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For
Individuals:
What is
Happening with RFID,
Who Will Succeed in RFID,
and How Can I Earn a Career Opportunity in RFID?
RFID offers tremendous opportunities for
both companies and individuals.
Currently, for individuals, most of the best
opportunities are available for candidates who have experience with RFID.
Why? Although RFID is "hotter" than most information technologies and has
a very bright long range outlook employers are cautiously ramping-up hiring to
ensure that hiring doesn't improperly outpace revenue. As of the first half of 2008, just enough "supply" is available in the market which means that employers can choose from
among candidates with RFID experience.
Over the next several quarters the supply and
demand equation for RFID experience will start to change. The leading
semiconductor manufacturers of passive (non-battery) tags have already ramped production capacity from the millions to the tens of millions
and hundreds of millions of tags in response to not only the early Wal-Mart, DOD, and other mandates
but also in response to the 2005 EPC Gen 2 specification and the
subsequent (mid 2006) ISO 18000-6 amendment that harmonized EPC and ISO.
As a result,
both RFID provider companies and RFID user companies are beginning to over-run the
supply of experienced RFIDers. Further fueling demand for RFID expertise
we can expect to see external mandate and compliance programs give way to
internal user company motivations as the primary driver for RFID adoption.
It is also important to note that in
parallel with the technology and market developments in passive RFID, active
(battery powered) RFID and various derivatives of active RFD are gaining strong
traction.
Clearly, experienced RFIDers with
successful track records will increase in value. At the same time the
shift in supply and demand for RFID expertise will open new opportunities for outstanding
candidates with adjacent experience.
To understand what types of career
backgrounds will succeed it is important to see the larger picture of
RFID.
Although people currently think in terms of
“RF” (Radio Frequency) tags that “ID” (Identify) and track products and other
assets through supply chains, RFID tags will eventually be thought of as very small computers
that happen to have a built-in wireless networking capability. In other
words, it is only a matter of time until virtually every item with a RFID tag
can become a programmable/intelligent node on a private extranet, a private
intranet, or the public Internet. What this means is that RFID tags are
the basic building blocks and the volume driver of Pervasive
Computing.
The evolution of RFID system
architectures will in many respects be like previous IT evolutions which
saw competition between centralized and decentralized designs. With RFID,
as tags become recognized as programmable computers with finite but ever increasing amounts of processor and
memory capacity, IT
architects will engage in competition to develop system solutions with the
appropriate trade-offs between "tag-oriented" and "network-oriented" system designs.
Both system design camps will argue that Moore's Law is
driving computing MIPS closer to free while the network-oriented advocates will
remind us that Moore's Law is also having a similar impact on conventional bandwidth
and web-based servers.
In addition to total life cycle cost
(one-time and recurring costs), various architectural issues including RF range,
power consumption, functionality, flexibility, reliability, redundancy, security,
system management, scalability, and ease of use will drive the competing system designs.
Innovative and aggressive tag-oriented
system architects will advocate
squeezing ever greater capabilities onto each RFID tag. This will be the
course for most active tag suppliers and potentially some passive tag suppliers.
The tag-oriented architecture proponents, especially the active tag suppliers,
will pursue applications including relatively long range access control, high
value asset management, and various other applications requiring true Real-Time
Locating Systems (RTLS) capabilities. Initially, more so than the
network-oriented proponents, these suppliers will also be the likely providers
of sensor equipped tags.
Sensors will become an increasingly
important function. Sensors will be used to monitor and report changes in
the environment such as temperature, humidity, shock and vibration, and various
aspects of security such as physical or other tampering. Sensors on RFID tags
will detect and report chemical and nuclear particles. The applications for RFID
tags with and without sensors will be nearly endless.
Network-oriented
system architects will shift as much functionality as possible to the infrastructure of
web-based networks and servers and will have a strong (huge) initial focus on
passive tags. Over time, as costs fall, the network-oriented advocates will add
sensors.
While the network-oriented architects will
say "Why add any functionality on the tag that could possibly be put on a
web-based server? Just get the cost per tag down as low as it can go and
get the volume of tags as high as possible as quickly as possible", the tag-oriented architects will
respond by saying "But unless you put this or that
functionality on the tag, the application won't work no matter how much you want
to use web-based servers."
In both the tag-oriented approach and the
network-oriented approach, extraordinary advances in flexible miniaturization will drive impressive on-tag functionality including
standards-driven, tag manufacturer-driven, and user-driven data fields,
programmable processes, and other features.
Over time, as RFID tags becomes recognized
as what they are - miniature programmable computer nodes on a network - the
distinctions between the tag-driven and network-driven architectures will
recede. At this point, RFID architecture will resemble other IT
architectures which have matured to offer granular increments of processor and
memory capacity with options. However, where previously network interfaces
on computers were considered the front end, on RFID tags they will become
considered the back end and sensors will become the front end.
In the early days, tag providers will offer
very specialized tags. As the market matures, the winning providers will
offer a family of tags that will support a high degree of functional portability
among the tags. The tags, the readers (reader-writers) and the ability to
manage the RFID edge environment and the ability to integrate the edge
environment with IT systems everywhere will give rise to platforms for pervasive
computing.
As a frame of reference, some analysts
(focused on conventional computers, mostly PCs) have said that the one billionth
computer was shipped in 2002 and that this year (2007) the two billionth
computer will ship. While forecasts are certainly subject to error some
well reported market research projected that 20 billion RFID tags could be in
use as early as 2008.
