Truck Tracking System

Truck Tracking System   As long as companies have been trucking goods, they have needed a system for managing that transportation, including route scheduling, methods for drivers to check in with base, and systems to monitor drivers, especially during vehicle breakdowns. Efficient fleet management can reduce overtime and increase profits. Implementing a truck tracking system is a major important part of fleet management, and the best tracking system today is a GPS truck tracking system.     GPS (Global Positioning System) was established by the U. S. Department of Defense and consists of 24 orbiting satellites that continuously transmit radio signals. By placing a GPS receiver in a vehicle, the distribution center or warehouse can keep track of the exact location of each truck on the company's delivery route. To determine the exact position of each truck, the GPS receiver must be able to lock on to three satellite signals. By measuring the difference between the time the signal was sent and the time it was received from these three satellites, the receiver can calculate latitude, longitude, and altitude.   Managing the GPS data and monitoring the trucks is a two-part system. First the equipment must be installed into the vehicles, and then a system set up at home base to receive the information. The type of system can vary depending on the specific needs of each trucking company. For example, a company with a small fleet may only require basic vehicle tracking. This system shows location, route, stops, and speed of the truck. Independent contractors and executives may also find the basic system helpful as a way to keep record of trip mileage, time, and travel records. A company with a larger fleet or who needs more detailed information, may select a real-time GPS truck tracking system. These systems can provide location updates every few minutes, automatically email reports, provide digital and satellite maps, and help keep a record of vehicle maintenance. Advanced real-time systems include additional features such as wireless communication, two-way text messaging, and automatic downloads when the truck approaches base (ideal for large fleets). In addition, the GPS receiver can record information for over two months, track idle time with an ignition on and off sensor and document actual stop locations. These advanced systems often require a laptop computer or a PDA. For long haul or "over-the-road" trucking, there are advanced real-time GPS tracking systems that provide the features already listed, plus on-board automated DOT (Department of Transportation) reporting, reports on engine diagnostics, and paperless forms. One of the downsides to GPS tracking is that the radio signals from the satellites are line-of-sight signals. That means that the signals pass through clouds, glass and plastic, but can be obstructed by mountains and buildings. For a company that cannot afford to be without coverage due to signal loss, there are systems that will continue to track the vehicle when it enters an area not covered by cellular signals. With these systems, the user can locate the truck on demand without waiting for historical data, which provides an invaluable tool for companies performing critical services. By implementing a GPS truck tracking system, companies can obtain many important details to improve service and to reduce problems while transporting goods. These systems can locate drivers who claim they'll arrive in a few minutes, but don't. With GPS mapping, the company can more accurately predict truck arrival times. Unauthorized truck usage can be reduced and/or eliminated, and home base can be notified when a driver speeds or leaves his or her designated route. Plus, in case of drivers who get lost or vehicles that breakdown, the GPS system can more accurately locate them and quickly get them assistance.   Features : • View your vehicle locations, on a GIS map nationwide • Recording and sorting of up to 2000 positioning locations, route traveled, speed and other parameters. No data is lost due to poor or no GSM coverage • Set Virtual Geo Fences, to alert when a vehicle goes out of predefined boundaries • The ability to set way point rules to alert when a vehicle:     - Has not entered/left a pre-defined area by a pre-specified time     - Remains in a defined area for an excessive amount of time     - Takes an excessive/unusual amount of time to travel between planned stops • Fuel Sensor, to check fuel theft, contamination or usage • Thermal Sensor, to provide instant alerts for high and low temperatures in a thermal sensitive cargo • Accident Detector, detects impact in case of an accident • Set a series of speed limit rules, get instant alerts hen a certain speed limit is breached • Establish routes and rules to alerts or report on route deviation • Track mileage, track annual mileage through GPS @ ± 3% • Measure distance from key on to key off, report generation by driver an the vehicle • Generate a range of MIS Reports; these can be made available on demand to pre-scheduled and pre-defined address within the organisation. MIS reports include vehicle history, speed violation, work-hours, stop-hours, fuel usage, GEO fencing, water temperature, oil pressure etc. • Alerts for various mechanical warnings, including low oil pressure, high water temperature, brake light failure, low battery and other warnings • Instant alerts when a certain compartment or a series of compartments are opened. Vital for critical high value transportation • Jamming protection, put to usage in case of anti-jammers placed for communication disruption • Emergency button, to invoke an immediate high priority transmission to the centre • Gradual stop function, fuel cut ensures safe and secure recovery of your vehicle • Ability to integrate with any external software, like ERP/ Fleet Management/ Navigation etc. • External Protocol support, for external devices and third party protocols such as MDP and RFID

