Thursday, August 07, 2008
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| Networking for Future Career Opportunities |
| Posted by: Nicole Marlette |
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Salespeople have a mantra that they should Always Be Closing (ABC.) In today?s competitive employment environment candidates should Always Be Networking. With the rise of professional networking sites such as Linkedin, and social networking sites Myspace and Facebook the ability to connect with companies and recruiters is expanded exponentially.
Career opportunities are often never "posted" or advertised for in print or on the web job-boards. So how do these positions get filled, networking and relationships that?s how. Looking for a job is a full-time job, but networking and building relationships can bring opportunities to you.
Market yourself now for the future. Your skills and abilities are a valuable resource. Think about the type of company, industry, and position that would be ideal for you. Then communicate to your network connections, register with companies through their websites or Talent Communities, and take advantage of emerging technologies.
Your proactive efforts could be rewarded with a career opportunity that will be elusive to the general public.
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Category: Human Resources |
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Tuesday, July 29, 2008
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| How to build a team with screening and selection tools |
| Posted by: Nicole Marlette |
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At American Barcode and RFID (AB&R) the values of the employee team members are just as important as their education and work history. When the goal is to build a cohesive high performing team, each step in the screening and selection process is crucial. At AB&R we are dedicated to recruiting, developing, and retaining the best team members. This is important not only for the growth of our business from a fiscal perspective, but for the individuals that work for AB&R.
High performing individuals want to be challenged and empowered. They also want to surround themselves with similar complex thinkers and problem solvers. AB&R is committed to core vales and every team member is accountable for promoting them. That commitment extends to pre-employment screening in a wide range of competencies. Each step in the AB&R process is designed to match a candidate with not only a specific position, but to our team as a whole.
At American Barcode and RFID we provide solutions that make a fundamental difference in the way end-users track everything that is valuable to them. We are growing our team to support this mission.
If you are interested in joining a team that is enthusiastic about values such as Persistent Innovation and Mutual Respect please consider membership in our Talent Community. We will contact you with timely information about AB&R including newly opened positions.
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Category: Human Resources |
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Monday, January 14, 2008
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| Simple Inventory Definitely Lives Up to Its Name |
| Posted by: Gary Randall |
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The AB&R Simple Inventory program that has just been released this week truly does take care of some of the basic functionality any end user can need for taking a quick inventory.
The systems development team has really outdone themselves creating a rock solid application in its simplest form. Only one screen is needed on the hand held mobile device that allows an end user to enter a location, enter a part number, and then enter a quantity......simple.
The PC side of the application is just as easy to use, along with great sorting and reporting capabilities. Spreadsheet style functionality has been put into place for simple sorting, data entry, cut and paste functions, and the history of the data that is collected.
If you feel like downloading a copy of the software for demo or to watch a presentation of the program in use it can be found at: ABC Simple Inventory
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Category: ABC Simple Inventory |
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Monday, January 07, 2008
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| American Barcode and RFID, Inc Technology Day - February 13th, 2008 |
| Posted by: Gary Randall |
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American Barcode and RFID, Inc. will be hosting a technology day at their corporate headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona. In addition to an opportunity to view a large array of data collection solutions, our customers will have the opportunity to tour the Motorola truck to see the latest and greatest products available from Motorola.
In addition to the opportunity to review the equipment and applications sorrounding the solutions, there will be a customer appreciation event to complete the day.
Guest speakers for the event include a distinguished panel from Motorola, AT&T, Zebra Technologies, and a host of other partners.
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Category: American Barcode and RFID, Inc Technology Day |
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| How does the Advanced Shipment Notice(ASN) Make it to the DoD |
| Posted by: Gary Randall |
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The final step to completing the requirements of the mandate is to provide the Department of Defense with the Advanced Shipment Notice(ASN) in the proper format and to the proper location. This step is completed through the Wide Area WorkFlow(WAWF).
When the Department of Defense reads the RFID tag, the ASN immediately recognizes the contents of the inbound pallet. The receiver now knows where those items should be going.
How is the WAWF updated? This data can be entered manually, however, there is a large risk of data entry errors because of the long string of characters. It is highly suggested to choose a compliance software used to associate cases and pallets to create an automated form of this WAWF electronic update.
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Category: RFID - Department of Defense Compliance |
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Friday, January 04, 2008
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| Advanced Shipment Notice (ASN)....Logistic Nirvana!! |
| Posted by: Gary Randall |
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The final step in the Department of Defense Compliance process is supplying them an electronic notice or Advanced Shipment Notice (ASN). This notice provides the Department of Defense with the order and shipping information, along with the description of products and the associations we have made with the RFID tags on the cartons and the pallets.
This ASN allows the Department of Defense to recognize the contents and other logistic information associated to your contract immediately at the point the RFID pallet tags are read. This will not only identify what the distribution center has received, but also where it should actually go. This logistic information is the whole purpose behind the RFID compliance program......knowing what you have...when you receive it...and knowing where it should go......logistic nirvana!
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Category: RFID - Department of Defense Compliance |
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Thursday, January 03, 2008
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| The association process can and should be automated |
| Posted by: Gary Randall |
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Generally the RFID tag association can be done manually for a company with small operations interfacing with the RFID mandate, however, I highly suggest investing in the equipment and software to facilitate automatically reading the tags.
It is not unusual for a variety of suppliers to ship less than 100 cartons or pallets a year into the Department of Defense. This quantity of tags is manageable to manually key into the systems. It is not very realistic for a high volume supplier to key this data as is definitely prone to data entry errors and will slow down the entire compliance process.
