It’s hard to believe RFID technology has been around since WWII. Though somewhat different, RFID and barcoding technology is not new, but both are core elements of Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC). If you haven’t noticed barcodes on practically everything, than the evolution of technology and barcode management has definitely done its job correctly. Before barcodes and host systems that store the information, the organization of products was a manual process that required a great amount of time, money and resources.
There are major benefits to using AIDC:
- Automatically recording these activities
- Reducing labor costs
- More complete and accurate information than manual record keeping
As I sat down with a delicious bowl of Cap’n Crunch® Berries this morning, I paid more attention to the barcode on the back of the cereal box. Fascinating, these barcodes are everywhere. It is such an organized and advanced system that I wanted to dive into it more. I began to wonder how often do local government and municipalities use this technology; is it just for food and beverage distribution?
Government has definitely incorporated these technologies, and many of us don’t even realize it. That’s how good it has become – so good that it has become unnoticeable. We don’t acknowledge or even notice the use of these technologies in traffic and parking tickets (until it’s too late), the DMV system, voting booths, census statistics, and so on. Think about the inventory the Department of Defense has? Think they are taking advantage of RFID and barcodes? You bet they are.
Why should we really care? Well, keep in mind that our tax dollars help fund these systems, so it’s important to keep them running as efficiently and productive as possible. If almost everything state and federal agencies did was manually input into a system, costs would probably be a little higher.
I hope the next time you sit down for your morning bowl of cereal, you’ll think about RFID and barcoding a little differently, and the other industries using these technologies.
-RS
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