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Fw: [indusnmfg] Five Forces Analysis

Five Forces Analysis Analyzing the environment - Five Forces Analysis     Five Forces Analysis helps the marketer to contrast a competitive environment. It has similarities with other tools for environmental audit, such as PEST analysis, but tends to focus on the single, stand alone, business or SBU (Strategic Business Unit) rather than a single product or range of products. For example, Dell would analyse the market for Business Computers i.e. one of its SBUs. Five forces analsysis looks at five key areas namely the threat of entry, the power of buyers, the power of suppliers, the threat of substitutes, and competitive rivalry. The threat of entry. Economies of scale e.g. the benefits associated with bulk purchasing. The high or low cost of entry e.g. how much will it cost for the latest technology? Ease of access to distribution channels e.g. Do our competitors have the distribution channels sewn up? Cost advantages not related to the size of the company e.g. personal contacts or knowledge that larger companies do not own or learning curve effects. Will competitors retaliate? Government action e.g. will new laws be introduced that will weaken our competitive position? How important is differentiation? e.g. The Champagne brand cannot be copied. This desensitises the influence of the environment. The power of buyers. This is high where there a few, large players in a market e.g. the large grocery chains. If there are a large number of undifferentiated, small suppliers e..g. small farming businesses supplying the large grocery chains. The cost of switching between suppliers is low e.g. from one fleet supplier of trucks to another. The power of suppliers. The power of suppliers tends to be a reversal of the power of buyers. Where the switching costs are high e.g. Switching from one software supplier to another. Power is high where the brand is powerful e.g. Cadillac, Pizza Hut, Microsoft. There is a possibility of the supplier integrating forward e.g. Brewers buying bars. Customers are fragmented (not in clusters) so that they have little bargaining power e.g. Gas/Petrol stations in remote places. The threat of substitutes Where there is product-for- product substitution e.g. email for fax Where there is substitution of need e.g. better toothpaste reduces the need for dentists. Where there is generic substitution (competing for the currency in your pocket) e.g. Video suppliers compete with travel companies. We could always do without e.g. cigarettes. Competitive Rivalry This is most likely to be high where entry is likely; there is the threat of substitute products, and suppliers and buyers in the market attempt to control. This is why it is always seen in the center of the diagram

