Issue #191 | May 14, 2009 | by Andy Kowl

Last year on RFID Street we declared the death of RFID pilots. Occasional contributor Dave Eagleson wrote that pilots imply an " underlying sentiment that the technology has not yet matured enough for enterprise deployment.

"This is not true. With the right planning of the system from design, development and deployment, a project can and will be a success, driving value and visibility to the end user. . . The reality today is RFID as a deployable technology is truly ready for prime time."

If you are thinking of buying RFID from a company who wants to run a pilot, you are wasting your money. Find a company who is 100% certain what they offer you will work and is willing to back it up.

When offered a pilot, clarify what is meant. When I hear the term pilot I always ask, "Why, are you not sure it will work?"

Do not accept guesswork
If your provider offers a scalable solution that begins in one part of your operation before rolling out to other areas, great – that makes sense. But if they are asking you to convince your internal team that you should experiment with RFID, find someone who will guarantee to make your buying decision an unqualified success.

Randy Dunn, National Sales Director of ADT/Tyco, recently shared with me how successful their work implementing RFID solutions for retailers has been. These are companies that recognize a "distortion" problem, where the stated inventory their system believes exists does not match the real inventory. This makes out-of-stocks more difficult to replenish and can wreak havoc on ordering products.

Here you have ADT/Tyco providing customers a 15% sales uplift on average; reducing shrinkage and gaining improvements up and down the line in their distribution centers and receiving operations. Department stores find more efficient category management. Best of all, these results are now routine. Despite proven success across the board, Randy told me they begin with a "pilot."

For accurate tracking, begin with accurate language
This is not to pick on Mr. Dunn. Just in the past few weeks I have spoken to half a dozen other technology providers who still describe the first step of their RFID integrations as pilots.

Words count. The use of the term "RFID pilot" is just one more hurdle which makes it sound like RFID is a science experiment.

A website called PilotProject.com defines pilot as ". . . experimental trial or test." A typical, recent press release from NIH, the National Institute of Health, talks about awarding three contracts for "pilot projects . . . for researchers conducting small- to medium-sized clinical studies…" Wikipedia says the purpose of a pilot is to demonstrate feasibility, and that the "proof of concept is usually considered a milestone on the way to a fully functional prototype."

Experimental? Prototypes? Research studies? "You mean you want me to go out on a limb and recommend to my boss we should spend a significant chunk of money on an 'experiment?' Are you crazy?!"

Do not confuse "starting small" as a pilot. It simply means a phased approach to deployment, with an eye on what all customers demand: Return on Investment.

Hotel-Casino solution exemplifies "starting small" vs. a pilot
A major hotel and casino in the U.S. first turned to RFID in 2005 to enhance their customers' experiences. Rather than wasting money on a pilot project "to see if it worked," they turned to Stratum Global, a company which prides itself on scalable solutions.

The initial opportunity for RFID was identified not as a cost-saver, but as a revenue generator. Enhancing the experience of the casino’s VIP guests meant more return visits.
Reducing the amount of time a customer spends on necessary, but tangential activities like parking their cars, left more time for gambling or dining. RFID passive technology was first used for “VIP” notification to staff to automatically recognize and to ensure the highest levels of service for their most profitable customers.

The casino's critical decision was to anticipate other potential operational efficiencies throughout the facility.




Phases 2 and 3 build on initial implementation
In 2006, when the casino began construction of a new hotel on the property, they were already comfortable with use of RFID. They asked Stratum Global for tracking technology to improve safety, security, asset and labor management, all concerns and challenges for any construction site.

"Moveable, fixed” entrance portals were installed throughout the area, operating wirelessly across the construction site. Anyone entering or leaving the site was identified with 100% accuracy using a passive RFID tag inside each worker’s hard hat. Should a problem occur, management would know instantly how many workers were on the site and who they were, though fortunately this was never required.

Now the hotel uses RFID to protect reduce the loss of high-value, in-room hotel assets such as flat screen TV's, iPod docking clock radios, bed duvets, scales, hair dryers, coffee makers and robes. Before any such asset disappears, it must pass through RFID portals positioned at elevator banks. Visual alerts including the asset's room and floor are displayed to security.

In addition, the passive RFID solution has reduced employee theft. There is a zero tolerance policy in place today for those employees caught by the system, which more importantly acts as a strong deterrent to others. Though no charges are filed today, RFID now recovers assets that historically have left the building.

Even if your company is not a retail chain or a casino, there are totally proven solutions in virtually every area. Accept, and expect, no less.

I agree that the word pilot may give the wrong impression to the potential adopter of RFID technology.

I disagree though, that an organization should go strait into deployment. The problem is not so much the maturity of RFID technology but the impact that RFID will have on the organizations business processes.

A pilot, or whatever you want to call it, is still useful in understanding the impact RFID is going to have on the affected business processes and systems while minimizing the risk of adversely impacting on-going operations. This is especially true if the business processes in the organization are poorly documented or not documented at all.

I have to agree with Andy.

Not having a pilot AT ALL is too much.

I've participated in a project that the main idea was to control street publicity. The person that was reading the tags were the same making the sales. And the publicity is all over my country (Brasil).

1) At the time, only one hand held could read UHF RFID tags and also support their sales software. That was Psion Workabout (with the internal slot).

2) Here in Brazil we have tons of different environments. We had to make sure it was reading in *poluted*, cold, hot, next to the beaches, etc. We had tons of types of Merchandisings. Some next to wood, metal, and etc.

Well, it was a really different implementation, and a very large project. Never seen something like that. The post is talking about the general use of RFID. But I have to say that RFID is much, much more than that.

Regards,
Edgard.