Imagine that your company doesn’t have visibility into its inventory levels, production schedules or shipping routes. Late material arrivals can disrupt production and result in wasted labor. Unexpected changes in customer demand can create shortages that require rushed orders and extra shipping expenses. Low supply chain visibility is a compounding issue that can severely damage a brand’s bottom line.
The key to an efficient supply chain is real-time visibility. Hidden inefficiencies layer on top of each other, bogging down your process. Visibility solutions like RFID uncover these issues, enabling your team to be more agile at every stage. Using RFID tags, your teams can immediately locate misplaced goods in warehouses and even in cargo trucks. This improves productivity and reduces costly mistakes.
In today’s fast-paced business environment, real-time visibility into inventory is crucial for maintaining efficient supply chain operations. RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology has emerged as a game-changer, revolutionizing inventory management by significantly improving real-time visibility. This article explores how RFID empowers organizations to gain precise insights into their inventory levels, locations, and movements, enabling better decision-making and operational efficiency.
RFID: The Foundation of Real Time Visibility
RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a technology that uses radio waves to identify and track objects. RFID tags are attached to objects and can be read by RFID readers. RFID technology utilizes radio waves to identify and track objects equipped with RFID tags. These tags contain electronic information that can be wirelessly captured by RFID readers or scanners. Unlike traditional barcode scanning, RFID allows for simultaneous identification of multiple items without requiring line-of-sight contact. This capability forms the foundation of real-time visibility, enabling businesses to obtain accurate and up-to-date information about their inventory.
How RFID Works
Continuous Monitoring and Tracking
There are two main types of RFID – passive and active. The main difference between the two is that active has a batter built into the tag. This battery allows the tag, and therefore whatever it is affixed to, to continuously send out a location signal. So, for any real time tracking projects, active RFID is really the only way to go. Active RFID facilitates continuous monitoring and tracking of inventory. As tagged items move through the supply chain, RFID readers placed at strategic locations automatically capture data, updating the inventory database in real time. This seamless flow of information provides a comprehensive view of stock levels, locations, and movements. Whether items are in the warehouse, en route to stores, or on retail shelves, businesses can monitor their inventory at any given moment, enabling timely decision-making and efficient stock management.
1. Improved Product Quality
Visibility tools collect data and deliver it in real time for better decision-making. They help businesses track and monitor the flow of materials or products through a supply chain at the raw material, manufacturing, and shipments stages. Visibility provides companies with a clear view of what they need to fulfill orders, improve production efficiency, and respond to disruptions in the supply chain.
For example, a company with visibility can immediately notify its upstream suppliers when it needs to place an order or receives a shipment. It can also keep tabs on inventory levels, production schedules, transportation routes, and delivery dates. This allows it to proactively address any issues and keep its promise to customers.
In addition, visibility makes it easier to manage logistics partners and 3PL providers. Visibility helps reduce misunderstandings between partners about ETAs or shipping milestones by making all of the information transparent for all stakeholders to see and communicate in one place. This enables companies to cut down on delays and excessive dwell time, which saves money on demurrage and detention fees.
The key to achieving better visibility is not having more eyes and ears on the ground but embracing technology that provides a single, unified data model. This enables automation, predictive analytics and new business models. It also empowers the stakeholders to take control of their network by exercising a high level of visibility into what’s going on across the entire value chain.
2. Better Customer Service
Having real time supply chain visibility improves customer service by giving you the ability to communicate with your customers directly about the status of their orders. This way, if there are any issues with shipping your goods or there’s a delay in production, you can resolve it quickly. This will prevent any delays in delivering your products to your customers, which can be an extremely frustrating experience for both parties.
This also gives your business the opportunity to minimize inefficiencies, as you’ll have more control over operations. This can lead to savings on both inventory and transportation costs. Additionally, it can help your organization to respond more quickly to disruptions, such as weather or natural disasters.
The best way to improve your company’s supply chain visibility is by implementing a unified data model that collects and processes all relevant information in real time. This will give your team a complete overview of all aspects of your operations and allows for collaboration on a single platform. It’s important that all stakeholders have access to this information to make informed decisions and reduce the risk of inefficiencies and disruptions.
3. Reduced Costs
A supply chain is complex and interconnected. Often, one small disruption can cause a domino effect that leads to other problems throughout the system. For example, when a shipment is delayed at one point, it can lead to an increase in the days inventory on hand at the next point of fulfillment or a decrease in customer order fill rate. Having a clear picture of the entire supply chain allows businesses to track and anticipate potential issues, automate processes and make smarter decisions.
Visibility solutions enable businesses to monitor and manage key supply chain metrics, such as perfect order rate (the percentage of orders that are shipped correctly), customer order cycle time and days inventory on hand/inventory turnover. These tools also allow companies to reduce costs by enabling them to optimize transportation routes, predict and avoid unforeseen delays and take advantage of opportunities for reduced rates during pandemic conditions.
The best way to get real-time visibility is through a technology solution that enables businesses to capture and store data from multiple sources, such as GPS devices, ELD telematics networks, mobile apps, and AIS. This data is then analyzed and converted into valuable information to help improve business performance.
4. Increased Profitability
Supply chain visibility solutions enable companies to see how they are performing at all times and make changes accordingly. This helps businesses to reduce costs, improve quality and increase productivity. This results in greater profitability and overall success.
Visibility solutions allow companies to monitor their supplies and products at a highly granular level, as well as track compliance records, shipping details and other pertinent data in real time. This information is shared with all stakeholders through a unified data platform that ensures transparency, accuracy and speed.
For manufacturers, this means they can easily track their raw materials and components to their manufacturing plants. This also allows them to make better decisions about production schedules and reduce inefficiencies. For logistics vendors, it means they can quickly access key information about cargo batches, consignments and deliveries. This helps them manage their day-to-day operations more efficiently, and it gives customers peace of mind that they’re always in the loop about delivery status.
For any business, it’s important to be able to keep customers happy and maintain high levels of customer service at all times. This is especially crucial for supply chains, where any issues can result in significant delays or even a complete shutdown of production. With increased visibility, businesses can reduce downtime and lost revenue due to product defects or shipping delays. In addition, they can quickly address problems and recover from any disruptions that occur.
5. Data Analytics and Business Intelligence
The abundance of real-time inventory data generated by RFID technology presents an opportunity for businesses to leverage data analytics and business intelligence tools. By analyzing the captured data, organizations can gain valuable insights into consumer trends, demand patterns, and inventory performance. This information allows for proactive decision-making, such as optimizing inventory levels, identifying slow-moving items, and aligning supply with demand. Through data-driven strategies, companies can enhance operational efficiency, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction.
RFID technology has revolutionized inventory management by providing organizations with unprecedented real-time visibility. Through continuous monitoring, accurate tracking, and streamlined operations, businesses can optimize their supply chains, reduce errors, and make informed.
