RFID Tool Tracking for the Construction Industry Tool Tracking for the Construction Industry Everything You Need To Know Answers to the questions you didn't want to ask 13
Tool Tracking Op.ons for the Construc.on Industry - Everything you need to know We cover all your ques.ons about tool tracking op.ons for UK construc.on businesses, we also cover the apparently obvious ques.ons you didn t want to ask. Star%ng at the beginning, what s it actually called? - Asset tracking is usually the name used for tracking anything of value (by value it could mean monetary value, or it could just mean if you don t have it when you need it then it costs you.me and / or money). - Asset management is the same, however that s a term olen used in reference to financial assets, investments and the like. It also some.mes refers to property assets. Not the best search term to use on Google if you re seeking advice on tool tracking op.ons. - Auto-ID. This is a term surprisingly unrelated to vehicle, it references the automa.c iden.fica.on of something using an iden.fying system like RFID, a barcode or BLE, indeed any automa.c iden.fica.on. It was designed by a group at MIT looking at RFID as a solu.on to some common problems. - Tool, plant or equipment tracking - Using either - Barcodes, RFID or BLE (Bluetooth low energy). - Legacy stock tagging. This refers to RFID / BLE tagging of your exis.ng inventory, usually in reference to retail where incoming new stock may be already tagged but exis.ng (legacy) stock requires tagging. This is a very long ar.cle that answers a lot of ques.ons you may have, to make it easier we ve added a list of discussion points here, you can click any of them to advance to that par.cular sec.on: A li8le about Barcodes Vs RFID Vs BLE and the benefits of each - Barcodes are some.mes used but they are not an ideal solu.on for construc.on site assets / equipment. A barcode covered in concrete, oil, or rubbed off by fric.on is not much use. Barcodes also need a clear line of site to read and can only be read one item at a.me. * RFID is something most people have heard of, but can it solve your tool tracking issues? The broad answer is yes, but as with any technology it depends on the system itself, how good or bad it is, and how well implemented it is. 1
* How does RFID work - It works by the tag, which incorporates a small microchip with a li\le data on, and an aerial. When that aerial receives a signal from a reader on the same radio bandwidth, it momentarily powers the chip, which then sends it s data to the reader. * Bluetooth is similar to RFID, but only similar, there are major differences too. Both require a tag to be placed on each asset, and both rely on ge]ng a signal from that tag, that s where the similari.es stop. Bluetooth tags are powered, usually having a ba\ery life of 5 years but up to 10 years depending on the tag and some other variables. * The key would seem to be the technology used to communicate from the tool to the system managing it, and that is very important. But that s not really the case, both RFID and BLE allow easy reading of data without a line of sight (barcode requires line of sight), but the other magic is how that data is then used. That s some.mes what sets a good system apart from a not so good one, the way they present your data, and how much it costs for you to see that data. We will ignore barcodes as a solu1on from here, it s old tech which you all know about. Some ques%ons we get asked: Why would I need to track my tools? Fair ques.on, with a good answer. Any tool has a cost to it, replacing it may be the natural course of events, tools break, or just disappear, but it makes sense to understand more about your tools lifespan and whereabouts. Implemen.ng tool tracking systems has given us an insight into what the benefits are, and they re pre\y straight forward. The most common comments we hear: - Wow, we ve got 5 of those, I thought we only had a couple - Or the opposite of that- we ve only got 2 of those I thought we had 5! - Now I ll know who s taking tools and not returning them - So we can track when maintenance is due, great that ll save some hassle - We can get PAT test due alerts, great, no more worrying about whether we re up to date or not - We ve never really known what we ve got - We ve never really known who has what in their vans 2
