Guest Series Part 3: RFID-Based Materials Management - Supply Side Economics

By Jon Chesser and Vincent Hsieh, Atlas RFID Solutions

Every EPC firm or owner I speak with tells me the same thing: "The supplier is the best person to attach the RFID tag to the pre-engineered component before it arrives at the site." Every supplier I speak with asks the same questions: "How hard will it be for my employees to learn to attach the RFID tags and how long will it take?"

As we saw in the example of the "not immediately found" pipe spool in Part 2 of this series, a supplier and the contractor can be adversely affected when a pre-engineered component cannot be immediately found at a jobsite. The contractor — or owner, depending on who is responsible for the pre-engineered component — calls the supplier and says something like, "I cannot find PS-11-2022-P41-MS-00292-08-2 at the site." The supplier then says something like, "Well, according to my system, we show that you signed for that with a load that was delivered about 6 months ago." Then the contractor or owner says something like, "Well, it isn't at the site. We have searched everywhere for the component and we need your help finding it at the site. When can you be here?"