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RFID Document Tracking
For many enterprises, documents stand as their most vital resources. The digital era has enabled widespread electronic archiving, yet the need for original, hard-copy retention persists, often dictated by legal requirements. Beyond these obligations, some organizations favor maintaining signed originals for robust authentication. The prevailing methods for managing these physical document assets in businesses and government sectors often involve barcodes and manual record-keeping. While these techniques might have sufficed in the early 2000s, the emergence of advanced technologies now offers significantly improved solutions.
What is RFID?
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology utilizes radio waves for contactless data transfer and identification of objects, animals, or humans. A standard RFID system consists of a reader, RFID tags, and antennas. An RFID document tracking solution can provide add real value for complex environments.
How Does RFID work for document tracking?
With RFID document tracking, every document receives an RFID label. The RFID label allows the tag to be read and tracked by an RFID reader.
Simple RFID tag on document
RFID Printers and Document Tracking
Using RFID printers for document tracking is a popular approach for many organizations. There are several advantages to using RFID printers with document tracking:
Customizable labels - RFID labels allow human readable information to be printed on the RFID labels. Documents often require human readable information so using an RFID printer streamlines the process.
Automated commissioning - Printing an RFID allows you to encode a unique value into the tag and automatically assign that new value to the document record in the software system. This streamlined process is more efficient and eliminates the possibility for human error.
RFID Printer for Document Tracking
RFID Document Tracking Advantages
Using RFID for document tracking can open up new possibilities for your organization that weren't an option using regular barcodes:
Faster Search Time - Search time is dramatically faster with RFID for document tracking.
Increased Productivity - Faster search time means fewer man-hours needed to find your critical documents. Your workers can spend time focusing on their actual roles within your business.
Regulatory Compliance - Some organizations are required to provide a chain of custody in order to comply with government rules. RFID can automate this process, allowing you to always fall within compliance.
Eliminate risk of lost documents - For some organizations, a lost document can literally put the brakes on critical processes. One example of this is a court case which requires a critical document to be presented as evidence. Losing this kind of document can be catastrophic. RFID can help you eliminate these kinds of catastrophic loss.
Common Strategies With RFID Document Tracking
There are many different approaches to RFID document tracking. Companies must carefully consider what level of tracking is desired when scoping out their project requirements.
Fully Automated Tracking
Companies that need to know exactly where their documents are at any time may want to use a fully automated tracking approach. This approach uses Fixed RFID Scanners to automate the reading of documents as they move throughout the environment. Common approaches to this are:
Room Entrances - With this approach, Fixed RFID scanners are placed at each room entrance. As documents move between rooms, their locations are automatically updated.
Processing Locations - Documents that move between processes are often placed in processing bins as they await the next step. Strategically placing RFID readers at these locations can fully automate process monitoring.
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Fixed RFID Scanner at Room Entrance
Manual Tracking
For some organizations, placing Fixed RFID scanners at each potential location is simply not an option. There may be too many locations, and the infrastructure costs are simply too high. For these types of environments, using a mobile RFID scanner can also be an attractive option. A mobile RFID scanner is a handheld computer that can also read RFID tags.
Periodic Inventory - Periodically performing inventories of each room allows a customer to rapidly update the location of all of their documents.
Event Based - Using a mobile RFID scanner also allows for an event-based approach for document tracking. With this approach a mobile RFID scanner is used to scan one or more documents during specific events in the document life cycle. One example of this is change of custody as a document is handed over to a new custodian.
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Mobile RFID Scanner