There s a wider set of benefits, all around understanding what assets the company owns., how they are being used and by who. Business management data is greatly improved by understanding workflow, even more so when inefficiency is highlighted by understanding that workflow. What about our on hire tools, can we track them? That depends somewhat on whether you d really want to or not. Some hire companies would not be happy with a tag being applied to their equipment, some don t mid. However, the key here is understanding what you have available, and also what you have on hire. Equipment on hire which isn t needed is of course a complete waste of money, and that happens a lot. We ve seen construc.on companies come the realisa.on that they ve had heavy equipment on hire, doing nothing, for many months. The process of building your asset tracking system will mean you get on top of what you have, and what you shouldn t have, that includes hired equipment. If you re u.lising long-term hire equipment you should speak to your supplier, they may well accept that you tag that equipment. Some tag op.ons would allow removal before return, like a cable.e tag, some would be more difficult to remove. Does RFID really work on metal tools? You re right to be wondering that, there are some issues with radio signals and metal, add in electroma gne.c motors and there are even more poten.al challenges. Can it work, that s the ques.on? The short answer is yes it can. The longer answer is, it can but there are some limita.ons to what it can achieve. There s a lot of new metal friendly RFID tags on the market, many will work well, some will not work that well. But the main ques.on is whether you can use RFID to track tools in a useful, easy, quick way that will benefit your business. Picture a pile of power drills, all thrown on a shelf, all with RFID tags on. How likely is it that a mobile RFID reader could see all the tags well enough to give you accurate data on what s there. Not very li kely is the answer. That may limit RFID technologies abili.es, but it doesn t mean that the system isn t worth having. The aim isn t really to be able to read tags through a pile of metal and magnets, it s to be able to easily tr ack what you have and where it is at any.me. Poten.al buyers of RFID systems need to think about when they would read the tags, it should be during the exit or entry to stores, both probably, on the shelf for a speedy stock take should work, as long as the piled high scenario above isn't used. 3
What type of RFID tags should we be using? Sorry but - that depends - not the answer we wanted to give. There are variables which need some understanding and planning to manage. Depending on the type of equipment / tools / assets you want to track you will need different tags. A sensible route is to deal with either an RFID implementa.on consultant, or a tag manufacturer / reseller to decide which tags will work best for your business. You can find some sugges.ons at the end of this ar.cle. Alterna.vely a lot of RFID and BLE system providers offer tags with their systems, they can advise on which tags are suited to which assets. There s loads of systems for tool tracking, how do I choose one? Good ques.on! The system you need will depend on a few key factors: 1. How many assets do you need to track? 2. What type of assets do you have? 3. What do you want from the data you get? 4. Are you willing to pay an ongoing service charge? 5. Do you want integra.on with other systems? 6. Is RTLS (real.me loca.on) part of your requirement? *That s just a snapshot of the overall picture, more informa1on means a beaer fit between the system you buy and what you want to achieve with it. These are the ini.al basic ques.ons, there s more to it but answer these ques.ons and you ll have a be\er idea of what you want to achieve. Then it s.me to decide what system will do the job for you. One op.on is to complete this quick form and receive some sugges.ons, but there are more op.ons you can take. You could employ the services of a consultant to 4
analyse the challenge and suggest some system providers. Or you could invite a few asset tracking system suppliers to present a solu.on to you. We d like to give you an idea of pricing for different systems, not possible sadly, the varia.ons are too great, as is the difference in possible costs, many variants depend on the amount of assets involved. Some are buy once own forever, some are more of a per asset ongoing cost structure, most will have an upfront capital cost but the amount varies greatly. What costs are involved with a tool tracking system? These are the poten.al costs involved: 1. Purchase of the solware to manage the data 2. Alterna.vely an ongoing monthly subscrip.on charge per asset (usually per 100 or higher) for the solware, usually cloud based 3. Purchase of the Tags themselves 4. The applica.on of the tags and programming of the data 5. Consultancy if you decide to take it (we d advise at least one days consulta.on to ensure your ge]ng the best op.on for your business) Ongoing costs will include addi.onal tags for new assets you buy and poten.ally the ongoing solware costs. Why would we pay someone to tag our tools, we could do that ourselves? Yes you could, and depending on how many assets you are tagging, what the challenges are and who would do it, perhaps self-tagging is your be\er op.on. We found a few ar.cles and tools which will help you out if you re self-tagging your assets, FIND THEM HERE. We work closely with, a tagging as a service company, here s why we think this is olen a be\er solu.on to your tagging. The reasons a commercial tagging company may be a be\er op.on for you: - They are experts in tagging assets of all kinds 5
