Naveed Ahmed

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is steadily replacing barcodes among the Pakistani firms as an efficient and reliable technology facilitating them in managing their supply chains and making them more competitive globally, reports WealthPK.

Dr. Yasar Amin, Professor of RFID and Microwave Engineering, Department of Telecommunication Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Taxila, told WealthPK that RFID is steadily replacing barcodes among the Pakistani firms, although the global markets have already accepted this trend.

RFID provides solutions for warehouses, fixed and mobile asset tracking, field monitoring and management, point-of-sale (POS), security, and access control, among other applications.

He said RFID can be implemented for individual product identification and allow 100s of tags to be read simultaneously. While barcode reading can be obstructed by factors such as dirt or tearing, RFID suffers from no such hindrance.

Dr. Yasar said RFID enables traceability and visibility in any supply chain. Adopting RFID for supply chain management requires a pretty hefty investment, but it is a long-term commitment that will make the supply chain operations much more efficient and streamlined for years.

Pakistan has tremendous potential to utilize RFID technology to manage its supply chain across various industries. The retail sector is not limited to the sale of consumer goods. The retail industry includes all department stores, food chains, shopping centres, and family entertainment centres, which come under retail services.

Adopting technologies in developing countries is challenging for enterprises due to the lack of awareness. It is mandatory to facilitate the retail sector of developing countries like Pakistan by providing them with the framework for RFID implementation. These frameworks help implement RFID for local businesses with slight modifications. In this regard, the UET Taxila has established a testing lab for imported RFID technology from different countries to verify whether it carries the same features mentioned by sellers in the import agreement, he added.

Readymade solutions being purchased and implemented may fail to meet business requirements and compatibility due to the lack of awareness. The managers' awareness and education through training are highly desirable for large-scale technology adoption.

The UET professor also indicated that using RFID without proper inspection may cause serious security threats to the government and private organizations because codes embedded on chips or cards need unique patterns so that one cannot replicate them. As he mentioned, many organizations in Pakistan are using tags that can easily be reused, increasing the chance of fraudulent activities.

The reason for the failure of RFID project in companies is cultural and linguistic barriers. The primary and most crucial hindrance in Pakistan is that the technology is not localized; instead, it is hired and borrowed. However, more efforts are required to implement RFID in different economic sectors of Pakistan.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk