RFID Meets the Jewerly Industry article by atlasrfidstore.com

What type of RFID readers one should use?

New applications for RFID technology are constantly emerging to solve an age old problems across industries. In the retail industry, every store has inventory which may range into the thousands, even hundreds of thousands of pieces and dollars. Jewelry stores have millions of dollars invested in thousands of earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. With RFID jewelry tags, accurately tracking inventory becomes a viable option.

Placing a tag on every piece of jewelry is a constant in every jewelry tracking application, but the method of reading the tags will change depending on the setup. You can go with a handheld reader or a fixed reader with shelf antennas under the jewelry.

Handheld RFID Readers: If you have all your inventory on the showroom floor, perform a quick sweep of the inventory by waving the handheld reader from side to side capturing all the tags. To get an accurate inventory check, bring the handheld reader within a few inches of each tag. You need a base count of inventory for your baseline number, but this is a pretty fast and easy method to track your jewelry.

Fixed RFID Readers: If you need a constant inventory check, you can setup a fixed reader and shelf antennas. Once you have the shelf antenna installed, the tagged jewelry would be placed on top. When a piece of jewelry is removed, the reader immediately detects the change and removes the jewelry from the inventory count. This is a real-time method of tracking your jewelry inventory. If you are simply showing jewelry and take a piece off the shelf antenna, the system will detect the removal, but will add the item back into inventory as soon as the piece is returned to its original position.

- See more at: http://blog.atlasrfidstore.com/rfid-jewelry-tags-help-industry?utm_campaign=content&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=16282201&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9AXJttUhprXT_-Nuu-6nSGXENPikXinyZzzriiyCa7p0aZvnMALAsTcHzAeIfery8_UVX6UTzJFhN2O1IEt-OFWEFiOA&_hsmi=16282201#sthash.fJ3Xtzwc.dpuf

article by :About Suzanne Smiley

"Suze RFID" writes and manages content at atlasRFIDstore.com and is a frequent contributor to RFIDinsider. She has two cats and loves riding horses every week.

What Are the Applications for RFID in Health Care? Interesting Article of www.rfidjournal.com dated Feb 23, 2015 By Mark Roberti

Feb 23, 2015—

I received a lot of positive feedback about my column RFID Goes Into the Shark Tank. I'm glad people enjoyed it. When I first wrote it, I was concerned that someRFID solution providers might feel I was poking fun at them, but nothing could be further from the truth. I have a lot of respect for the folks who produce RFID solutions. But most are struggling to sell their solutions, and I wanted to illustrate a big reason why.

Many of the problems come down to an obsession with the technology. More specifically, vendors are in love with their products. I get that. I am very proud of RFID Journal's products. But putting too much focus on the products and their features makes it harder to sell them.

Here are a few of the mistakes I see solution providers making regularly.

1. Not providing a budget for marketing new products. Many RFIDcompanies invest heavily in producing some very impressive new products. In most cases, they do not allocate any budget for a product launch. This is true of established companies as well as startups. In his new book "Escape Velocity," Geoffrey Moore advocates having a marketing budget equal to the product-development budget—so, for instance, if you spend $400,000 to create a new product, then you should spend the same amount to advertise it.

2. Not inventing what the market wants. There are certainly many new products launched each year that were developed because an end-user company needed a tag or reader that didn't exist. But some RFID companies develop products because they can, and not because the market is asking for them. I often ask firms who their product is aimed at, and typically get the answer "anyone who needs it." I've also talked to businesses that have said they had a solution for an industry that doesn't seem to be looking for one (perhaps because the problem isn't serious enough).

3. Inventing what only one company needs. As a corollary to number two, some firms invent a solution that only a single company requires. They find a customer that wants anitem-level tag for tracking, say, eyes of newt, and they create it. Then they get some short-term revenue out of it, but can't sell the tag to anyone else.

4. Promoting product features instead of the problems they solve. If you look at most materials produced by RFID companies, they usually focus on the "speeds and feeds" of their product—how fast their reader can interrogate tags, their tags' read range or the number of reports in their software. End users are interested in solutions to their particular problems, and only want to discuss the specifications of a certain product after they are convinced it might solve them.

5. Not partnering with other companies to create a complete solution. Most RFID firms sell tags, readers or software. Some make none of those things, but provide systems-integration services. This means that a company with a problem RFID can solve often has to engage two, three and sometimes four other firms to create a solution. That increases the risk involved and turns a lot of potential customers off. If RFID businesses focused on the problems that potential customers face, they might band together to create exciting and market-changing solutions.

Ralph Waldo Emerson reportedly said that if a man could make a better mousetrap, the world would beat a path to his door. That might have been true in Emerson's day, but today, there are so many companies claiming to have a better mousetrap that those with rodent problems have become cynical. They don't believe any claims. And they certainly don't care if your trap flies shut 20 percent faster than the nearest competitor. They want the cheapest, most effective solution to their problem. Period.

Mark Roberti is the founder and editor of RFID Journal. If you would like to comment on this article, click on the link below. To read more of Mark's opinions, visit the RFID Journal Blog, the Editor's Note archive or RFID Connect.

From:

http://www.rfidjournal.com/articles/view?12726&utm_source=rfid+journal&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=5402588_GeneralNewsletter022615&dm_i=1JOI,37SNW,9AON9X,BINFR,1