- They ll know how to tag each asset type, and more importantly how not to - They ll find solu.ons to problems based on the technology and the asset types, experience is valuable here - They ll have a quality control procedure - Their work will be guaranteed - They ll be more produc.ve - You won t have to manage the process - Your staff can con.nue with their usual du.es - You ll have complete confidence that the system won t be let down by a bad tagging process How much would a commercial tagging specialist charge to tag my tools? Sorry but once again that depends. A commercial asset tagging company, or be\er known as a tagging as a service company, works on the basis of higher produc.vity than internal or agency staff doing the work. In addi.on they offer guarantees on the quality of the work, that s very important to the success of the project. You need to consider the effects on the system if the tagging isn t done perfectly. A new system soon loses its appeal if it doesn t work properly from the start, and that appeal is hard to get back. There s an ar.cle which will help with understanding costs HERE How long would the tagging take to complete? There are as usual some variables, but tagging.mescales are fairly standard across projects in similar industries. For tool tagging and related construc.on equipment you should expect a competent tagging specialist to complete a low es.mate of 130 assets per day, with a maximum around the 250 mark. That low end figure could be reduced if the items to be tagged are spread around a large site. Ideally a structure for the assets to be brought to the tagging specialist is the best op.on. The variables are the type of assets, some take longer than others, the type of tags used and the data required to be uploaded against each asset. The more difficult the tag applica.on and the higher the amount of data the slower the process will be. 6
If you need to complete the task quickly, perhaps while tools are in for PAT tes.ng, then more than one tagging specialist can be applied so more assets can be tagged within a shorter.mescale. I ve heard Bluetooth is an op%on for tool tracking, is that right? Yes that s correct, Bluetooth, actually BLE which is Bluetooth low energy, is an emerging player in tool tracking. There are some strong posi.ves to BLE as an op.on, but also many of the same challenges as RFID. In short, BLE uses a powered tag, some.mes known as a node, to send a signal which is read and analysed by a simple BLE reader or beacon. Using BLE reduces the need for RFID gates to be installed (assuming gates are a poten.al op.on, they automa.cally monitor incoming and outgoing assets through a fixed point), which in turn reduces infrastructure costs. BLE is be\er suited to larger projects with higher quan..es of assets which need tracking to a specific point, usually within a building. Some of the latest BLE systems can triangulate signals and ascertain within certain limits exactly where the asset is. And all that without high levels of infrastructure, the informa.on would be at your finger.ps instantly. We work closely with two companies providing BLE solu.ons, we d be happy to pass on your details if this fits your needs be\er than RFID. The best way to find out is to complete this PROJECT SCOPING FORM - from there we can email you our assessment of who you should be speaking to about your asset tracking needs. BLE uses something called a MESH network - sounds very tech but it s actually very simple. By enabling all the BLE tags to communicate with a single Beacon, within a given area, when items travel around a building the beacons will in turn pick up the signal generated. This allows direc.on of travel to be ascertained, increasing the loca.on specifying abili.es of the system. Those beacons are then passing the data to the cloud where fancy stuff happens, you get to see the results of that fancy stuff in the form of informa.on about your assets. How long will the ba8ery last in a BLE tag? The technology is improving all the.me, one of our partners is providing a BLE tag with a maximum ba\ery lifespan of up to 10 years! That s probably considerably longer than any asset in your inventory will last. If the ba\ery runs low and needs replacing the system will warn you in plenty of.me. Most offer around 5 years life for standard use cases, such as tools. 7
