2016 North American RFID Tags in Manufacturing Product · PDF fileRFIDTAGS IN MANUFACTURING...

2016 North AmericanRFID Tags in Manufacturing

Product Line Strategy Leadership Award

2016

NORTH AMERICANRFID TAGS IN MANUFACTURING

PRODUCT LINE STRATEGY LEADERSHIP AWARD

2016

BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH

© Frost & Sullivan 2016 2 “We Accelerate Growth”

Contents

Background and Company Performance ........................................................................ 3

Industry Challenges .............................................................................................. 3

Product Line Strength and Customer Impact ............................................................ 4

Conclusion........................................................................................................... 8

Significance of Product Line Strategy ............................................................................ 9

Understanding Product Line Strategy Leadership ............................................................ 9

Key Benchmarking Criteria .................................................................................. 10

Best Practice Award Analysis for Omni-ID .................................................................... 10

Decision Support Scorecard ................................................................................. 10

Product Line Strength ......................................................................................... 11

Customer Impact ............................................................................................... 11

Decision Support Matrix ...................................................................................... 12

The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards ..................... 13

Research Methodology ........................................................................................ 13

Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices ................................................................................................................. 14

About Frost & Sullivan .............................................................................................. 15



Background and Company Performance

Industry Challenges

The manufacturing industry strives to meet customers’ demands to achieve high

productivity efficiency. Despite the increasing penetration of technologically advanced

solutions in the manufacturing space, manual efforts still play a significant role in terms of

accelerating the production process and improving distribution/logistics systems. In the

process of helping customers achieve high rates of productivity, the number of human

errors often increases. This ultimately affects production efficiency levels while compelling

companies to rectify these errors and often redo the entire process. This leads to a rise in

total production costs, the wastage of resources and time, lower returns on investment

(ROI), and diminished value of the end product.

The situation has been exacerbated by rapid transformations in the manufacturing sector

involving the consolidation of factories, outsourcing manufacturing resources and

components to third parties, and product line diversification to comply with personalized

customer and consumer needs. Companies, on one hand, are trying to centralize their

production operations and reduce their operational expenditures by consolidating different

manufacturing hubs/factories under one single operational unit. On the other hand, they

need to enhance their operational efficiency and accelerate the production process, which

compels them to outsource certain parts or the entire product manufacturing process to

third parties.

To manage the impact caused by such transformations, especially in the area of material

flow, manufacturers heavily rely on lean manufacturing methods, which emphasize tracing

and eliminating all activities that reduce the value of the end products. In this way,

product manufacturers are able to better manage inventories, keep a close watch on

material flow, and boost efficiency levels of human resources by minimizing the number of

human errors. The increasing use of radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags for material

management in the manufacturing industry is a distinct example of companies’ growing

reliance on lean manufacturing methods. Containing a unique Global Trade Identification

Number (GTIN) in the form of an electronic code, these tags allow customers to track any

material, at any point, in a supply chain. Equipment and material cases containing RFID

tags on the production floor can also be identified and repurposed immediately to not only

accelerate the production process, but to also stop the wastage of resources and time.

Therefore, developers of RFID tags for the North American manufacturing industry should

focus on expanding their product portfolio to effectively address customers’ manufacturing

and logistics needs and to render unmatched value-added benefits by automating

inventory management, offering end-to-end visibility to the supply chain, and helping

customers transition from paper label-based tracking and management systems. Based on

their operational requirements, therefore, customers should have the flexibility to select

the right RFID tags. While this will accelerate the manufacturing process, customers will



also enjoy better ROI owing to the optimization of resources and time. Additionally, this

will ensure safety for material shipments by stopping them from being misplaced.

Product Line Strength and Customer Impact

Breadth of Products

Founded in 2007, New York-based Omni-ID is a leading North American developer of RFID

tags with both on-metal and visual tagging features based on its proprietary Adept range,

Exo range, Fit range, Dura range, IQ, View and Powerrange technologies. Based on the

realization that traditional paper tagging processes cannot offer customers valuable

insights within the complex material management supply chain, the company has created

an extensive portfolio of RFID tags classified into passive, active, and e-paper categories.

Under e-paper RFID tags, the company offers 3 products, namely View 10, View 3, and

View 4 tags. While first introduced in 2012, the next generation versions of the View 10

was introduced in April 2014, with the View 3 and View 4 April 2015. Omni-ID’s View Tags

product line is aimed at fulfilling customers’ repetitive labeling needs for managing

manufacturing materials and components with durable RFID tags with an e-paper screen.

