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Coverage of the machine-to-machine communication market,
helping companies learn how to reduce costs and automate processes by networking
their assets. The strength of M2M is connecting people, devices, and systems.
M2M technology is being heralded by many of the worlds most influential
enterprises and technology providers, and is expected to generate billions in
revenue and cost savings by the end of the decade. The term M2M represents a
number of different types of communication: machine-to-machine,
machine-to-man, man-to-machine, machine-to-mobile, and mobile-to-machine; it
involves the process of giving machines, devices, and appliances the ability to
share information with backoffice information systems and the people who use
them.
RFID Tag Market to Swell Tenfold by 2009
by Rob McGann
ClickZ, January 18, 2005
The worldwide RFID (define) tag market will grow nearly tenfold from $300 million in 2004 to $2.8 billion in 2009, according to an In-Stat report.
RFID Chips Are Here
by Scott Granneman
Security Focus, June 26, 2003
RFID chips are being embedded in everything from jeans to paper money, and your privacy is at stake.
What RFID chips look like
Small durable increasingly inexpensive computer chips, each with an antenna.
Used in an electronic product code (EPC) system, they will replace bar codes.
Used with IP numbers, they will be embedded in almost every object in our
environments enabling an Always-On World we can barely
imagine.
help
traffic flow at concession stands
open up a car while car
key is in pocket
track patients and
medical devices such as defibrillators
newborn baby's
umbilical cord has round plastic tag
link an online
advertising campaign for say a new low carb soda to actual sales
tag pets in case they
run away
tag child
tag car and other
valuables
toll-booth
EZPass systems
casino
chips
card
keys for entering an office after hours
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology Stocks Directory
Sensor chips (monitoring human hearts, monitoring moisture for golf courses, monitoring motion at our borders)or RFID chips (identifying what it's attached to) pump the data.
WiFi or cellular networks transfer the data over the Internet.
A server runs applications for this wireless network, using data from sensor or RFID chips.
Software provides the service and user interface.
Machines talking to machines, always on everywhere.
Put a Chip in It!
by David H. Freedman
Inc. Magazine, April 2005
Thanks to new technology, nearly anything can be "smart."
Are you smart enough to keep up? ...
Someday, anthropologists will cluck over the fact that even into the early 21st
century Americans had to wave at waiters and bartenders if they wanted a refill
on their beer. That's because a research laboratory run by Mitsubishi has
developed the world's first "smart" beer mug. It's equipped with a
dishwasher-safe microchip in the bottom that senses when the glass is down to
dregs and sends a distress signal to the barkeep.
The
Bullwhip Effect
QuickMBA
An unmanaged supply chain is not inherently stable. Demand variability increases as one moves up the supply chain away from the retail customer, and small changes in consumer demand can result in large variations in orders placed upstream. Eventually, the network can oscillate in very large swings as each organization in the supply chain seeks to solve the problem from its own perspective. This phenomenom is known as the bullwhip effect and has been observed across most industries, resulting in increased cost and poorer service.
Taming the Bullwhip Effect
by Ram Reddy
Intelligent Enterprise, June 13, 2001
On average, a firm loses anywhere between 9 and 20 percent
of its value over a six-month period due to supply chain problems. ...
Some firms I worked with faced part shortages, excessive finished goods
inventories, underutilized plant capacity, and runaway transportation and
warehousing costs despite successful installation of best-in-class supply chain
management (SCM) systems. A major cause of these problems was the "whiplash" or
"bullwhip" effect in supply chains. The bullwhip effect occurs when information
about the demand for a product gets distorted as it passes from one firm to the
next across the supply chain.
One factor responsible for the bullwhip effect is the traditional commission or
incentive structure for sales and marketing personnel. In most firms sales and
marketing departments rule, so efforts to change traditional sales commission
practices to support SCM objectives have mostly been futile. Touting benefits
from reduced shipping costs or effective plant utilization doesn't have the same
pizzazz with executives and the financial community as a 15 percent increase in
sales. Finally, a measure of SCM failure can make the case for removing a major
cause of the bullwhip effect - sales incentive practices.
