For operating a successful laundry business, it is of utmost important to have a foolproof mechanism that helps you keep track of all the incoming and outgoing garments.
The need for RFID based laundry management
Laundry businesses often struggle with sudden surge in laundry requests, more so during holidays, creating a labor shortage that is impossible to balance. Add that to manual laundry count, identification and record keeping, and delivery, the problems keep on mounting.
It is also to be noted that the corona virus pandemic and subsequent lock downs all over the world have also affected how customers interact with businesses now. People are still very conscious of who they meet, what they touch and what they eat.
This creates demands for increased automation in product and services industry and many businesses are proactively reacting to the same. Many are turning towards internet of things (IoT), AIDC, and other technologies including AI and machine learning (ML) to enhance business processes, day to day operations and to improve customer experience.
A demand for certain degree of automation within the laundry business is also visible be it laundry collection and delivery, identification, tickets, bills, record keeping or even the laundry processing/washing. This can be achieved using various AIDC tools such as RFID, QR codes, barcodes, etc.
What is RFID?
Radio frequency identification which means identification using radio frequency signals is an automatic identification and data capture tool that allows for wireless identification of a RFID tagged article.
The RFID system uses a RFID tag, an antenna (sometimes antenna is integrated into the tag), and a RFID reader to achieve this function.
Passive UHF RFID is a cost effective and efficient option in laundry management category.
RFID for Laundry Management:
While deciding which RFID tag is better suitable to your needs, it is absolutely necessary to consider few things like the area of operations, your tracking needs etc. Though RFID is quite versatile, it benefits to go with right RFID tag.
In laundry management you need to attach RFID tags to individual garments and encode tags with specific data like customer name, address, dates, prices etc.
Passive UHF RFID is ideal for such operations for obvious reasons. It doesn’t need battery but works with RF signal coming from the RFID reader. It has great range and it’s quite accurate.
Advantages of RFID in laundry management
Use of RFID in laundry management introduces a degree of automation, meaning you can free some employees to attend to more important tasks that need human involvement.
Here are some of the key advantages of RFID in laundry management:
1. Use of RFID can streamline the whole operation.
2. Hundreds of garments tagged with RFID can be scanned and data can be stored in a computer in a second which amounts to a quick laundry management.
3. RFID also reduces the labor costs as you don’t need a lot of people for counting and record keeping once RFID system is up and running.
4. RFID reduces errors which in turn prevents you from massive losses.
5. It also results in enhanced customer experience as well.
6. UHF passive RFID tags cost only few 4-5 cents, providing you with a cost effective alternative to other costly technologies.
How does RFID compare to barcode/QR codes in laundry management
Even though various other automatic identification data capture technologies are available which can be used in various business for identification and tracking needs, RFID is a suitable option in case of garments.
It’s wireless, efficient and does not ruin the garment when used as a tag.
QR codes can also be used as tags but it has to be through some attachment. You can not directly paste a QR code on garments for obvious reasons.
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