A comparison of RFID -based automation with barcode automation systems 

Why is RFID, a relatively young technology, in many cases preferred than using barcode automation systems by users?

Despite being spent maturity period of barcode technology, relatively young RFID technology, in many cases is preferred by users. The main reasons for this preference are to increase speed of reading data, decrease labor costs and enhance the accuracy in collecting and transferring data.

The benefits of RFID system over barcodes can be summarized as follows:
• Direct line of sight or contact not required
• Increasing the visibility of goods in the production chain
• Preventing the loss of goods
• Tags resistance against harsh conditions
• Non readability of barcode (in some cases)
• unable to re-use barcode labels
• The high cost of barcode scanners
• Barcode scanners sensitivity to the barcode location on the objects
If you want to get full text of article, please, click here.

RFID technology, its applications & non-functional requirements

This paper deals with the review of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and examines the difference between RFID and other technologies including barcode. The different parts of an RFID system are described in this paper and the various tag types are being discussed here. Next, various RFID technology applications including Supply Chain Management, People & Asset Tracking, Warehouse Management, etc. and how to improve their work processes are expressed through the examples.

Increasing growth of communication technologies in recent years has accelerated the move towards hot information flow. The Age of Communication has affected most processes and traditional methods and has redefined them. To achieve hot information flow in organizations, in addition to good communication platform, collecting and recording data also should be done automatically. A wide variety of data sources can be accessed through the Internet infrastructure. But how to collect and record data, still, is a big problem. In many cases, data are related to the physical objects, their events and modes, but converting them into a form to which the human mind or computers can get access is difficult. For example, in a supply chain, usually, different chain rings such as manufacturer, distributor, dealer and other components do not have accurate information on their inventories; obviously, using this information can lead to higher savings and productivity.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is one of the best methods to automatically collect and record data. Recent progress in the  semiconductor industry as well as advanced signal processing methods have caused reduction in cost of RFID systems and possibility of its use in a wide range of applications especially in the field of logistics and supply chain.  The present paper deals with this technology and enumerates its benefits over other methods of automatic data entry. A brief description of various RFID technology applications and its role in work process improvement as well as reviewing non-functional requirements that should be considered in RFID-based systems, are other parts of this article.

RFID vs. Barcode

Using different types of barcodes have been successful in various industry sectors for a long time. Barcodes are easily available and their production costs are too low. Barcode technology has reached a state of maturity and various standards have been developed for it. But its working methods may apply some limitations. In this regard, the most important issue is requiring a direct line of sight; each item must be placed exactly in front of barcode and in a suitable direction in order to be detected and nothing should be located between ray and barcode label. This makes queue and slow processes. Although this is not still a major obstacle for some applications; by speeding up different sectors and necessity to expedite data entry, barcode would appear even more inefficient. More advanced solutions such as scanning barcodes automatically or using machine vision systems are often expensive, complex and including numerous restrictions imposed on objects and their environment. Barcodes have also other limitations: After printing them, adding or modifying data can be done hardly; within 1D barcodes, you can contain smaller amounts of data; of course, 2D barcodes can carry much more information but they are also suffering from other disadvantages.