These products can be rewritten electronically and find use primarily in cyclic material flow

management applications including picking, replenishment, work instructions and

container management. By using View Tags in product manufacturing processes,

customers enjoy real-time visibility of items and can derive actionable data to instantly

undertake process control measures by immediately rerouting or reallocating materials

automatically by resending instruction to the visual tags. This enhances productivity and

efficiency in plant floors through the utilization of one system to manage that critical

material flows on a daily basis, instead of multiple systems for each process with multiple

technology hand-offs. The added benefit is the replacement of paper and the

environmental and financial benefits that are derived

Omni-ID offers passive RFID tags in 4 product lines, namely IQ Tags, Fit Tags, Exo/Dura

Tags, and Adept Tags. Boasting an unmatched size-to-performance ratio among all of the

options available in RFID tags for the North American manufacturing industry, the Fit tags

are most suitable for deployment in manufacturing tools, medical devices, and tracking

equipment with a small form factor. In August 2015, Omni-ID added capabilities to its line

of ceramic based Fit tags, namely high temperature resistance to the Fit 100, Fit 210, and

Fit 400, as a response to increasing customer demand for high-temperature resistance

tags. Most recently the company has added an Exo 400 encased version to also address

the customer demand. Suitable for being deployed in high-temperature environments and

applications, these tags offer top-notch resistance against thermal shock in cyclic

applications, which ranges between -20°C and 235°C.

In March 2016, the company included 5 new products—IQ 100, IQ 150, IQ 400, , and IQ

600—into its IQ Tags product line, making it the broadest range of printable on-metal



RFID tags in the North American market. With smaller profile labels than other options

available in the North American market, Omni-ID’s IQ Tags also feature a 50% higher

read range than competing products, are up to 25% more cost-effective, and can work

seamlessly with any reputable thermal RFID printer in the market. The combination of

these features makes Omni-ID’s IQ Tags unmatched in the market in terms of the value

they deliver to customers.

In September 2016, the company added two new products to its active or Power product

family to address the increased demand for personnel tracking and indoor asset tracking

in manufacturing and other industrial environments.

Scalability

With its broad portfolio of active, passive, and e-paper RFID tags, Omni-ID aspires to

establish itself as a one-stop shop for its customers in the North American manufacturing

industry. Its products come in various form factors and find use in a broad range of

customer-facing applications such as asset tracking, material flow management, real-time

visibility of the supply chain, and resource optimization at manufacturing and logistics

hubs. Integrated with Omni-ID’s proprietary ProVIEW system—the world’s first Internet of

Things (IoT)-based material flow management solution for the manufacturing industry

that was introduced in 2012—these RFID tags can collect and store production data

through every step of the manufacturing process. The data can be utilized by

manufacturing companies to monitor production history, find details of the tools that were

used in the production process, and keep a track of the product lifecycle. Information

collected by these tags can also be used to track the delivery status of material

containers, the level of accuracy of the delivery, and the utilization of resources.

Omni-ID’s efforts to expand its product line, through additions to its existing Views Tags

product line and with the introduction of the next generation of printable on-metal labels

earlier this year, along with expanding the Fit Tags line of products to include high

temperature applications, indicates that the company closely follows customers’ evolving

requirements. From the ability to withstand environmental harshness, guarantee

performance, and offer the broadest portfolio of form factors, customers need RFID tags

that can meet a multitude of requriements within the processes that match their usability

needs. The View tags are typically deployed in the manufacturing industry to directly

replace paper tags in a number of material flow management applications such as

container or RTI management, line side replenishment, warehouse picking operations and

for delivering real-time work instructions. Although primarily utilized and designed for

industrial manufacturing operations, these tags can be also scaled for a wider range of

applications that also require material flow management, which include monitoring food

supply chains, yard management, package sortation, healthcare equipment tracking, and

information technology (IT) asset tracking.

Moreover, Omni-ID offers customers personalized asset tracking and material



management solutions. Its team of RF scientists, along with its teams of product

engineers and marketing professionals, are flexible about working with customers’

resources and extend constant assistance in building custom tags for some of the most

difficult applications requiring asset management solutions., For instance, in April 2014,

the company assisted Motorola to design a custom RFID tag that, being embedded in the

volume knobs of two-way radios, empowered the customer to perform inventory counts

from a total of 50 radios within just 6 seconds, a process that traditionally takes 4 minutes

to complete.