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POWER SWOT

SWOT Analysis - POWER SWOT. Marketing Teacher's Approach to SWOT Analysis. Why is there a need for an advanced approach to SWOT Analysis? SWOT analysis is a marketing audit that considers an organization' s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Our introductory lesson gives you the basics of how to complete your SWOT as you begin to learn about marketing tools. As you learn more about SWOT analysis, you will become aware of a number of potential limitations with this popular tool. This lesson aims to help you overcome potential pitfalls.   Some of the problems that you may encounter with SWOT are as a result of one of its key benefits i.e. its flexibility. Since SWOT analysis can be used in a variety of scenarios, it has to be flexible. However this can lead to a number of anomalies. Problems with basic SWOT analysis can be addressed using a more critical POWER SWOT. POWER is an acronym for Personal experience, Order, Weighting, Emphasize detail, and Rank and prioritize. This is how it works. P = Personal experience. How do you the marketing manger fit in relation with the SWOT analysis? You bring your experiences, skills, knowledge, attitudes and beliefs to the audit. Your perception or simple gut feeling will impact the SWOT. O = Order - strengths or weaknesses, opportunities or threats. Often marketing managers will inadvertently reverse opportunities and strengths, and threats and weaknesses. This is because the line between internal strengths and weaknesses, and external opportunities and threats is sometimes difficult to spot. For example, in relation to global warming and climate change, one could mistake environmentalism as a threat rather than a potential opportunity. W = Weighting. Too often elements of a SWOT analysis are not weighted. Naturally some points will be more controversial than others. So weight the factors. One way would be to use percentages e.g. Threat A = 10%, Threat B = 70%, and Threat C = 20% (they total 100%). E = Emphasize detail. Detail, reasoning and justification are often omitted from the SWOT analysis. What one tends to find is that the analysis contains lists of single words. For example, under opportunities one might find the term 'Technology. ' This single word does not tell a reader very much. What is really meant is: 'Technology enables marketers to communicate via mobile devices close to the point of purchase. This provides the opportunity of a distinct competitive advantage for our company.' This will greatly assist you when deciding upon how best to score and weight each element. R = Rank and prioritize. Once detail has been added, and factors have been reviewed for weighting, you can then progress to give the SWOT analysis some strategic meaning i.e. you can begin to select those factors that will most greatly influence your marketing strategy albeit a mix of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Essentially you rank them highest to lowest, and then prioritize those with the highest rank e.g. Where Opportunity C = 60%, Opportunity A = 25%, and Opportunity B = 10% - your marketing plan would address Opportunity C first, and Opportunity B last. It is important to address opportunities primarily since your business should be market oriented. Then match strengths to opportunities and look for a fit. Address any gaps between current strengths and future opportunities.

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A dent in Toyota quality?

This article is bit old but can give you an insight of automotive business and quality issues A dent in Toyota quality? Growing problem of recalls sullies image By Micheline Maynard and Martin Fackler Published: FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 2006 DETROIT: The news arrives in letters that no car owner wants to receive. The power steering of their hard-to-get hybrid could fail, some learn, while others are told the tires on the small pickups could bulge and possibly burst. Still more owners find out their airbags may not inflate during a crash. These recall notices are not from an American carmaker, but from Toyota of Japan, long known as the crème de la crème when it comes to quality. Just as Toyota appears poised to pass General Motors and become the world's largest automaker, it has a growing problem with recalls that is sullying its carefully honed image. In the United States, Toyota's largest market, the number of vehicles recalled soared to 2.2 million last year. That was double the number of vehicles recalled in 2004, and more than 10 times the 200,000 cars it recalled in 2003, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In Japan, the number of recalled vehicles has jumped 41-fold since 2001, to 1..9 million last year. And because many of the recalls are for vehicles that are more than 10 years old, analysts fear that another wave of bad quality news may be in store. The situation has alarmed Toyota's top executives and angered the Japanese government. It ordered Toyota to explain itself, which it did in a report delivered Thursday, borne by the latest in a series of apologies by Japan's biggest auto company. In it, the company promised to create a new computer database to obtain information more quickly from dealers on repairs and complaints. Inside Toyota, the spate of recalls has triggered a flurry of high-level efforts to diagnose and fix the problems, which have afflicted everything from its treasured Prius hybrid, which has become the gold standard among fuel-efficient vehicles, to the small Tacoma pickup and even cars in its Lexus luxury lineup. At Toyota's annual executive meeting in June, its outgoing chairman, Hiroshi Okuda, its new chairman, Fujio Cho, and its chief executive, Katsuaki Watanabe, all vowed to the gathered managers that the quality issue would be addressed, according to a senior Toyota executive who attended the meeting. "The quality issue is a big concern. They're embarrassed about it," said the executive, who insisted on anonymity because the meeting was private. He added, "You think about Toyota, and quality is in our DNA. We are concerned about looking like the rest of the pack. The market is forgiving because of our long reputation, but how long will they be forgiving?" Quality problems can befall any company, whether based in Detroit, Europe or elsewhere. This week, in fact, Ford expanded a big recall of its vans, SUVs and pickup trucks, because of problems that could lead to engine fires. For now, Toyota's quality issues do not seem to be dampening its operations either in Japan or the United States, where Toyota passed Ford in July to rank as the No. 2 company in terms of auto sales. Nor is it affecting Toyota's net income, which climbed 39.2 percent during the second-quarter to $3.2 billion, the company said Friday. But executives inside Toyota know they cannot let the situation fester, because it ultimately threatens Toyota's ability to grow. If Toyota is unable to get its arms around the problem, it will have to pull back on its expansion plans, which are set to include more assembly and engine plants for the United States, as well as factories elsewhere. The primary reason for the recalls is Toyota's overloaded engineering staff, company executives and industry analysts said. Despite its global expansion during the 1990s, it failed to hire enough engineers to keep up with production increases. And it kept most of its development in Japan, although it built research and development centers in places like Ann Arbor, Michigan. At the same time, a new Japanese law limited the amount of overtime worked by engineers, whose long hours on the job were the stuff of industry legend. The result, say analysts, has been a number of errors introduced during vehicle development and fewer problems on the assembly line, which has been a more common cause of recent recalls at other carmakers like Nissan. Another issue is that Toyota, like other global auto companies, has farmed out the development of crucial components to its suppliers, both companies with which it has been doing business for years, like Denso of Japan, and newer ones, like Delphi, the biggest American parts maker. The damage has been slow to emerge- in fact, most recent recalls involve cars produced in the 1990s. But that means potential problems from hectic growth years in the early 2000s have yet to appear. As a result, analysts warn, Toyota's quality woes may only become worse before they get better. "I'm more concerned about the future," said Kunihiko Shiohara, an auto analyst for Goldman Sachs in Tokyo. "A fundamental turnaround in quality levels will take at least four years." To be sure, rising recall numbers are not limited to Toyota. Still, the rapid rise in recalls at Toyota stands out in comparison with other carmakers. In Japan, where Toyota is the largest auto company with about 35 percent of the market, its recalls quadrupled over the past four years to 1.9 million in 2005. That compares with 199,000 at No. 2 Nissan and 205,000 at Honda in 2005, according to the Transportation Ministry. Seeking to staunch the flood of recalls, Toyota has increased the hiring of new engineers, bringing on 979 last year compared with 310 in 2001. A company spokesman, Paul Nolasco, said Toyota planned to hire at least another 850 this year. In a departure from corporate tradition that stressed spending a career at a single company, Toyota wants 200 of its new hires to be experienced engineers hired in mid-career from elsewhere. In June, Toyota assigned a second executive vice president to its quality control division, and created a new senior managing director spot dedicated to improving quality Martin Fackler reported from Tokyo.

