With thousands of rental items to count and keep track of, most rental companies have, at some point, wondered if there is an easier way. In an ideal world, there would be no barcodes. All you would have to do is roll the carts of equipment through a portal and your rental software would instantly tell you if the order is complete. In this fantasy world, such a system could track and locate each item within your facility (asset tracking) and even warn you if an item left the facility without authorization (loss control).
RFID (Radio-frequency Identification) has been around since the 1970s. The first passive RFID tag was patented in 1983. But the technology is now approaching a new level of reliability, sophistication, and affordability that has experts predicting rapid expansion into some truly massive markets. The question is, would it make a worthwhile investment for a medium to large rental facility?
According to RFID Journal, over the next few years RFID systems will be widely deployed in huge markets like clothing retailers, factory processes, pharmaceutical and organ tracking, cargo shipping, and industrial applications where tracking vehicles and machinery assets increases efficiency and lowers costs. These applications will join those that have been around a long time—cattle tracking, animal identification, tracking high-value mobile medical equipment in hospitals, timing marathon runners, airport baggage logistics, etc. Currently passive RFID tags, bought in bulk, range from stickers that cost $0.10 to more sophisticated tags with larger antennas for $2.25 per tag or more. Mass implementation of RFID could lower the cost of tags over the coming years.
The reliability and sophistication of RFID systems is also improving. Improved antenna technology and dynamic management of the reader enable systems to detect both clear and faint reflections from tags. This helps the reader detect items that are under other items and provides consistent coverage over an entire zone.
The main motivation for rental houses to be interested in such a system is inventory control. Though RFID could in theory also make check-ins and checkouts go faster, most rental items still must be inspected for damage or tested for proper operation. So, while an RFID system would be faster and potentially more accurate than a barcode reader for counting items, it can never replace the labor-intensive process of preparing a package for rental and checking one back in afterward.
Therefore, the greater attraction for the rental house is having a better way to track equipment. Often, items get added and dropped during checkout. If something falls between the cracks, a portal RFID system would be able to tell you exactly what went out. Having the ability to look back and know exactly when an item left the building could be a great help in staying on top of assets.
One of the pitfalls with RFID, according the companies who have tested systems, is that lighting and camera equipment tends to have many little bits and pieces. Some pieces are small, and many parts are difficult to tag. For example, how can you tag media that fits into a tiny camera slot, or an item like a bridge support for a lens system where every surface on the item has a physical function that precludes the tag. In addition, readers cannot get a signal through metal cases. For many rental companies, until the system can accommodate every item in their inventory, and be counted without reopening any cases, there may not be sufficient reason to invest in the system.
An RFID system’s usefulness depends largely on how it is deployed and the procedures used. For example, the Department of Defense had implemented an integrated RFID system where RFID counts individual tagged items as they are packed into a case. Then a case-level RFID tag is printed (which looks like a baggage label used by the airlines) and adhered to the outside of the case. When a whole bunch of cases are shipped on a pallet, the case tags are read, and a pallet-level label is printed and attached to the pallet. Using a system like this, even if individual items are initially counted by hand, once they are in the case, they can be tracked via RFID.
There are a variety of types of RFID readers. Handheld units, commonly dual-use RFID/barcode readers, are currently the most common type. Instead of having to focus the reader on each barcode, the user simply waves the RFID reader over an opened case full of items, for example, and it instantly identifies every tagged item in the case.
A portal-type reader monitors tagged items, pallets, or carts of equipment, passing by the reader antenna. The portal may be placed at a doorway, hallway, or other zonal coverage area. The portal’s area must be free from interference from other tagged items.
Lastly, there are ceiling-mounted, wide-area readers that enable constant, real time item location monitoring and transition detection. This type of reader enables a clothing retailer, for example, to locate any item in their inventory in 3D space with an accuracy of about a meter. Rental companies that experimented with this type of system several years ago encountered too much RF interference for this to be reliable on a checkout floor. However, advances in technology may now solve some of these issues. The software for this type of reader is tailored to tracking all the items in the inventory, rather than checking in and out a subset of items. It is therefore not a replacement for a portal.
The RFID tags represent the lion’s share of the expense of deploying an RFID system. A passive RFID tag works by using the radio wave energy sent from the reader to generate and reflect a unique identifying radio signal back to the reader. This unique identifier can be paired to a specific item in the rental software. Tags are available in a wide variety of forms, including tags that can be sewn into fabrics, tags on thin plastic substrate, tags with their own antenna for better reading, tags that are intended to be stuck to a metal item and use the metal as their antenna. Part of the challenge of developing a reliable system is to pair the right type of tag with each type of item. Today’s tags are generally about the size of a credit card, but tags as small as ½ inch round have been developed. Tags vary in price and capability. For items like fabrics (e.g. grip rags) the simplest, least expensive type of tag has been shown to work reliably. For items that are made of metal such as C-stands and cable a more expensive type of tag must be used to maintain the reliability of the signal.
Several rental software companies support RFID. The implementation is not that different than traditional barcode readers. Software supports using both systems at the same time. Rental Works is currently working with the lighting and grip departments at NBC/Universal on a pilot program that tracks a subset of their inventory. The studio rental department reports using a portal reader to count items such as C-stands and cable with 100% accuracy, though a lot of the work is still carried out using a hand-held dual-use barcode/RFID reader. Reliability is still subject to variables. Some items need to be spread out to read reliably. Tags sometimes fail and must be replaced. The maintenance of the RFID system requires a certain amount of labor itself.
The fantasy of a tracking rental items with radio frequency tags appears to be just out of sight over the horizon, but as we move closer it will be something to watch for over the next few years.
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