| RFID inventory control software is the technology of | | | | monitoring systems are only accurate at the end of |
| the future, but it is available today. The cost of the | | | | the business day or on the following day. It is not |
| tags keeps getting lower and lower. Right now, the | | | | unusual to see retail employees wandering through |
| cost may be comparable to your other tagging | | | | the aisles looking for an item that the computer |
| options. Regardless of the cost, it is a worthwhile | | | | shows as on-hand, only to learn that it was sold |
| investment. Here's why. | | | | earlier in the day. |
| In case you are unfamiliar with the technology, | | | | In shipping businesses, the tracking devices can be |
| radio-frequency ID tagging has been used to track | | | | used to locate various components and estimate the |
| wild animals and livestock for at least a couple of | | | | time that each piece will arrive. This allows the |
| decades. The predecessors to the devices were | | | | business that will receive the components to schedule |
| used by the allies in World War II to identify aircraft | | | | personnel and be prepared when the truck comes in. |
| as friends or foes. | | | | RFID tags are being used to keep track of |
| It was the ability to make the tags smaller and | | | | everything from the size of an ant to the |
| smaller that made it feasible to use them in asset | | | | monster-sized mining equipment. With the right |
| tracking. Gillette reportedly ordered 500 million of | | | | inventory control software in place, any company |
| them in 2003, at a price nearly comparable to that of | | | | large or small can be more efficient and their books |
| standard price tags and far lower than the cost of | | | | can be more accurate. |
| electronic inventory control tags. | | | | The tags may put an end to employee theft and |
| Knowing that the technology is being used by large | | | | shoplifting. The tags can be small enough to avoid |
| companies is great, but the small business owner, | | | | detection. If they happen to make it out of the |
| which might include you, has to wonder about | | | | store, they can be tracked from relatively long |
| affordability. If tracking your assets is an important | | | | distances. |
| part of your quarterly profit and loss statement, you | | | | To sum it up, inventory control software that makes |
| can hardly afford to be without RFID inventory | | | | use of RFID tracking is the way to go, whether your |
| control software. There is simply nothing that is more | | | | business is large, small or somewhere in between. It |
| efficient or more reliable. | | | | will help to increase your company's bottom-line |
| If real time tracking means anything to you, there is | | | | profits. |
| no other system that allows for it. Most other | | | | |