Surge in Adoption of RFID Tags for Industry 4.0, Internet of Things, and Smart Manufacturing Presents Opportunities
RFID technology is expected to witness a steady growth in the coming years, which is attributed to the increasing demand for locating, tracking, and monitoring objects and beings for security, safety, and resource optimization. As the world moves toward real-time location systems (RTLS), sensor networks, and the Internet of Things (IoT), radio frequency identification devices are anticipated to play an increasingly important role in capitalizing on these technologies.
Technological advancements in RFID technology, convergence of RF-based devices with other communication technologies, and growth in semi-passive and printed tags are anticipated to drive the radio frequency identification technology market growth in the coming years. Additionally, hybrid systems, pre-printed tags, and efficient memory usage are the pivotal opportunities that solution vendors are focusing on for this market.
As the industry has been maturing, there have been increasing efforts for the standardization of products and frequency bands. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC), and RAIN RFID, a global alliance, are some of the organizations which are projected to play an important role in this process. Intellectual property rights, well-developed supply chain, product licensing, and innovations are the key factors that are expected to shape the future of organizations over the forecast period.
RFID offers numerous benefits such as higher productivity, improved regulatory compliance, improved quality data capture, better security, and accurate and relevant management information. Moreover, recent growth and applications of RFID technology across a wide set of industries, such as retail, healthcare, transportation, and defense, among others, has spurred its adoption rate. The retail industry is at the forefront and has witnessed its technological reconnaissance with the usage of RFID tags. RFID will increasingly be one part of a whole ecosystem of sensors and communication technologies that will help organizations to better monitor and manage assets and shipments. It can potentially enable a whole host of new applications in retail, healthcare, manufacturing, and other sectors.
Advancements in materials, growing adoption of nanotechnology, and organic polymers across industrial products will further enhance the market growth. Instead of a tag attached to a garment, for instance, an RFID transponder could be printed directly onto cloth or packaging using biodegradable conductive inks. This type of new initiative will allow both end users and RFID manufacturers to leverage these new technologies and ready themselves for more widespread use of RFID.
The RFID deployed in the industry is composed of three major components, namely tags, readers, and software and services. The tags form the largest part of the market and are subject to prime development activities. While the deployment of passive tags is the largest in the industry, active tags are also gaining momentum as numerous new applications have sprung up in recent years and the tag size has continually been reducing. The major trends aiding in radio frequency technology adoption are automation, real-time intelligence, supply chain management, asset tracking and payments, and NFC. The government mandates for the use of RFID tags for tracking various industry products, such as defense, livestock, and data centers, are also proving to be important factors in the industry's development.
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