More recently, another study claimed that 1.3 billion tags were produced in 2005
and projected that 33 billion tags will be produced in 2010. No doubt it
is easier to make projections than sales; and clearly most of these tags are
likely to be EPC compliant tags for Supply Chain
Management applications. However, it is important to remember that
increasingly, RFID tags will not be just devices to identify and track items,
but rather they are on the path to become programmable and networkable
computers. The
applications for RFID will be limited only by increasingly easier levels of
cost-justification and people's imagination. It is
worth repeating: Virtually every item with a unique serial number (or
name) will have the potential to become an intelligent wireless node on a
private intranet, a private extranet, or the public Internet.
Some providers
and users will opt for RFID solutions packaged as a system while others will opt for solutions delivered as a service. Clearly, in the coming
architecture battles experienced IT personnel from product line managers to
engineers to sales executives will find many opportunities to add value to their
employer's and customers' initiatives. Opportunities will exist for ITers
experienced with hardware and software development from the chip level to the
system level, in both the digital and the RF realms. Encryption, access
control, asset management, and other
security specialists will enjoy increased demand. Likewise, for RFID user
companies, RFID technologists and business process re-engineering analysts will
become important members of cross-functional teams.
Providers of sensor technologies, chips, antennas, inlays,
labels, printers, print and apply machines, readers, portal and other edge
software, middleware, application
software, hosting and outsourcing services, consulting, system integration, and
total solutions will increasingly look to
exceptional technology and business candidates who are new to RFID but who have
demonstrated the ability to bring new technologies to market.
Of
particular value will be candidates who have experience with enterprise software
that automates workflow. Candidates with ERP, logistics, warehouse
management, CRM, and other application provider experience will be among the
many new entrants to the RFID field. (Sooner or later the supply chain
implementation of RFID will extend to and past the Point Of Sale to the
consumer's home.) Software oriented candidates will bring value to RFID
initiatives from two converging perspectives: 1. candidates who bring
expertise regarding the ability of various application software packages to
provide off the shelf automation with a reasonable amount of configuring (vs.
large scale customization), and 2. candidates who bring expertise in .NET, J2EE,
XML and other web services technologies that will provide highly flexible means
of customization and integration.
Regardless of the technology platform, the high value candidates will be those
who can translate their experience in Supply Chain Management and other business
processes within (and
across) industry verticals into contacts, knowledge, skills, and insights that
can be leveraged by their new RFID employers. Consultants and others who
utilize consultative methodologies to develop innovative but practical RFID
use-cases for their customers will be increasingly in demand.
As always in
early adopter markets, candidates who can lead users to the automation of
vertical and horizontal workflows in a manner that is cost-justifiable and
consistent with users' strategic business objectives will be among the most
valuable new RFID employees.
What Is the Fastest Way
to Get Up To Speed
and Become an RFIDer?
Here are several suggestions:
-
Become a student of everything that has
to do with the EPC and DOD RFID standards specifications and the on-going development
of RFID standards; (better yet, find a way to participate in or become a
leader in the development of RFID standards). Become a student of the Wal-Mart and DOD mandates, the
progress of their compliant suppliers, and the progress of the RFID
providers who are implementing RFID solutions for the compliant suppliers.
Stay cognizant of the other companies and organizations issuing RFID
mandates and the other RFID developments around the globe including those in
Europe and Asia as well as within the United States. Become both an IT
expert and a Supply Chain Management expert - develop expertise in the
automation of supply chain workflows in one or more particular vertical
industries. Become an expert who can show how the implementation of
RFID technology will produce a Return On Investment.
While Supply Chain Management applications and the EPC/DOD standards
specifications are gaining considerable traction and have arguably become
the most visible face of RFID, be aware that many applications of RFID exist
and will emerge that do not fall within Supply Chain Management and that may
or may not fall under the umbrella of RFID standards. Give special
attention to active RFID/RTLS and sensor technologies, and give
consideration to the distinctions between open loop (inter-organization) and
closed loop (and intra-organization) applications.
In general, most highly highly scalable and successful technologies lead
to standards - either formally approved by standards bodies, or defacto.
However, as with all technology adoption, the success of RFID (both for
Supply Chain Management and non-Supply Chain Management applications) will
depend on many factors - not the least of which is the ingenuity of the
people bringing the technology to market.
-
Follow the news at
www.rfidjournal.com,
www.rfidupdate.com, and other RFID resource
sites.
-
Purchase and read (i.e., intensively
study) the book "RFID in the Enterprise" which can be found at
www.wccn.com.
Two other excellent books are "RFID and Beyond" by Claus Heinrich, and "RFID
Field Guide" by Manish Bhuptani and Shahram Moradpour. These
books were among the early but still valuable RFID "classics"; more recently
the market for RFID books has multiplied - check with Barnes and Noble,
Borders, and Amazon for new publications. RFID is a dynamically
changing industry but historical perspective as well as forward looking
vision can be very useful.
-
Follow
this link to our instructions on how to prepare and submit your resume to RFID Recruiters.
The keys are to make sure your RFID objective is focused and
that your work history clearly shows and distinguishes between your
quantifiable responsibilities and quantifiable accomplishments.
RFID Recruiters
The Best People for the Next Big ThingTM
800-982-RFID (7343)
(If you already have RFID experience and a good career
position within RFID but want to know what you can do to help your company build
an even stronger team by hiring the best people to grow
your business,
click here and then encourage your colleagues to
read, print, distribute, and discuss the .pdf article
provided in this link.)
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