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Marketing in developed economy

Marketing in developed economy PLANNING is a sine qua non in achieving the economic growth. In layman language developing economy means where economy is growing, Which means the growth process has started and economy is trying to achieve the growth in various sectors. And for the development of the economy there have to be changes. Marketing has a very vast role in todays world, it aggregates the demand and thus enlarges the size of the market and helps in sustaining the existing levels of employment. Many actions have been taken by the Government like discouraging the users of those product which are used in excessive quantity thus in return helping in giving way to the substitute product development. . In order to understand the social marketing fully you should know the 4Ps ie product , price , place , promotion. The social Marketing Planning process formulates short and long –range social marketing plans on the basis of information. There are so many problems and social causes which can get benefited and solved by marketing thinking and approach. . There have been many problems due to which the agriculture development suffers . In spite of these problem there can be success in achieving the agriculture growth, if there is no lack of education and adherence to tradition. Marketing is necessary for the economic growth at all the levels and it depends in India from sector to sector . Q1) WHAT ARE THE CHANGES AND HOW DOES IT HELP THE NATION? ANS – There are two types of changes-1) economic 2) Social Both economic and social changes help in development of nation in a planned Manner . Q2) WHAT IS MACRO AND MICRO MARKETING? ANS - MACRO Marketing - when the involvement of government in marketing and distribution of ideas, goods and service is significant MICRO Marketing– When the firms enjoy sufficient freedom, they are there own boss for designing the marketing efforts. Q 3) WHAT are the 4PS AND EXPLAIN THEM? ANS PRODUCT- The "Goods and services "combination that the company offers to the target market. PRICE – The money that the customers have to pay to buy the product. PLACE –The activities done to make the product available to consumers. PROMOTION – Activities done to inform and persuade or influence the customer to buy. Q4) WHAT IS SOCIAL MARKETING? ANS Social Marketing is an attempt to change the behavior or the belief by the organization and this can be done through developing a marketing plan and following the plan. Q5) WHAT is the Difference between Social Marketing and Business Marketing? ANS Social marketing is totally different from Business Marketing because in Social Marketing there has to be a fresh thinking and approaches every time ,in order to solve the different social problems of the society . In Social marketing we only concentrate on the value's and beliefs but in Business Marketing we focus on the consumers preferences and opinions and persons working for the business Marketing works on a marketing plan which is properly defined and he is motivated by the organization and the results. Q WHAT ARE THE REASONS OF LOW PRODUCTIVITY IN AGRICULTURE? ANS a) The methods of irrigation are not at all efficient , old method of irrigations are still used. b) Old ways of doing farming , no proper machines are available. c) No sufficient supplies of fertilizers d) Natural calamities –like flood , heavy rains and other disasters monsoon etc e) There are no proper markets, poor market system. f) There is no incentive plan for the farmer so that they are motivated.

