Welcome

Hello and welcome to the first RFID in construction newsletter. This is an exciting time in the consortium and I want to share with you the interesting articles that our experts have submitted for this first issue.

I want to encourage you to submit articles for our future newsletters to share your knowledge among your peers, we all love to keep in touch with the ground breaking ideas and applications not only RFID, but also RTLS, sensors, and wireless technologies into construction.

Enjoy your reading and send us your comments, we love to hear from you.
 

José A. Faria
President
 

Not possible, never happen, good luck. These types of comments always motivate me.

I do not receive much encouragement for I what I will tell this reading audience from your peers, but what I will tell you is self evident and inevitable.

I spoke in a Fiatech webinar recently and the data base speaker claimed, “a uniformed code or standard for serial numbers is a dream”. Later in two client exchanges I was told similarly that construction will never be aligned around common or standard serialization.

I love challenges.

It was not that long ago that I was asked to convert the tire world to a single standard. That mission was in the face of the same level of adversity as construction today. In 2002 there were no less than eight standards for RFID related to tires. Now in 2009, not only is there a single tire standard (the AIAG B11) but in the ensuing years the after publishing the tire only version (Rev 6 circa 2005) , the B11 was rewritten for ALL of automotive ( Rev 7 in 2008 and Rev 8 in 2009).

HELLO!
The train is on the track and construction is on the critical path.

[read more here]

Sincerely,


Dr. Patrick King
Editor

by Ernesto A. Castagnet

The Consortium was founded in tough times. I remember the expectation we had in our first meeting at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin, Orlando, FL, on April 27, 2009.

Far were we from foreseeing the turbulent economic weather ahead of us, particularly in South America.

This region of mainly 10 countries, more than 400 million inhabitants, representing today more than 300 million USD -10% of the world RFID market according to IDTECHEX- was growing at a rate -some more, some less- of 6% GNP/year. Today’s estimates indicate a growth of 4.2% on average for 2010.

The Consortium was founded in tough times. I remember the expectation we had in our first meeting at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin, Orlando, FL, on April 27, 2009.

[read more here]

by Scott Denholm

We’re all watching and reading the headlines, tracking the economy, and listening to the experts and pundits talking about where the US is heading. At the time of this article, the stock market and the economy are starting to show signs of recovery. But still we hear others talking about a double dip recession. For example, Nouriel Roubini, in a recent Forbes.com article “Beware of a Double-Dip Recession,” puts the odds of the big “W” at 20%.

This kind of information puts us all in a quandary as we deal with our businesses and new opportunities. According to the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the number of wage and salary jobs in the construction industry is expected to grow 19 percent through the year 2018. So we know we will have to hire again,

[read more here]

by Tom Tilson

Productivity is to business what gravity is to Newton’s law. If all employees did a perfect job day in and day out, if equipment ran without breakdowns, every inventory piece easily found, products were always delivered on time, then business would need not be concern with productivity to improve profitability.

Just like an arrow shot straight up in the air would continue to climb if not for gravity. But, the force of gravity changes its course and limits its climb, just as productivity can limit the climb of business to higher profits. To increase the distance an arrow travels you build bigger bows and sleeker arrows, to increase productivity in a business you bring in better people, faster machines, better production techniques and systems to manage and measure these assets.

[read more here]

by Mike Green

Construction companies face a unique set of asset management and operational challenges during the best of times. Given today’s economic climate, intensified competition and budgetary constraints companies must acquire new and innovative means to maximize productivity, increase operational efficiencies and continue to ensure a safe job site. In an effort to neutralize the rigorous demands and challenges they must endure, companies must consider how they can deliver more with less.

For years, many companies have viewed tooling simply as a cost of doing business, a necessary evil with little or no control. Throwing tools at a job is now a thing of the past; shrinking margins and stringent safety requirements has spurred companies to revaluate their current tooling practices.

[read more here]