The association automation solution gains more then just data entry errors. The software and equipment that automate the associations will both manage the contract and shipping data, along with the capability of adding a step to validating tag reads.
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Category: RFID - Department of Defense Compliance |
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Monday, December 31, 2007
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| Printed..Encoded...Now you need to Associate |
| Posted by: Gary Randall |
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Although all of the steps you are putting into to place to meet your DoD mandate are important, you will want to insure you are associating the correct RFID tag to the correct carton, along with associating the proper cartons to proper pallets.
The DoD format you have created on your labels gives a unique license plate to that tag, however, it does not tell us what the product actually is in the carton. It will be important to now associate those unique tags to your products that are fulfilling your contracts. You have wasted a large investment if the wrong tag was sent on the wrong carton or pallet.
Although there are a variety of label printing software modules available that encode RFID tags, I highly suggest a software that has been created specifically for compliance to save a lot of headaches. There are several middleware software programs that are available that make this association process very easy to use and help to manage the requirements of your mandate. The program costs will vary based upon our integration requirements, but stand alone systems are quite reasonable in price and are easy to get up and running.
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Category: RFID - Department of Defense Compliance |
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Friday, December 28, 2007
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| You should put a process in place to validate what you have created |
| Posted by: Gary Randall |
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Although the RFID encoding printers inherently have been designed with a solution for RFID labels that discard or void tags that cannot encode or read, I still suggest some type of validation capability should be included when you are designing your RFID packaging process.
Although this is not a requirement of the mandate, it is highly suggested to insure that a tag actually gets a good read. The last thing you want to happen is to make the investment into this RFID compliance solution, to only find out the tag was somehow damaged or associated incorrectly in the handling or labeling process of the tags.
You will probably also find out that the Department of Defense Quality Inspectors in the field will appreciate some type of validation designed into your packaging process.
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Category: RFID - Department of Defense Compliance |
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Thursday, December 27, 2007
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| RFID Tags Need to Read the Mandated Distance |
| Posted by: Gary Randall |
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One of the requirements that you need to meet in your RFID compliance solution is the ability to read the RFID tags at the distance mandated by the DFARS clause. The defined required distance to read a tag from an RFID antenna is 10 feet.
You may ask how yourself "How can I actually have anything to do with the read range of an RFID tag?" Proper tag placement on your cartons and pallets can drastically affect the available read range of your tags, therefore you cannot just slap a label anywhere you please on your cartons and/or pallets.
RFID seems to be a new science project every time a new product is added to the equation. By following a few simple guidelines you can save a lot of time determining the best placement of your RFID label. By nature, RFID tags do not do well in an environment adhered directly to metal or placed on a product full of liquids. For these types of products that have a negative effect on RFID energy fields, be mindful of gaps in your packaging that will not hinder the read range.
This process may seem to be a daunting task when you have plenty of other things to take care of every day to run your business. I highly suggest reaching out to company that has had some type of experience with meeting DoD compliance requirements.
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Category: RFID - Department of Defense Compliance |
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Wednesday, December 26, 2007
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| RFID Tags Must be in the Designated Format |
| Posted by: Gary Randall |
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The only tag that will be accepted by the DoD for compliance will be a Class 1 Gen 2 tag. You can either design your current shipping label to meet the compliance requirments in a 4" x 6" RFID label, or continue to use your current labels and include and RFID inlay encoded to the proper format.
The proper format for the DoD label inludes first the DoD header, followed by a filter that determines whether the item is a UID, case or pallet. The next string of data in the format is your 5 digit cage code, and finally a unique serial number scheme. All of those items are merged to create the value that is encoded into the RFID tag.
This value does not describe any of the products being labeled, therefore a software component must do some associations to complete the compliance requirement. The right software will automatically generate those values, associate those values to the proper contracts, and create the necessary advanced shipment notifications(ASN)to automate the WAWF upload.
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Category: RFID - Department of Defense Compliance |
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Friday, December 21, 2007
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| More to Compliance than just a label... |
| Posted by: Gary Randall |
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When the RFID clause appears in your next contract, you should understand that it will be more then just slapping a compliance label on the box, as you have generally been able to do in the past. There are a few things you will need to do to meet the standard.
First, you must provide a 915 MHz Ultra High Frequency (UHF) label in the EOC or DoD format. Gen 2 tags are the current accepatble component.
Second, you must program and deliver those tags on the cases and pallets. The standard requires placement on the carton and pallets to meet a 10' read range.
Third, you must associate the tags to the cases, and then those cases to a pallet.
And finally, your system will need to create an Advance Shipment Notice (ASN) via the Wide Area Work Flow (WAWF). This notice lets the DoD know exactly what is on its way to their distribution centers.
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Category: RFID - Department of Defense Compliance |
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| Meeting the DoD Mandates |
| Posted by: Gary Randall |
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The DoD RFID labeling mandate is a condition of a new or renewed DoD contract that has the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement(DFARS) clause stipulated in the language. When the DFARS clause is in your contract, it mandates that you deliver goods with RFID labels and comply with the electronic advanced shipment notifications.
Industry intelligence indicates that the full rollout should materialize in early 2008. Complying will be important and will affect your status as a supplier and may have an impact on payment of your deliveries.
The supplier reference implementation page at http://www.acq.osd.mil/log/rfid/implementation_plan.htm and will define the current timing requirements.
Please note that there are two programs being rolled out that relate to RFID: The UID Mandate and the DFARS RFID labeling mandate. The UID mandate should be recognized as an asset tag permanently affixed to the supplied equipment while the RFID label should be considered a shipping requirement.
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Category: RFID - Department of Defense Compliance |
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