An Always-On Everywhere world, aka the Evernet:
bits and atoms are
merged
the Internet extends
into everyday objects
everything is connected
physical objects
communicate in real time all the time
Atoms matter:
you
eat them
you are made
of atoms ... and will be for the foreseeable future
exchange of atoms
("trade") is the root of all commerce, until recently
The traditional supply chain is a network of atoms:
complex
bi-directional material and printed information flows
integration of all the
stages gets the right items to the right customer at the right
time, place and price
|
Raw Materials
Manufacturing
Distribution
Retail
Consumer
Disposal/Reuse |
The Internet is a network of bits.
|
Computer
Computer |
E-commerce links the networks.
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RFID and EPC will merge them, aka e-business.
|
Raw Materials
Manufacturing
Distribution
Retail
Consumer
Disposal/Reuse |
overall picture - Auto ID Center's How the EPC Network Will Automate the Supply Chain (500K .pdf)
The need for standards rises with network complexity. We will need as many as 10^16 objects. The current IPv4 (ex: Ricci Street's IP number of 208.234.16.68) yields 256^4 or only 4.3 billion unique IP numbers. Not even close.
However, IPv6 will solve that particular problem.
IPv6
cuts address chaos
by Brooks Talley
Infoworld, August 24, 1998
EPC Electronic Product Code
A product numbering standard under development by the Uniform Code Council (UCC) to identify items using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. The 96-bit EPC code links to an online database to share product-specific information along the supply chain. It assigns a unique identifier for every object and is designed to be scaleable and extensible.
Decouple
identity from data
Store only the EPC on an item. Store additional information in a database that can be accessed using the EPC as a key.
Global,
open standard
Group
completes new RFID technology standards
by Scarlet Pruitt
IDG News Service, June 14, 2004
Radio frequency identification (RFID) standards group
EPCglobal Inc. said Monday that it has finalized its first global standards,
promising to help speed companies' adoption of RFID technologies to improve
supply chain operations.
The electronic product code (EPC) technologies standards define the types of
tags to be used and the frequencies the tags work at, as well as the tag read
rates.
RFID
tags & readers
PML
Physical Markup Language
ONS Object Name
Service
At every point in the e-business diagram above, information is added to this chip as value is added to the raw materials.
source: MIT's Auto-id Center
(now EPCglobal)
in:
ID data from chips
telemetry
historical data
other data
out:
decisions
inference
predictions
Reduce out of stocks, reduce inventory, speed delivery, check freshness, track and trace, produce to demand, identify sources of diversion, identify counterfeiting, theft prediction, faster recalls
Direct order from home, smart appliances, (e.g. microwave, washing machine, refrigerator), smart healthcare, assisted living
Customized products, smart recycling, checkout-less stores
Will inventory shrinkage rise or fall? Or just get more sophisticated?
source: H. Lee, P. Padmanabhan, and S. Whang
The bullwhip effect in supply chains, Sloan Management Review 38
(1997), 93-102.
bull-whip in the beer game
beer game with auto-id technology
Behind the
RFID Standards Brawl
by Erika Morphy
NewsFactor Network, August 20, 2004
"One thing I have been telling clients is, don't bang their
heads against wall to figure out the technology piece of this. The technology is
almost secondary -- it will iron itself out," AMR Research senior analyst Kara
Romanov tells NewsFactor.
The point is to keep an eye on the end goal, she says. For manufacturers, that
would be a system that provides a real-time demand signal -- which could deliver
huge savings in inventory and supply-chain costs.
Instead of thinking about the short-term issues, companies have to concentrate
on getting their back-end infrastructure and processes ready for the huge data
dump that RFID will deliver.
"If manufacturers and retailers can get accurate and real-time demand data,
rather than estimates of what has been sold, that would represent a sea change
in demand forecasting," Romanov says. "The holy grail for [consumer packaged
goods] manufacturers is real-time, clean and accurate demand data."
The Supply
Chain's RFID Gambit
by Jim Rendon
MBusiness Daily
Using embedding chips in every product, an MIT project could
transform retail supply channels.
