there’s a new way brands can fight fakes: RAIN RFID cryptographic authentication.

The Impinj Authenticity™ solution engine brings enterprise-scale product authentication to new and existing RAIN RFID deployments.

What is Product Authentication?

At its heart, authenticating something is largely straightforward: You want to conclusively establish the item as genuine and determine its owner or origin. Doing that can get complex.

Product authentication solutions built on the Impinj platform employ secure cryptography, using a challenge-response protocol to determine with a high degree of certainty whether an item is genuine.

RAIN RFID from Impinj

An item tagged with RAIN RFID has certain information associated with it—data such as the manufacturer name, model number, serial number, date of manufacture, purchase date, customer name, and more. That item-specific data can be stored in a product cloud.

When that item is read at any point in the supply chain by a RAIN RFID reader, an Impinj-based authentication solution cross-checks and confirms the information stored in the product cloud and verifies the tag’s authenticity using the Impinj Authentication Service.

Impinj Authenticity uses cryptographic authentication, a feature of the new RFID tag chips, to swiftly and automatically verify tagged products as genuine.

Implement RAIN RFID with a Trusted Partner

For an in-depth explanation of how Impinj Authenticity works, contact Barcodes, Inc. to learn more about RAIN RFID.

Webinar

Improve Returnable Container Tracking with RFID

Thursday April 20^th 1:00-1:45pm Central

PRESENTED BY:

Christopher Vassilos – Senior Solutions Architect, Barcodes Group

Michael Daily – Senior Solutions Engineer, Impinj

RFID-Based Container Tracking

Upon delivery, it’s common for reusable containers to not be returned to the sender, with annual shrinkage rates often exceeding 10%. Keeping track of your Returnable Transport Items (RTIs) can be challenging, especially when logging their location depends on manual processes like scanning.

In this webinar, discover the benefits of RFID-based container tracking:

• Reduce the number of misplaced pallets, kegs, and boxes. Less new delivery assets need to be purchased, and shipments are not interrupted due to lack of totes.
• Track each asset as it leaves and returns to the warehouse, allowing you to determine its exact location immediately and whether they have yet to return.
• Calculate the flow of returnable assets to fully understand your shipping capacity for the present and future.
• Improve utilization of workers since it takes way less time to scan RFID tags than barcodes, due to its fully automatable reading without line-of-sight requirements.

Watch the Full RFID Webinar Recording

Returnable Transfer Items (RTIs), or returnable containers are critical assets for almost all manufacturing and logistics organizations. RTIs transport stock and commodities from one site to another. However, keeping track of your RTIs is a different story. Well-known manufacturers and logistics expert still often rely on manual methods, such as traditional scanning, spreadsheet, or pen and paper.

This leads to a major issue: inventory shrinkage.

Mismanagement of returnable containers owing to theft, unrecorded damage, or simply the inability of consumers to return empty pallets, kegs, and boxes costs a fortune.

How are Your Returnable Transfer Items Being Tracked Currently?

Barcode labels used to tag the cargo of a container during shipment are often non-permanent. Traditional barcode scanners and labels identify the contents of the container, but seldom provide reverse logistics tracking for the containers themselves.

Using permanent barcode labels as the foundation for a container monitoring system is not feasible. I know that might be strange to hear from a company called Barcodes, Inc. But scanning labels at various stages of the supply chain sometimes necessitates extra human effort, which is even more difficult when empty containers pile up.

One solution is to establish a tracking system utilizing modern asset tracking technology.

Reducing Yearly Inventory Shrinkage with RFID

“15% of all pallets in circulation vanish” or “20% of all packaging/equipment is lost owing to consumers retaining them for their own use or third parties removing them for their own use.”

SLS RFID 2016 Study

Inventory shrinkage is a major issue in the management of returnable transfer items (RTIs), which include all types of shipping containers, packaging, pallets, kegs, and boxes.

