Over the last decade, the Indian Railways (IR) has witnessed tremendous growth in many aspects, whether it is electrification of railway lines, the KAVACH system for rail security from accidents on railway tracks, the manufacturing of new train coaches, increasing production rate, or modernization of Bhartiya Rail platforms across the railway zones.
Integrating modern technologies in Indian Railways can unlock several benefits and boost efficiency and security in railway operations. We have already seen how RFID technology is used in Indian Railways for keeping track of rolling stocks. RFID tracking of railway assets is highly beneficial as it boosts operational efficiency and prevents unnecessary losses. The same RFID technology can also be used in linen management in Indian Railways by attaching or sewing RFID linen tags to sheets, pillows, blankets, and uniforms and keeping track of the same, from laundry and distribution to passenger seats to laundry collection points.
RFID technology has been used in linen tracking and laundry management for a while now, benefitting various businesses such as healthcare, manufacturing, hospitality, transportation, and tourism.
Let’s see how RFID technology can solve various challenges Indian Railways faces across zones and how it can lead to better efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Preventing theft and loss of Linen from Passenger Seats
On long journeys, passengers in AC coaches of premium trains are given blankets, sheets, and pillows by the train staff. The cost of these blankets, sheets, and pillows is included in the ticket fare. These assets are provided to the passengers for their vantage. Indian Railways always deals with a large number of assets and linens. Sometimes, these linen materials are stolen or lost from the passenger seats, leading to huge losses to Indian railways.
To get a grip on the situation and keep the right amount of linen in stock, railways could use RFID in linen tracking. By attaching or sewing a simple RFID linen tag to each linen, rail management can efficiently track the location and presence of linen on passenger seats. RFID linen tagging ensures a unique ID for each linen and real-time visibility of these assets. Thus, preventing the unavailability of linen to valued railway customers.
Laundry Inventory Management with RFID in Indian Railways
Indian Railways operates a vast laundry network, with 46 departmental laundries and 25 Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) laundries across the country. This led to the railways managing a massive number of linens and assets. However, a large number of travelers in Indian Railways influence the use of linens-like blankets, pillows, and sheets during traveling. These linens need to be regularly collected washed and redistributed to each train.
Due to the large number of linens, railways require an efficient system that can track linen throughout the process of distribution, collection, and washing. One solution that proves to be effective for all issues is the deployment of an RFID-based laundry inventory management system in a railway setting. As the railway is the lifeline of India, it needs to adopt efficient methods like RFID to ensure the efficient tracking of these linens.
In laundry management, linen tags like Satin tags, hang tags, and Taffeta tags are sewn into the linen items. These tags offer best-in-class durability and accuracy in managing linens appropriately throughout the cycle. The laundry management system can automate the laundry process in Indian railways. The washcare RFID labels and tags can withstand up to 200 wash cycles, high temperatures, and pressure, ensuring the tracking of tagged linen at all times.
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Real-time Laundry Tracking
The key challenge that the Railways face today is the loss of assets like bedsheets, pillows, and blankets. Every year, the railway equips around 3,000 AC coaches, and currently, 600,000 bedroll kits are being used daily. Thus, efficient means are required to ensure accountability of these assets and their proper cleanliness to satisfy the customer needs, ensure hygiene and meet future demands.
Tracking the linens in a real-time environment becomes essential as most of the theft of linens happens during journeys and operations. RFID-enabled linen tags offer the unmatched capability to track assets in a railway environment and maintain efficient inventory.
A real-time laundry tracking system employs RFID linen tags, fixed or handheld readers, and RFID antennas to maximize trace and track operations. The RFID laundry tracking system can be installed at the premises of the railway station or the Boot laundries that can automate laundry check-in, streamline laundry operations like distribution, collection, washing, drying, ironing, and storage in a systematic manner, and ensure efficiency in linen management. The technology not only improves inventory accuracy and operations but also streamlines customer satisfaction levels as they receive cleaned linen.
