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Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is fast evolving as a major technology enabler for tracking goods and assets around the world. Whilst a variety of different industries have experienced greater efficiency by implementing the technology, it is within the logistics and port operations sector and international security compliance where RFID is really making waves.

RFID is essentially a system that wirelessly transmits the identity (in the form of a unique serial number) of a tagged object, using radio waves. The systems being implemented today consist of three different components: tags, readers and the host computer system.

The tags are tiny radio devices, comprising of a simple silicon microchip, typically less than half a millimetre in size, which is attached to a small flat aerial and mounted on a substrate. The whole device can be encapsulated in a variety of versatile materials, dependent on its final usage, ranging from simple plastic labels, to specially shaped screws inserted into crates.

The reader, interrogator or scanner (names vary, the function does not), sends and receives radio frequency between tags through a special antennae. The major advantage over barcodes is that RFID does not require line-of-sight to operate, which means the tag can be hidden inside the item or box and still be read. In practice, this eliminates the need for a person to present the scanner to the tag, as it can now be automatically read as it passes a fixed point. In this way, systems already in the marketplace allow up to 800 tags to be read per second.

Throughout entire logistics facilities, goods can be monitored in an automated fashion and stock can be moved through the supply chain more efficiently. At the end of this chain, retailers are applying the technology to reduce out-of-stocks and lowering excess inventory in their warehouses. The Independent European Centre for RFID predicts that activity in the retail sector alone is likely to impact on around 200,000 manufacturers and suppliers globally, and will further increase demand in the supply chain for hardware and ‘middleware' to support developing logistics networks.

Having envisaged the business benefits of RFID early, major international retailers and organizations, including Wal-Mart and the US Military, have adopted RFID tagging for pallets and case shipments. Whilst big names such as these certainly garner much of the media spotlight, Joe Iarocci, director of Psion Teklogix in the Middle East, is keen to point out that it's really the logistics industry and intermodal terminals that have led the way. "Ports and new warehouse facilities are our biggest customers," he says. "They're the ones who develop infrastructure first. Typically, there is a huge investment in port operations, you just have to look at Dubai for evidence of that."

A major driver for RFID application in the marine industry has been the security climate. The container security initiative (CSI) launched in 2002 by the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, declared that since terrorist organizations have increasingly turned to destroying economic infrastructure to make an impact on nations, the vulnerability of international shipping has come under scrutiny.

Unlike a port worker, electronic tags cannot be bribed and the coding is encrypted, so they cannot be duplicated. By replacing paperwork with an RFID tag, a secure container, package or individual item can be recognized, its whereabouts tracked, you can see whether it has been tampered with, and automatically know whether it should enter the facility and go onto the ship, aircraft or truck.

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