Technology Leverage

Ensuring that its passive, active, and e-paper RFID tags function in tandem with its

cutting-edge ProVIEW material management system, Omni-ID helps enhance the

productivity and efficiency levels of its customers. Introduced as the industry’s first IoT-

based material flow management solution, ProVIEW combines paper labels’ reliability, in

terms of delivering visual instruction, with industrial IoT systems’ automated, real-time

tracking and 2-way communication. The ProVIEW system is unique in that it can reaplace

multiple disparate systems and processes with one unique solution providing an enhanced

level of visibility and proven process improvements. The company’s technologically

advanced View RFID tags, being powered by the real-time intelligence, and read/write

capability delivered by the ProVIEW system, function as a one-stop platform for parts

replenishment, delivering work instructions, container management, pick-up scheduling,

as well as route determination for accurate deliveries and asset tracking.

The enhanced value that Omni-ID’s tags render based on the ProVIEW system can be

clearly understood from the experience of Detroit, a Daimler AG subsidiary company.

Traditionally, Detroit used a paper-based Kanban labeling system for parts replenishment

at its manufacturing facilities. While using the system, the company encountered

challenges, such as manual announcements to identify parts requests, high operational

costs for paper and paint, and the absence of real-time notifications that could accelerate

the parts replenishment process by speeding up the exemption of packages. Detroit,

therefore, incurred high operational costs and its productivity levels slowed down as the

supply chain was interrupted. Omni-ID helped the company overcome these difficulties by

providing it with a customized Parts Replenishment Solution based on its ProVIEW

material management system and powered by its View 3 e-paper tag. Upon deployment,

the system accumulated data from parts with View 3 RFID tags attached. By analyzing the

data with the help of intuitive algorithms, the system offered Detroit’s production team

valuable, real-time insights about part status, enabled effective communication with

accurate information between different production segments and employee shifts,

provided real-time work-in-progress (WIP) details, and reduced redundancy in the supply

chain, all resulting in enhanced production efficiency levels. Detroit also utilizes Omni-ID’s

work instructions application replacing paper based instruction or “build books” in

production.



Supply Chain Reliability

In its bid to ensure that its customers in North America continue to enjoy the best-quality

products in a timely manner, Omni-ID incorporates an exclusivepartner program. Under

this program, companies operating in the RFID space can join Omni-ID’s partner network

and receive technological assistance from the company to improve their respective

offerings. Organizations that wish register in the partner program are required to contact

the concerned personnel in North America. Once selected, these companies receive

product development tools, training, and a wide variety of sales and marketing support,

which result in the increasing adoption of Omni-ID’s products in regional markets. Based

on this partnership program, Omni-ID ensures that its customers continue to receive

technologically advanced products that meet their respective needs and the company

expands its footprint in the regional markets. Partners also receive quality assistance from

Omni-ID in terms of lead generation, support for online quote generation, and attractive

discounts as per the order volume. This enables Omni-ID to stay ahead of the competition

in terms of expanding its customer base while enjoying a high ROI.

Customer Service Experience

Committed to offering its customers a fulfilling aftersales service experience, Omni-ID has

created a team of technical experts who offer high-quality assistance from the company’s

headquarters in Rochester, New York along with corresponding teams to support its EU

and Asia markets. Customers can easily reach out to the team with their queries about

product performance. Based on the urgency, these professionals promptly respond to

queries. To expedite the delivery of customer service, the company also works closely with

a group of trusted partners., These partners function as an extension of Omni-ID while

identifying customers’ requirements and help customers create customized material flow

management solutions based on Omni-ID’s RFID tags and software solutions.

Brand Equity

In its bid to establish itself as a leading brand among RFID tag developers for the

manufacturing industry in North America, Omni-ID’s key driver is its technological

innovation leadership strategy, which emphasizes the launch of RFID tags with disruptive

features and the creation of proven architecture that seamlessly connects the RFID tags to

material management solutions. In this context, the company’s exclus ive “Product

Validation Testing” plays an important role in assuring customers that despite customizing

the material management system as per their respective requirements, they will not

encounter any performance-related issues, such as erroneous data collection, interrupted

visibility, or prolonged system downtime, which are commonly faced with competing

solutions in the market. Owing to such assurances, several Fortune 500 companies in

North America—including mission critical datacenters for some of the largest banking,

social media and IT companies like Cisco, government entities such as NASA and the

USMC, and large industrial manufacturing such as DaimlerTrucks NA, , among others—



have already started using Omni-ID’s asset and material management solutions. Having

these top-class brands as customers directly boosts Omni-ID’s positioning as a leading

brand in the North American RFID market.

