RFID has been used in certain closed-loop Manufacturing environments for several years. What's new is the emergence of commercially available passive UHF tags and readers at increasingly attractive price points. With this change in the technology marketplace it is even more advantageous for Manufacturers to embrace RFID. Leveraging RFID in manufacturing encompasses tagging WIP and select components as they move through manufacturing processes and tracking products in the factory as they move from raw materials, components or fundamental building blocks to finished product. There are also many opportunities to make use of tagging and tracking for tools and MRO items used during manufacturing. And, because UHF passive tags now subscribe to a global standard there are opportunities to make use of RFID in the supply chain and reverse logistics operations that concern manufacturers.

There are many opportunities for ROI in Manufacturing environments:

• JIT Parts Supply
• Correct Product Build/Composition
• Quality Control Recording
• Product Pedigree
• Batch Control
• Smart Recall
• Operator Tracking / Productivity
• Production Line Speed (vs Barcode)
• Warranty Validation

An RFID Infrastructure for Manufacturing facilities - The use of RFID within the four walls and surrounding campuses of manufacturing plants create many requirements for an expandable, sustainable infrastructure. RFID in Manufacturing environments is typically associated with closed-loop applications, but many implementers are finding value by tying internal processes to external and customer related processes through RFID. These processes incorporate both fixed/portal type readers and handheld/mobile readers to facilitate tag data capture at many locations. And, most companies envision incremental use of RFID over time as they expand the number of tracking locations, deployed readers and consuming applications across their enterprise. The Reva Systems Tag Acquisition Processor (TAP) delivers the scalable infrastructure platform that enterprises can depend on to generate value now and in the future in any Manufacturing Facility.

The Reva TAP supports most major reader brands and models with simple point-and-click configuration. The Reva solution provides a graphical user interface that allows implementers to define physical facility layouts, place fixed readers, indicate benchmark reference tags for coordinating and dynamically determining mobile reader locations, create business location representations and once deployed - remotely manage and monitor facility level RFID networks. Configuration tasks can also be automated to facilitate rapid rollouts for deployments that incorporate 100's of facilities.