Shrinkage due to theft, unreported damage, or just consumers failing to return empty containers is a serious concern in this field.

Estimated annual shrinkage rates are anywhere from 3 to 9%. If you’re constantly replacing lost or stolen RTIs, the impact on profitability is a huge problem.

For organizations to decrease RTI shrinkage, RFID is appealing due to completely automated scanning without line-of-sight, as well as mass tag reading. The key advantage of RFID-based container monitoring systems is an improvement in container return rates. New containers are purchased in smaller batches and less frequently.

What Data Can Be Tracked with RFID Tags?

Integrating the RFiD Discovery system with your ERP system enables company-wide visibility of your RTIs, ensuring that essential assets are accessible at the relevant locations to fulfill any transportation request.

Exactly what the RFID ultimately tracks depends on your unique tracking requirements. Here are some examples of the depth of data you can store in a small RFID tag:

• Container Name
• Size
• Location
• Weight
• Item Quantity
• Container Properties

User memory on tags stores data. The serial number field can be pre-programmed or user-assigned.

The air-interface protocol standards for passive HF and UHF tags, such as UHF EPC Gen 2, define basic functions like read-write and which memory banks or blocks can be written to. Reader manufacturers include these low-level commands with higher-level subroutines in their software development kits for application developers.

How to Use RFID to Tag RTIs

RFID labels are long-lasting and more durable than traditional labels. RFID tags attach exceptionally well to returnable cargo and resist machine washing operations as well as harsh elements for much longer.

Any RTI equipped with an RFID tag can be detected by a small number of strategically located readers. The location data is delivered back to the central RFID Discovery database, where it may be evaluated.

This database allows you to discover how many RTIs have been sent to a specific supplier or customer, so you know which trade partner to approach when requesting a return.

When shipping containers are in range of an RFID reader, the information on the tags can be automatically acquired using a wide variety of methods:

• Fixed reader installed at a warehouse entrance or loading dock
• A mobile reader installed on a forklift
• Handheld reader brought inside a business partner’s facility for rapid inventory

What are the Main Advantages of Using RFID for Returnable Asset Tracking?

There are several advantages of using RFID to track returnable assets.

1. Recoup Billions of Dollars in RTI-Related Losses

Reusable assets are returned to the sender after delivery, usually full of new goods and not empty. Entire industries are dedicated to capitalizing on reverse logistics and maximizing the value of containers.

So why do we pay far less attention to reusable assets compared to sold commodities and container space? In order to get a bird’s eye view of costly shrinkage areas, your immediate shipping capacity, and overall supply chain health, it’s critical to assess the flow of returnable assets as well.

If RTIs arrive in the incorrect place or are lost, the transfer of products becomes difficult or impossible, thereby causing delivery delays. And massive container replacement costs.

These misplaced assets represent billions of dollars in losses, since new delivery assets must be acquired. We will say again: RFID saves billions of dollars.

2. Track Every Asset Location With a Detailed Evidence Trail

While we like to imagine most people are honest and good by nature, the reality is that customers and suppliers are not going to eager to assist when the subject of locating your missing valuables is brought up. Tough luck.

Instead of playing the blame game, utilizing an RFID system to track each asset as it leaves and returns to the warehouse allows you to instantly establish its specific location, and whether it has yet to return.

This goes for both goods sold as well as the RTIs carrying them. Put another way, your returnables are much more likely to return.

3. Increase Visibility of Container Locations, Available Stock, and Overall Condition

Though shipping should be a precise science, we know that’s not always the case.

Businesses depend on RTIs everyday, but lack visibility over the availability, location, and quality of their RTIs.

When organizations incorporate careful pallet monitoring, tote box tracking, and stillage tracking, it’s much easier to manage a large pool of RTIs without bleeding money. Additionally, there is no longer a need to keep just-in-case containers on the sidelines, because of increased visibility into the “who, what, where, and how many?” questions.