In addition, the company has received several prestigious awards for its innovation of

advanced RFID tags and material management solutions. For instance, in July 2016, the

company was recognized by CIO Review as one of the top “20 Most Promising Utilities

Technology Solution Providers 2016”. In August 2016 and in May 2016, the company also

received the prestigious BIG Innovation Award and AIM Percival Award. However, the

most remarkable of all these achievements is winning bronze in the Edison Award in April

2016. Such accolades testify to Omni-ID’s leadership in meeting customers’ needs while

also boosting its presence as an innovative RFID brand in North America.

Conclusion

Omni-ID’s extensive portfolio of RFID tags, comprising active, passive, and e-paper

products, is based on the company’s proprietary technologies, such as the Adept range,

Exo range, Fit range, Dura range IQ, View and Power ranges. The company strives to

meet customers’ needs for real-time visibility and actionable insights to manage supply

chains, facilitate equipment identification, and enhance production efficiency. Together

with the company’s exclusive material flow management system, ProVIEW, these tags

combine the reliability and instructional transparency of paper-based labeling with the

industrial IoT automation, tracking and 2-way communication ability within the production

environment like no other competing solution. Omni-ID also allows customers to design

the solution according to their personalized needs and functions as a one-stop shop to

automate a broad spectrum of needs related to material flow management, such as parts

replenishment, delivery of work instructions, container management, pick-up scheduling,

route determination for accurate delivery, and asset tracking.

With its strong overall performance, Omni-ID has earned Frost & Sullivan’s 2016 Product

Line Strategy award.



Significance of Product Line Strategy

Ultimately, growth in any organization depends upon customers purchasing from your

company, and then making the decision to return time and again. A full, comprehensive

product line that addresses numerous customer needs and preferences is therefore a

critical ingredient to any company’s long-term retention efforts. To achieve these dual

goals (customer value and product line strength), an organization must be best-in-class in

three key areas: understanding demand, nurturing the brand, and differentiating from the

competition.

Understanding Product Line Strategy Leadership

As discussed above, driving demand, brand strength, and competitive differentiation all

play a critical role in delivering unique value to customers. This three-fold focus, however,

must ideally be complemented by an equally rigorous focus on building a superior and

comprehensive product line.



Key Benchmarking Criteria

For the Product Line Strategy Leadership Award, Frost & Sullivan analysts independently

evaluated two key factors—Product Line Strength and Customer Impact—according to the

criteria identified below.

Product Line Strength

Criterion 1: Breadth

Criterion 2: Scalability

Criterion 3: Technology Leverage

Criterion 4: Features

Criterion 5: Supply Chain Reliability

Customer Impact

Criterion 1: Price/Performance Value

Criterion 2: Customer Purchase Experience

Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience

Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience

Criterion 5: Brand Equity

Best Practice Award Analysis for Omni-ID

Decision Support Scorecard

To support its evaluation of best practices across multiple business performance

categories, Frost & Sullivan employs a customized Decision Support Scorecard. This tool

allows our research and consulting teams to objectively analyze performance, according to

the key benchmarking criteria listed in the previous section, and to assign ratings on that

basis. The tool follows a 10-point scale that allows for nuances in performance evaluation;

ratings guidelines are illustrated below.

RATINGS GUIDELINES

The Decision Support Scorecard is organized by Product Line Strength and Customer

Impact (i.e., the overarching categories for all 10 benchmarking criteria; the definitions

for each criteria are provided beneath the scorecard). The research team confirms the

veracity of this weighted scorecard through sensitivity analysis, which confirms that small

changes to the ratings for a specific criterion do not lead to a significant change in the

overall relative rankings of the companies.



The results of this analysis are shown below. To remain unbiased and to protect the

interests of all organizations reviewed, we have chosen to refer to the other key players

as Competitor 2 and Competitor 3.

DECISION SUPPORTSCORECARDFOR PRODUCT LINE STRATEGY LEADERSHIP AWARD

Measurement of 1–10 (1 = poor; 10 = excellent)

Product Line Strategy

Product Line

Strength

Customer

Impact Average Rating

Omni-ID 9 9 9.0

Competitor2 8.5 8.5 8.5

Competitor3 8 8 8.0


Criterion 1: Breadth

Requirement: Product line addresses the full range of customer needs and applications