How much does a BLE tracking system cost? One of the biggest benefits is the low cost of entry for a BLE asset tracking system. The costs are spread across the life of each asset you are tracking via a subscrip.on model, at least with most suppliers. The tag itself is more expensive than an RFID tag, but again this can olen be included within the subscrip.on payment. The actual cost is, as ever, difficult to quan.fy without a lot of informa.on about what you need, the Project Scoping Document can be found HERE. If you complete that then we ll suggest what you need and some poten.al suppliers for it. Back To Some General Ques%ons: Are there problems tagging certain types of tools? Yes, there are problems, but they are overcome in 99.9% of cases. Where there needs to be a solu.on built around a certain tool type then your tagging specialist and system supplier will work together to resolve it. The variety of tags on the market should mean that anything that needs tagging can be, there just might be a need for some lateral thinking to achieve the right results. Can we tag pneuma%c drills, or other high vibra%on equipment? Yes you can, there are a few op.ons for this, but the key fact is that vibra.on, exposure to the elements or rough treatment does not mean you can t tag that item. Solu.ons include affixing the tag with various adhesive op.ons, some of those will be flexible adhesives, or rive.ng, or placing beneath part of a casing in some instances. Whatever the challenge there s usually a way to combat it. Tool Tracking Systems, What You Need To Avoid! There are many companies out there offering tool tracking, asset tracking systems, but as you d expect not all of them are equal. If you re considering tracking your tools please think very carefully about where that solu.on comes from. We would suggest some consulta.on would be useful, but it s not absolutely essen.al, there are many good companies out there with great systems. Things you need to check with them: 8
1. Is the system they are providing truly an RFID or BLE based system? 2. Can the supplier show you the RFID / BLE readers working, in a real se]ng, on your most challenging (in terms of RFID or BLE) assets? 3. What does the data they collect look like, is it easily usable as a way to manage your tools. You should be able to play with a trial system to find out. 4. What will it cost, there are a number of chargeable areas to do with RFID and BLE implementa.on, but it s important to ensure you are careful to manage those costs. We are experts in tagging services, so we know what the price should be for that, around 360 per day per person is the industry standard. Other costs include the ini.al setup fee, the hardware costs, tags and equipment and the ongoing subscrip.on cost. Prices vary a lot across the industry, just as your customers would get 3 quotes for a project so should you. 5. Do they offer a range of tags, that s a range wide enough to cover any asset type you may want to track, from standard tools to liling gear, anything you may want to save money on by tracking effec.vely? It s important that your supplier understands the broad range of assets you may want to tag and can offer either an exis.ng solu.on or be willing to innovate a new one, which will work. 6. The supplier should take full responsibility for the effec.veness of the system. If they re saying it will work then it should work. 7. There needs to be a complete implementa.on plan, which includes a tagging service, op.ng for selftagging passes responsibility to you and is fraught with poten.al problems and delays. If you decide to do the tagging yourself these free resources will help: Tagging Project Plan Template - Quality Control Algorithm for Data Checking 9
Some Broader Ques%ons We Hear From The Construc%on Industry I ve heard of RFID and Bluetooth, but what s SaaS? SaaS stands for solware as a service, which is the same way you get charged for many things you may use, from apps, to itunes subscrip.ons and many more. The basis of SaaS is that a company offers you access to something for a monthly subscrip.on, that subscrip.on amount will be scaled to fit either the amount of features you have, or in the case of asset tracking poten.ally both the amount of features and the amount of assets will determine the monthly cost. Why should we pay a subscrip%on aser we ve paid for a system? Partly because the system that s managing your data needs to be built in the first place, that money then needs to be recouped over.me. Secondly there is a cost to managing that data, and to con.nually improve the system you ve purchased. A subscrip.on may seem like an ongoing payment for tools you already own, but, it s part of your overall plan to manage both your assets and