The Zebra RFD40 RFID SLED handheld reader is one of the best handheld devices for accurate laundry tracking. You can visit encstore.com to learn about an RFID-based Laundry Management System and procure RFID fixed readers, laundry tags, and antennas.
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RFID gate system for Linen Management
Sometimes the linen, like bedsheets and blankets, gets stolen from the premises of the railway station. To mitigate the issues, railways can efficiently adopt an RFID system that identifies each tagged item during checkpoints or gate entrances. The RFID gate system consists of RFID fixed readers and antennas, offering round-the-clock tracking of RFID-tagged linens and other assets.
RFID gate system in Linen management ensures accountability of each tagged linen in railway premises. To deploy an RFID gate system, the implementation of RFID fixed readers, appropriate linen tags and high-efficiency antennas is necessary. An RFID fixed reader at the entrance and exit of each coach ensures proper readability of linen tags throughout the passenger journey, tracking the movement of linens within the rail coaches.
The gate system powered by RFID ensures that each linen is accounted for in the inventory and no loss of linens takes place. The system is a bit costly to implement but still, viewing the current scenario of repetitive loss of linens in the railway’s assets, it’s important to implement such technology that can reduce the loss of linen and improve overall inventory control.
RFID Implementation helps in maintaining the hygiene of linens
According to a report in 2017 by CAG (Comptroller & Auditor General, India), some blankets in the Indian Railways went unwashed for as long as six months. The issue has led to some serious rechecks on technologies used for monitoring the proper quality of linens across the railway divisions.
Railway passengers include men, women, children, and the elderly and whether it is blankets, linens, or even washrooms, cleanliness is important for a better customer experience. Maintaining a proper check on each linen with regards to hygiene can be done by the implementation of RFID tags like Taffeta tags, specially designed for tracking linen across the laundry process. These tags not only ensure hygiene but also enhance the level of satisfaction concerning customer experience.
Key Benefits of RFID in Linen Inventory Management for Indian Railways
Here are a few key benefits that RFID provides to Linen inventory management;
1. Automated Tracking & Inventory Control
By tracking linens properly using RFID systems, Railways can automate their tracking procedures efficiently and smartly. Real-time visibility of linen ensures each linen is of the finest quality and has passed through various laundry processes. However, accurate stock levels help in making quick decisions and also reduce cases of misplaced or lost items.
2. Maintaining hygiene & increasing customer satisfaction
According to an RTI (Right to Information) report, bedsheets and pillow covers in Indian Railways are washed after every journey, ensuring a fresh set for each new passenger. However, the same cannot be said for blankets. The statement raises the issue of the hygiene of linens provided during the journey. To solve the issue, the adoption of RFID technology can single-handedly mitigate the concerns over hygiene by ensuring proper hygiene standards are met for linens before reuse. Each linen can be tracked throughout the process of washing and storing linens like pillows, blankets, sheets, and uniforms. The time and date of each wash can be recorded automatically. As hygiene is directly related to a customer’s health, RFID helps in making better customer satisfaction levels by ensuring proper linen hygiene.
3. Theft and loss prevention
The Bhartiya Rail also faces inventory shrinkage due to loss, theft, and misplacement of linens and uniforms from the coaches and laundry rooms. By deploying RFID, IR can ensure that no further loss of linens takes place. Alerts can be received when the unauthorized movement of linen takes place. This improves inventory control and the accountability of each linen. Another matter to view regarding the affixation of tags is that they can be removed by customers easily if seen. Thus, proper positioning and placement of the RFID tags in the linens should be kept in mind to mitigate this issue even before this incident could take place.
To summarize, RFID technology helps maintain proper inventory numbers across organizations like railways. It becomes vital to deploy a method or technology that can prevent the loss of these assets and enhance hygiene compliance. Deploying dedicated linen labels and tags like taffeta tags organization can ensure better inventory levels in a managing environment. RFID plays a crucial part in ensuring hygiene standards as it enables linens to go through important washing cycles after every use.
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