4. Improve Labor Utilization at Every Level of the Supply Chain

Scanning RFID tags takes substantially less time than scanning barcodes. Similarly, RFID is a more appealing identifying solution for reusable assets since users do not need to manufacture new barcodes or print new labels.

Logistics and operational leaders can simply re-encode the same RFID tags again and again without increasing headcount or allocating redundant processes to busy workers.

Lastly, RTLS on RFID can significantly reduce the amount of time workers spend searching for specific inventory. In a field such as healthcare, nurses estimate they spend at least an hour per shift finding equipment. That really adds up when looking at overall labor utilization.

Evaluating and Deploying an Effective RTI Tracking System

Tracking RTIs with RFID helps prevent your assets getting lost or stolen, reduces disputes between trading partners, enables rapid inventory cycle counting, and quickly identifies shortages. Your organization could be saving billions of dollars.

Barcodes, Inc. is your trusted RFID partner and integrator. Contact us when you are ready to elevate your RTI management and discover the magic of RFID tracking. It’s easier to deploy with a partner you can trust.

Webinar

Stages of a Successful RFID Deployment: From Discovery to Implementation

Thursday, October 27^th, 2:00 PM – 2:30 PM ET

Presented By

Christopher Vassilos – Senior Solutions Architect, Barcodes Group

Nat Hillary – Solutions Engineer for Strategic Accounts, Impinj

About this RFID Webinar

Nearly 80% of attendees to our RFID webinars have not implemented the technology yet but are interested in exploring this. How do you determine if RFID is right for you and what steps are part of a deployment?

During this webinar, you will learn the answers to the following questions:

• Based on your unique needs, how do you determine if RFID can improve the flow of goods and inventory accuracy, and at what cost?
• Does RFID fit your organization considering your people, processes, and technology?
• How do you test reading RFID tags at your facility?

Watch the Full RFID Webinar Recording

Interested to learn more about our RFID deployment solutions and services? Contact us today for a consultation and see if it’s the right fit for your organization.

About This Webinar:

How to Select, Print, and Encode RFID Tags

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2:00 PM – 2:30 PM ET

Presented By:

Chris Brown – RFID Subject Matter Expert at TSC Printronix Auto ID

Carlo Emanuele – Vice President and General Manager, Consumables at Barcodes Group

About the RFID Tag Webinar

IDTechEx forecast that 41.2 billion RAIN RFID tags will be sold in 2024, up from 15 billion just three years ago.

To enable you to track your assets with unprecedented accuracy, using the right tag will determine the success of an RFID implementation from the very beginning.

But how do you determine the encoding scheme to use at your organization, and the most appropriate tag or label to support this?

During this webinar, the following questions are answered:

• Why do you need to be concerned about encoding “good data” to RFID tags?
• How do you select an RFID tag that finds the optimal balance between size and read range?
• What role can a partner play in assisting with pre-printed/pre-encoded labels or providing solutions for your on-demand printing?

Watch the RFID Label Webinar

For an assessment of how RFID can improve your inventory accuracy and shipment verification process, please reach out to us at [email protected] or visit www.barcodesinc.com/solutions/learn-more-about-rfid/.

About This Webinar:

RFID Cycle Counting: Increase Inventory Collection Speed at Lower Costs

Thursday, June 30^th, 2:00 PM – 2:30 PM ET

Presented By:

Matt Smith – SLS

Christopher Vassilos – Barcodes

Why RFID for Cycle Counting is Transformative

Most businesses today conduct inventory counts as part of their operations. Traditional means of collecting this data include tallying products on a count sheet or scanning barcodes off product labeling, both of which are time consuming and prone to error.

Using RFID technology for cycle counting reduces labor cost and automates the workflow. The result is greater accuracy, improved asset utilization, as well as reducing lost or out of inventory situations.

During this webinar, you will be shown the following:

• A demonstration of cycle counting using RFID technology in action
• An overview of the components of the SLS Mobile Solution
• Various scenarios of deployment, including the use of robotics

Watch the RFID Cycle Counting Webinar Recording

We hope to see you there! For an assessment of your company’s ROI potential with RFID, please reach out to us at [email protected] or visit Barcodes and SLS RFID Solutions.

The FX9600 RFID reader from Zebra Technologies delivers exceptionally high sensitivity and top performance, designed for high-volume, industrial environments.

To achieve maximum visibility and efficiency in your most rugged environments, your business needs an RFID reader that can keep up with the high volume and wide variety of pallets, cases and tagged items that go in, out, and through your warehouse each day.

The Zebra FX9600 Fixed UHF RFID Reader delivers the performance and features you need to handle it all. The extremely durable diecast aluminum housing and IP53 sealing deliver the rugged design you need to ensure uptime in your most challenging areas.

The FX9600 reader can host embedded applications, simplifying and reducing deployment time, cost, and complexity while increasing network bandwidth.

See the FX9600 RFID Reader in Action

With industry-leading read rates, long read ranges, and exceptional RF sensitivity, you can automate inventory management from start to finish. Receiving and storing, picking and shipping – all without errors, and without bottlenecks. 

The result? Increased efficiency and accuracy every time your inventory is touched, reducing labor costs and ensuring the delivery of the right product to the right customer, on time, every time. See even more warehouse management RFID solutions from Barcodes.

For Industry-Best RFID Reader Performance, the FX9600 Delivers

Zebra Technologies is committed to supporting a variety of warehouse needs. The FX9600 enhances workforce functionality in the following ways:

• Exceptional RF sensitivity
• IP53 sealing and up to eight RF ports 
• Durable diecast aluminum housing
• PoE and PoE+ support

Meet the RFID reader that’s a step above the rest. [Download FX9600 RFID Infographic Sheet]

With functionality and performance in mind, Zebra delivers industry-leading RFID readers capable of hitting the mark for warehouse needs. Contact us today to see how you can bring greater efficiency to your workforce with RFID.

Webinar:

The Walmart Mandate: Tipping Point for RFID Adoption?

Thursday, May 12th, 2:00 P.M. – 2:30 P.M. ET

Presented By:

Todd Muscato – Barcodes Group

Ashley Burkle – Impinj

Ensure Your RFID Labels and Tags are Compliant Before September Deadline

After success using RFID for apparel, Walmart is expanding its RFID mandate to scores of additional products. Could it be a tipping point for RFID adoption in U.S. retail?

With heightened omnichannel demands and continued supply chain disruptions, retailers with inventory accuracy and visibility are thriving. How do you thrive instead of just survive with RFID in retail?

In this webinar, Barcodes and Impinj discuss the following:

• How RFID is helping big brand retailers adapt and thrive
• What retailers and their suppliers need to get started on their RFID journey
• How Barcodes can help with RFID solutions, including devices, software, tags, and support

Watch the Retail RFID Webinar Recording

Learn more about Barcodes’ Walmart RFID solutions, and contact us if you would like to have an exploratory discussion.

Webinar:

The Smart Warehouse

Thursday, April 20, 12 P.M. ET

Presented By:

Will Barnett – Barcodes Group

Jeff Lem – Portable Intelligence

John Wirthlin – Zebra Technologies

Ensure Your RFID Labels and Tags are Compliant Before September Deadline

There are many challenges facing warehouses today. An increase of growth and demand accompanied by a shortage of labor and supply chain instability have industry executives looking for new ways to help alleviate these issues. In this webinar, we’ll discuss warehousing trends and technology that help increase operational efficiency, including:

• The 5 Phases of Zebra’s Warehouse Maturity Model
• Strategies to reduce inventory levels
• Ways to improve your cycle counts and reduce inventory obsolescence  

Watch the Full Smart Warehouse Webinar

Let’s discuss technology upgrades in your warehouse and your business goals. The Smart Warehouse is much more attainable with trusted partners like Barcodes, Zebra, and Portable Intelligence.