in turn your money be\er. One things leads to the other. There s a cost for saving money, paradoxical but true. Our guys will do the tagging it ll be cheaper! As above, there s a cost to saving money. It is absolutely impera.ve that you get your assets tagged perfectly, both in terms of tag applica.on and the data that s uploaded for each asset. There s no sugges.on that your team are not capable of performing the task, but you need to apply some training, some rules and a lot of quality control. Ge]ng this bit wrong will destroy the effec.veness of the system un.l it s repaired. If you want to tag your own assets please use these two tools to help you: 1. Asset Tagging Project Template - Free 2. Quality Control - Data Checking Algorithm - Free 10
There s so many systems out there. How do I know what s good and what s not? Star.ng with standard construc.on prac.ces, get three quotes. But you need to analyse them based on the systems abili.es, the data presenta.on and how that relates to your asset management, then you can add price into the equa.on. We d be happy to recommend some poten.al suppliers to you, we ve worked with many and we understand which offers the be\er all around value to their customers. I ve heard RFID systems are rubbish! Yes, so have I, and that can certainly be true on occasion, which is why choosing carefully is so important. RFID has been around a long.me, many companies have tried to jump on the RFID bandwagon and build a system, but it s not that easy. A good system requires knowledge, or a partnership, from two separate fields, RFID and Data. Your supplier needs to be good on both, not one or the other. Where RFID has been let down in the past, and the reason for nega.ve views remaining, is nothing to do with the actual technology and everything to do with companies not being able to achieve both RFID technical knowledge and data management skills / systems. One without the other isn t a successful system it s a system that achieves li\le, sadly for RFID there were many systems built which only covered one area successfully, leading to an understandably nega.ve view of RFID as a technology. What if a tag falls off or stops working? That is easily remedied, not ideal but not a big issue either. Any tag can be replaced at any.me, it ll take a few minutes to complete the process. Tags will only usually fall off under certain condi.ons, either it was incorrectly applied in the first place, or it was subject to an extreme event that caused the problem. It should not be a concern in your purchasing process. How can I do more research on tool tracking with RFID and / or BLE? Oddly research isn t as easy as it could be. There s li\le out there in terms of truly independent advice which makes research harder than it should be. We ve tried to answer many of the poten.al ques.ons in this ar.cle, if we haven t answered something feel free to message us directly and ask. 11
How can I be sure RFID or BLE will work for me? On the basis that anyone in the construc.on industry wants to track similar tools and equipment, then you can be sure one or the other solu.on will work for you. The challenge is more about choosing the correct system for your specific needs. That s not just what you need to track but it s what informa.on you need about that tracking. Different companies use different plaqorms for analysing and presen.ng the data gathered about your assets, you need to look at which of these systems offer you exactly what you want. By tracking tools are we tracking people too? Not directly no but alloca.ng a tool to someone and then knowing where that tool is could be seen as indirectly tracking people. The ques.on is whether that could be considered a bad thing. That s en.rely your decision, we d say it s a posi.ve thing, especially in a H&S conscious industry using high value equipment. Can I track people as well as tools? Not directly, you can t expect to tag people, but, you could tag the helmets they wear, and there are some considerable benefits to doing that. Depending on how you want to structure your system, and whether it s RFID or BLE, you may want to benefit from a number of possibili.es in terms of tracking people for various management needs. You could: - Stop access to certain areas without the entrant having their PPE gear with them - Manage the loca.on of your staff to assist in H&S governance, overall staff safety and area monitoring - Automa.cally allocate tools or equipment to the person walking out of the stores area with that equipment - Automa.cally allocate those tools as returned by specific people - Automa.cally monitor and manage site entry and exit - Automa.cally manage.me stamps for entry and exit There s a host of possibili.es you could explore. Contact us here; mar.n@thetaggingteam.com 12