RFID for Jewelry Tracking


Current Process:

Today, most of the jewelers track there inventory on daily or weekly basis. The process is completely manual. This is time consuming process and also error prone. They have to check each and every jewel item. Most jewelry shops use barcodes. Barcodes requires line-of-site for reading the items. RFID can read entire tray of jewels within seconds. RFID does not require line of site as barcodes. Since RFID can read within seconds, handling of expensive jewelry items is also reduced. We can also hide the RFID inlays. So that it will not be visible.

Designing the System:

RFID system can be deployed in many ways. Each has its own pros and cons. Before confirming the design, the cost and complexity to install and maintain should also be considered. It’s good to know ones currently following process thoroughly. So that it will be easy to design and implement.

	What are the important points to consider when giving RFID solution? Is that we have to achieve high inventory accuracy? Is there any data available which has the record of inventory accuracy, time, shrinkage which provides valuable information where we can overcome in designing the RFID system.
	Main objective is to increase the internal process? Will the data be used by other business partners like eg: (Directors, Insurance , Banks etc.)
	Jeweler can provide there currently using processes or procedures which will help to overcome current problems in inventory inaccuracy or shrinkage?
	The exact where abouts of the products can be known easily? Complete reports can be obtained daily or twice a day or weekly?
	Is 100% accuracy required or can the bulk of the issues be addressed if 98% accuracy is achieved?
	How much time and money is the jeweler willing to invest in this system?

Item Level Reader Systems:

Once the programs goals have been established, the type of reading system can be designed. For jewelry applications, there are basically three options for RFID tracking of the jewelry items: Shelf Readers: These readers gives us the most exact inventory for the given regular interval of time throughout the day. The readers and antennas will be installed throughout the shelves of the store for accuracy. No one required for reading the RFID tags, that is the most important advantage of this system. System provides accurate location of each and every item in the store which makes it easy to handle the inventory. However , the cost of the shelf reading system will be expensive and has equal amount of complexity to install. Discrete Fixed Readers: The jewelry movements can be monitored when the item pass through given point within the store. The item movements in and out of the vault can be read. At point of sale the reader reads all the jewelry items on the tray whenever they are taken in and out of the vault. The jeweler can track how often the jewelry item was taken and shown to the customer by his sales person. The trays are having separate antennas which spreads through out the stores. These discrete readers will take a note only when the RFID tagged items are passing through there respective read points.

Handheld or Portable Readers:

Handheld readers which is carried by the sales person are battery powered. With this we can take care of our inventory very easily as many times as we require. This is also cost effective and least complex system. But it requires person to carry it in order to capture the product item list for inventory. It is very much easy than barcode or manual processes. This saves lot of time for us. This is primarily jewelers implement it in the case of RFID, firstly. We can migrate to more flexible system according to our business expansion, which can integrate multiple readers.

RFID Frequency:

RFID Jewlery applications mostly made with the help of two frequencies. UHF (860 – 960 MHz) or HF (13.56 MHz). Each frequency has its own pros and cons. HF tags where mostly used because for its avalability,security,more memory and reliability. But the drawback of HF was its short read ranges.Where as UHF has very good read range we can read upto 50 meters. The cost of UHF is also low when compared to HF.UHF tags are under research and development for increasing its security and memory capacity.

Tag Form Factors:

There are several ways that the RFID inlay can be introduced into the jewelers tagging system.

RFID Jewelry Labels: RFID inlays can be imbedded into the RFID jewelry label. Benefits to this method include that it requires no additional labels or tags be applied to the jewelry and it also does not disturb the aesthetics of the jewelry labels as the RFID inlay is ‘hidden’ within the label. Additionally, these labels can be printed and encoded in an RFID printer encoder that prints the human readable and barcode data (if required) and also encodes the RFID data to the tag. These are available in a number of form factors and sizes. These are typically made with synthetic label stock so that the tag cannot be removed by tearing.

RFID Jewelry Tags:

RFID inlays can also be imbedded into tags. Some higher end jewelers attach high-quality preprinted tags to the jewelry item using strings. For these jewelers, there are two options. The RFID inlay can be imbedded in the tag at the time of manufacture. Or a small RFID labels can be printed and encoded and then applied to the jewelry tag. Again, with both of these options, the RFID label or tag can be printed and encode in an RFID printer/encoder, thereby assuring quality and accuracy.

RFID Hard Tags:

Finally, the RFID inlay can be imbedded in a plastic RFID tag. The advantage of this tag is that it offers the highest security as it is can be made very difficult to remove. However, these tags offer a bulky, non-pleasing aesthetic. They can also get in the way of the consumer trying on a piece of jewelry. These must be open-air encoded (the least reliable method of encoding) and do not support human readable and barcode data. These tags tend to be the most expensive options, although they can be re-used.