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10 Questions to Ask RFID Vendors

Before you begin an RFID pilot or rollout, there are some important questions you need to ask RFID tag and reader providers to guarantee the success of the project and future-proof your investment. This year, many companies will launch their first RFID pilot or begin their first rollout of the technology. If your company is among them, you are likely starting to evaluate different suppliers of RFID tags and readers. The choices you make might not have a major effect on your pilot, but they could have a profound impact on the long-term success of your RFID project and the return on investment you get from it. Whether you purchase RFID tags and readers directly from the manufacturer or through a distributor or value-added reseller, there are many issues to consider, including the frequency, protocols and standards supported; the interoperability of the hardware with RFID systems from other vendors; the cost of upgrading and maintaining equipment; and the vendor's ability to customize some elements of the system according to your needs. RFID Journal has put together a list of 10 questions you should ask tag and reader suppliers before investing in an RFID system. 1. Which frequencies and standards do you support? If you are deploying RFID to comply with requirements established by Wal-Mart or the Department of Defense, you already know that you need to use an RFID tag that operates in the UHF (868 to 956 MHz) spectrum, uses the Class 1 or Class 0 Electronic Product Code protocol and carries a 96-bit EPC, and you'll need to move to Gen 2 when Gen 2 tags become available. But if you are one of the many other users with vastly different needs, making sure you choose hardware that operates at the right frequency and supports the right standards is critical.. The cattle industry uses mainly low frequency (125 to 134 KHz) tags that conform to International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards 11784 and 11785. Certain other applications, including access control, smart shelves and some manufacturing scenarios, could require high-frequency tags (13.56 MHz). In general, most companies are looking at UHF systems for supply chain applications. UHF delivers read ranges of 15 to 20 feet, making it possible to read tags going through a dock door. Vendors that sell only one type of technology—say, a 13.56 MHz system—might tell you that their products will work for your application. That may well be true—there are no hard and fast rules about when to use one frequency or another—but you should ask the company to demonstrate their system in your environment and talk to vendors that sell systems that operate at other frequencies to make sure you are applying the right tag for the job. RFID standards are far from settled at this point. ISO has proposed standard protocols for each frequency. EPC has emerged as a potential rival standard. It's important to know which standard your hardware vendor supports because if EPC technology takes off, as now appears will be the case, that will drive down the price of tags and readers. 2. Can you back up your performance claims? RFID technology is still immature, and the same type of system (say, a UHF system) can show vast differences in performance from one vendor to the next. It's also possible for an unscrupulous vendor to demonstrate significant read ranges under ideal conditions even though the same tags and readers will perform poorly in the real world. Ask the vendors that you are working with to demonstrate their tags and readers on your products in your facility. If you can't get them to do that, it's worth buying tags and readers from the top three vendors you are considering and test them yourself. 3. Do you do site inspections? Typically, companies selling RF equipment, including wireless LANs, will visit the distribution center, warehouse or manufacturing facility where you plan to use their equipment.. Site inspections are important because the vendor can see what other wireless equipment you are using, whether it might interfere with RFID equipment and how to get around the interference issue. The vendor can also assess environmental issues that could affect the performance of a system, such as the presence of a lot of metal shelving or water, which interferes with radio waves. The inspection will cost $2,000 to $5,000 or more, depending on the size of your facility and the nature of your products. But you need to have this done by only one reliable vendor. 4. How will you help me protect my investment? Standards are in flux. EPCglobal, a joint venture set up by the Uniform Code Council and EAN International to commercialize EPC technology, is working on a second generation of the Class 1 EPC protocol that will be significantly different from the existing Class 1 protocol. It's possible that ISO standards and EPC standards could merge over time. No company wants to invest in technology only to find out that it is not compatible with newer standards that emerge. It's important to insure that any reader you purchase today can be upgraded remotely over a local or wide area network to comply with new standards that emerge. Typically, this involves installing new firmware in the reader. Many, but not all, companies now offer readers that can be upgraded remotely. Some companies are offering readers that can operate using several different protocols and even different frequencies. This is one way to guarantee that whatever protocol emerges as a standard, your hardware will be able to cope. However, there may be some trade-offs. Some multiprotocol readers are more expensive than single-protocol readers, and there can be a decline in performance if the reader is set up to try to run through a series of protocols to detect which types of tags are in the read field. Compare prices and ask vendors to demonstrate the reader using several dozen tags using a variety of protocols on a variety of products. 