Criterion 2: Scalability

Requirement: Product line offers products at a variety of price points and functionality

levels

Criterion 3: Technology Leverage

Requirement: Demonstrated commitment to incorporating leading edge technologies into

product offerings, for greater product performance and value

Criterion 4: Features

Requirement: Products offer a comprehensive suite of features to serve customers at

multiple levels of functionality, ease of use and applications

Criterion 5: Supply Chain Reliability

Requirement: There is sufficient control over the supply chain to ensure availability of key

components and thereby the availability of products in the product line

Customer Impact

Criterion 1: Price/Performance Value

Requirement: Products or services offer the best value for the price, compared to similar

offerings in the market

Criterion 2: Customer Purchase Experience

Requirement: Customers feel like they are buying the most optimal solution that

addresses both their unique needs and their unique constraints

Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience

Requirement: Customers are proud to own the company’s product or service, and have a

positive experience throughout the life of the product or service



Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience

Requirement: Customer service is accessible, fast, stress-free, and of high quality

Criterion 5: Brand Equity

Requirement: Customers have a positive view of the brand and exhibit high brand loyalty

Decision Support Matrix

Once all companies have been evaluated according to the Decision Support Scorecard,

analysts can then position the candidates on the matrix shown below, enabling them to

visualize which companies are truly breakthrough and which ones are not yet operating at

best-in-class levels.

DECISION SUPPORTMATRIX FOR PRODUCT LINE STRATEGY LEADERSHIP AWARD

High

Low

Low High

Cu

sto

mer I

mp

act


Omni-ID Competitor2

Competitor3



The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best

Practices Awards

Research Methodology

Frost & Sullivan’s 360-degree research

methodology represents the analytical

rigor of our research process. It offers a

360-degree-view of industry challenges,

trends, and issues by integrating all 7 of

Frost & Sullivan's research methodologies.

Too often, companies make important

growth decisions based on a narrow

understanding of their environment,

leading to errors of both omission and

commission. Successful growth strategies

are founded on a thorough understanding

of market, technical, economic, financial,

customer, best practices, and demographic

analyses. The integration of these research

disciplines into the 360-degreeresearch

methodology provides an evaluation

platform for benchmarking industry

players and for identifying those performing at best-in-class levels.

360-DEGREE RESEARCH: SEEING ORDER IN

THE CHAOS



Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching,

Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices

Frost & Sullivan Awards follow a 10-step process to evaluate award candidates and assess

their fit with select best practice criteria. The reputation and integrity of the Awards are

based on close adherence to this process.

STEP OBJECTIVE KEY ACTIVITIES OUTPUT

1 Monitor, target, and screen

Identify award recipient candidates from around the globe

Conduct in-depth industry research

Identify emerging sectors Scan multiple geographies

Pipeline of candidates who potentially meet all best-practice criteria

2 Perform 360-degree research

Perform comprehensive, 360-degree research on all candidates in the pipeline

Interview thought leaders and industry practitioners

Assess candidates’ fit with best-practice criteria

Rank all candidates

Matrix positioning all candidates’ performance relative to one another

3

Invite thought leadership in best practices

Perform in-depth examination of all candidates

Confirm best-practice criteria Examine eligibility of all

candidates Identify any information gaps

Detailed profiles of all ranked candidates

4

Initiate research director review

Conduct an unbiased evaluation of all candidate profiles

Brainstorm ranking options Invite multiple perspectives

on candidates’ performance Update candidate profiles

Final prioritization of all eligible candidates and companion best-practice positioning paper

5

Assemble panel of industry experts

Present findings to an expert panel of industry thought leaders

Share findings Strengthen cases for

candidate eligibility Prioritize candidates

Refined list of prioritized award candidates

6

Conduct global industry review

Build consensus on award candidates’ eligibility

Hold global team meeting to review all candidates

Pressure-test fit with criteria Confirm inclusion of all

eligible candidates

Final list of eligible award candidates, representing success stories worldwide

7 Perform quality check

Develop official award consideration materials

Perform final performance benchmarking activities

Write nominations Perform quality review

High-quality, accurate, and creative presentation of nominees’ successes

8

Reconnect with panel of industry experts

Finalize the selection of the best-practice award recipient

Review analysis with panel Build consensus Select winner

Decision on which company performs best against all best-practice criteria

9 Communicate recognition

Inform award recipient of award recognition

Present award to the CEO Inspire the organization for

continued success Celebrate the recipient’s

performance

Announcement of award and plan for how recipient can use the award to enhance the brand

10 Take strategic action

Upon licensing, company may share award news with stakeholders and customers

Coordinate media outreach Design a marketing plan Assess award’s role in future

strategic planning

Widespread awareness of recipient’s award status among investors, media personnel, and employees



About Frost & Sullivan

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and achieve best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's

Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with discipl ined

research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation

of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages almost 50 years of experience in

partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment

community from 31 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit

http://www.frost.com.

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