Automated Kitting With RFID From Entigral And Motorola Reduces Response Times And Improves Operational Efficiency For FEMA

How RFID helps speed FEMA inspections and improve field equipment recovery.

Partnership for Response and Recovery (PaRR) Inspections is a contracted manager of FEMA housing inspection services nationwide. When a disaster is declared, PaRR dispatches inspectors to do physical home inspections, collecting and reporting information on behalf of those applying for federal assistance. Each inspector must be outfitted with a tailored kit containing numerous pieces of data collection equipment.

Putting the right equipment into the hands of each of several-hundred individual on‑site inspectors, especially in a post-disaster environment, is a logistical challenge. But for PaRR, an equally important concern was accurate tracking and recovery of the government-owned equipment after the event.

THE CHALLENGE
Speed Deployment; Improve Recovery
The logistics of delivering the right equipment into the hands of each of several-hundred individual on-site inspectors, especially within the inherent turmoil of a post-disaster environment, are clearly challenging. Manual tracking processes were subject to frequent errors, damaged or faulty equipment was not properly flagged and recovery of missing components was a long, arduous and expensive proposition. PaRR wanted a way to improve their stewardship of federal equipment by improving their entire asset tracking process, from warehouse to field and back again.

THE SOLUTION
Investigation
The first steps involved dissecting PaRR’s existing processes and determining if/where/how RFID could enhance those processes. Once PaRR decision-makers were convinced that the technology was capable of saving time and improving accuracy, they engaged Entigral to develop a solution. Development was implemented in phases to allow full investigation of the physics of RFID and the different types of equipment and assets that would need to be tracked.