5. How will you help me minimize my maintenance costs? The big benefit from an RFID system is that there is no additional cost for reading tags because you don't need to pay someone to scan tags at each point in the supply chain, as you would using a bar code system. But you do have to maintain the readers. In small systems, that's not a big issue. But once you begin deploying RFID technology more widely, making sure hundreds or even thousands of readers are functioning properly could become a massive, expensive headache. Ask potential reader suppliers how their product can be maintained in a cost-effective way. Will your system administrator receive an alert if a reader is no longer detected on the network? Can readers be rebooted remotely? Do the readers have self-diagnostic systems? What kind of warranty do the readers come with? All of these issues should be considered, along with the cost, performance, frequency and protocol of the readers you are considering purchasing. 6. Have you done any interoperability testing? ISO has standards for testing conformance with protocol standards. However, there are currently are no standards for guaranteeing interoperability between EPC tags and readers produced by different manufacturers. That's not a big issue right now because only Alien Technology and Matrics produce EPC tags, and there are only a handful of vendors producing readers that can read EPC tags. The first Class 1 tags using microchips made by ST Microelectronic hit the market this year. And more and more reader makers will begin to offer Class 1 and Class 0 EPC readers or multiprotocol readers that read both. As the number of EPC tag and reader makers expands, it will become increasingly important to ensure interoperability. EPCglobal is expected to certify EPC equipment that conforms to its standards, but until that happens, end users will need to make sure the readers they buy have been thoroughly tested with tags from different manufacturers. Ask the vendor you are seriously considering to demonstrate that it's readers work with Class 0 and Class 1 tags from different manufacturers. 7. Do you offer middleware? Some companies simply sell you the tags and readers and you're on your own. Others provide software for managing and upgrading all the readers on a network. Still others provide "concentrators"— hardware and software that aggregates RFID data and converts it into XML or other formats that can be used by an enterprise software application. In general, having software that at least allows you to remotely configure RFID readers on the network is valuable. Middleware that manages some of the data may also be important, but companies that have all but the most modern enterprise applications will still need to do custom integration work to get RFID data flowing into their back-end systems. 8. Do you have a partner who can integrate the readers with backend systems? Deploying RFID hardware properly is no simple matter. Antennas have to be tuned. Tags have to be put on product in a location where they can be read reliably. You'll need to find a system integrator who is familiar with the hardware you choose. If the RFID hardware vendor has an existing relationship with a skilled integrator, then using that integrator can make the deployment process a lot smoother. On the other hand, if you have a system integrator that you have been using for a while and trust, it's worth talking to that company to see if it has a relationship with an RFID hardware vendor. Either way, you want to make sure that the hardware you buy can be installed properly. 9. Will you work with me to customize tags if I need them? For tracking cases of products that don't contain a lot of metal or liquid, you'll be able to use standard RFID tags. But many products—cans of soup, coffee and soft drinks and bottles of detergent, spring water and cooking oil—are not "RF friendly." Radio waves can't penetrate metal and can bounce off metal in ways that make it impossible to read tags. Water and other liquids absorb RF waves, which greatly reduces the read range. These problems can be overcome by correctly positioning the tag on the case and sometimes through the design of the tag itself. If the right amount of space is left between the tag's antenna and an item's metal surface, the metal can be used as a mirror that actual increases the read distance. Many companies make "metal-mount tags," and these may work well in your situation. But metal-mount tags tend to be expensive and are usually designed to be attached to a reusable metal container. If you are tagging canned goods, you might need to work with a vendor to create a custom metal-mount tag for your products. The design work can be expensive, and many RFID vendors won't create custom tags because it's not profitable (unless you plan to buy 100 million of them) or they don't have the capability. If your products contain a lot of metal or water, talk to your vendor about whether you might need a custom tag and if they would be willing to design one for you. 10. Can you deliver the volumes I need? If you are launching a pilot, or starting your initial RFID rollout, you probably aren't too worried about vendors being able to supply enough tags. But if you are one of Wal-Mart's or the U.S. Department of Defense's top 100 suppliers, you will likely be using millions of tags per year within 18 months and perhaps tens or hundred of millions within five years. Volume is going to be an issue in the near term. The RFID industry is still immature, and there isn't a great deal of capacity to churn out that many tags. A number of companies have been investing in technology to mass-assemble RFID tags. Alien Technology has Fluidic Self Assembly technology that flows thousands of tiny chips into small bow-tie-shaped straps that can be attached to an antenna. Matrics has developed a system it called PICA. SmartCode of Israel has its own high-speed assembly machine. But given that many organizations are planning to deploy RFID in their supply chains—Metro, Target, Tesco, the U.S. Department of Defense and Wal-Mart—at roughly the same time means that these advances and others might not be enough to satisfy demand.