It's Gary Calveley's job to get products like Dove soap and Ponds cold cream
from the factory floor to store shelves as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Today that process is a mess, says Calveley, the European logistics director for
Unilever's personal care products division. Even with databases and the
bar-coded Universal Product Code (UPC) to identify product types, the thousands
of shipping companies, distributors, and retailers handling his products lack
accurate information about the location of products. As a result, Unilever
produces far more merchandise than it needs at any given time -- so much so that
the company has set a goal of reducing its inventory by 60%.
The
Electronic Product Code: RFID Reality
by Ted Fichuk
ACNielsen's Consumer Insight magazine
So what should the industry do now? Plan. Prepare. The change is coming, and it will be inevitable. Manufacturers and retailers should not be looking on from the sidelines anymore. There should be a dedicated person or team within your organization looking at this full-time.
DoD Announces
Radio Frequency Identification Policy
press release, October 23, 2003
The Department of Defense announced today the establishment
of a Radio Frequency Identification Policy (RFID). RFID technology greatly
improves the management of inventory by providing hands-off processing. The
equipment quickly accounts for and identifies massive inventories, enhancing the
processing of materiel transactions to allow DoD to realign resources and
streamline business processes. ...
All items shall be tagged, except sand, gravel and liquids.
RFID Journal Cases:
Companies rack up billions each year in lost revenue because they cannot track the movement of their assets. In other words, what is it? where is it? where has it been? who is using it? how long have they been using it? , etc. These data can be automatically acquired from any object that has an RFID tag attached or built into it. RFID tags provide much more utility, flexibility, and data than barcodes.
Motorola's
Wireless BiStatix Technology Puts Visitors 'Inside' the Internet at Chicago
Museum of Science Networld Exhibit
press release, March 6th, 2001
A new wireless technology from Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT) that
promises to change the way we identify and track the flow of products, packages
and people will be featured at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry's
Networld. Each year, millions of visitors will learn about the Internet and gain
first-hand experience using BiStatixTM radio frequency identification
(RFID) cards from Motorola.
Networld, which opened March 2nd, puts guests "inside" the Internet
using a virtual animated sidekick called an "avatar." Visitors can
digitize themselves and personalize the avatar with their own likeness. Guests
can purchase a NetPass card that includes a small, embedded Motorola BiStatix
RFID chip that enables them to summon their personal avatar and have it join
them in their exploration of Networld.
In operation, the exhibit visitor touches these wireless cards to card readers
located at interactive stations throughout the exhibit. These cards are very
fast and convenient to use, with nothing to swipe or insert. The reader sends
energy to the BiStatix chip for power and the chip sends unique identifying
information back to the reader, all using radio frequencies. The reader decodes
the identity information from the chip and transmits it into the system
controlling the networking exhibit, which in turn displays the NetPass
cardholder's avatar at that station.
"Networld is a brilliant example of the creative use of technology, the
same kind of creativity that will use Motorola's BiStatix smart labels to change
our views
of supply chain management and product packaging," said Jim Osborn,
corporate vice president and general manager of Motorola's Worldwide Smartcard
Solutions Division. "There is a direct parallel between using BiStatix
technology to manage an 'avatar' in the Networld system and the eventual
application of BiStatix in systems that manage the movement of goods through a
global supply chain."
eRetailReport: The Electronic Product Code -- A Technology Revolution In The Making (.pdf)
How The ePC could transform retailing ... Price Optimization via the Internet
New Chips Could
Make Everyday Items 'Talk'
by Kevin Maney
eCommerce Times,
April 12, 2002
Each tiny chip, or 'tag,' will store a small amount of data
and will contain a minuscule antenna that lets the chip communicate with a
network.
In Singapore, cars "talk" to the streets they drive on. In Tulsa,
retailers test a system that lets products inform the store when they're bought.
In home kitchens later this decade, frozen dinners might automatically give
cooking instructions to microwaves.
The Internet revolution was about people connecting with people. The next
revolution will be about things connecting with things.
A manufacturing assembly technology called Fluidic Self Assembly (FSA). This technology allows for the efficient placement of exceptionally large numbers of small components across a surface in a single operation. FSA has numerous potential uses. The Company plans to first use the technology to manufacture very low-cost RFID tags and subsequently to address other potential markets such as antennas, sensors and electronic displays.
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