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Communicating with Client

   

Written by Pawel Brodzinski    Being a project manager is a kind of job which brings a lot of occasions to communicate with different people. You talk internally with a project team; you even try to organize their work. What even more important you talk with client representatives. You meet different people on the other side: stakeholders, fellow project managers, quality engineers, specialists, possibly a bunch of high ranks too. Most of the time you need something from them. Most of the time the way you talk with them can make the whole thing easier or worse. The clue here is to know who you talk with. And I don't say about jobs or ranks, but about characters. In this job you meet all sorts and there's no single universal way of communication. Sometimes your fellow PM on client side is a type of great organizer and all you have to do is to give him regularly enough input from you to get things rolling. Possibly he'll appreciate cyclic meetings and todo list with assigned responsibilities. Sometimes person on the other side needs to have a part of her job done by yourself and you need to start talking with a lot people trying to go through bureaucratic rules of the company. You'll need to make a lot of phone calls since direct contact brings always better results when you expect to get information. Another thing is which communication method is mostly liked by a person you communicate with. A gal who never turns off her mobile or a guy who gets sick whenever he needs to call somebody? Someone who will call you twice a day to spend half an hour talking about minor issues or someone who reach your phone only when emergency appears? A person who will answer each of your emails or the one who never answers emails since it's possible to give you some ass-covers that way? Somebody who feels safe in face to face discussions and is a tough negotiator or Mister Shy Guy who is stressed each time the official meeting is called? Depending on a type of person you have on the other side and a task you try to complete the communication channel you use should differ. If you need to get the job done and you don't care much about formalities, try to use the most liked way of contact for person you need to communicate with. If you need to get some official information try to choose people who will answer your emails. If you need to buy some time for your team, look for places where you aim your asks for clarifications and don't expect quick answers. Of course the bigger the project is and the bigger the client organization is the more options you have. Sometimes it'll be helpful since the project manager on the other side can be not the best person to talk with about some problems, but sometimes it's hard to find a person responsible for an issue you're trying to resolve when you have many possible choices. Anyway, almost always there are more than one or two options to choose. Using different communication methods with different people wisely you can finish your project with less hassle.

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