RFID Symphony: sustainable tracking

All projects, whether successful or not, have stories to tell.

A difficult uphill start, a start full of hope, repeated twists and turns where the viewer is swept away by a whirlwind of dramatic and conflicting emotions. A sunset of optimism and an ending that leaves the door wide open to a classic “To be Continued”.

It may sound rhetoric, but the real protagonists of Aton and Faster’s technology-soaked story are the men and women who lived through it all.

A project we couldn’t wait to share, not only for the challenges we faced but above all for the benefits that digital innovation, through the use of RFID technology, has brought in terms of sustainability – for the people working in the field every day, for the company, and for the entire supply chain.

Once again, we drew inspiration from the territory where our clients chose to build their business, and from the immense artistic and cultural heritage that surrounds them: Rivolta d’Adda – a town so closely tied to Faster, whose Italian headquarters are located here and are almost one with the community itself – and Cremona, the city of Stradivari.

And that’s when everything came together: our .onID software is the conductor, leading and harmonising all the parts involved; Faster’s people are the musicians; RFID devices and technologies are the instruments. A symphony that found its “key” when the “sound” of each individual element blended with the others – when RFID became the shared project of everyone involved, from colleagues to supply chain partners.

If we think of RFID as a raging river that sweeps over and transforms the land and everything it encounters, we are sorely mistaken. But neither is it a placid stream to be tackled by kayak on a Sunday afternoon. The digital transformations of environments that are strongly linked to and imbued with manual skills must be governed with decision and firmness, but above all with the awareness that they are literally going to change (for the better) the working lives of those who work in factories or offices every day.

Faster had very clear ideas: there were processes that needed to be revised in order to optimise time and methods. Data needed to be collected in order to make strategic decisions, to move forces to where they were really needed. Every single element of the process to be optimised was broken down into smaller parts. RFID technology could find its place in every single part and make a decisive contribution to the working life of Faster’s employees and suppliers, to create a united and aligned logistics chain. All challenges were overcame also thanks to intuitions and inventions guided by Aton’s long-time extensive RFID experience.

Please note, we are not telling an “industrial” story: this process analysis and transformation process is perfectly suited to any type of activity, whether logistics, retail or simply traceability.

This is what we are talking about. Giving a name to the objects I use for my work, knowing where they have passed, when, by whom they have been handled, by which machine or person, if they have left, if they have gone to one of my suppliers, if they have returned safely and in which warehouse I have stored them. The chain can continue if you like, grow endlessly and collect data, lots of data that we didn’t see before. Yet they were there at our fingertips, we just had to find a way to collect them and bring them to the eyes of those who then have to make strategic decisions.

The video we shot uses a beautiful metaphor, that of the symphony of different elements, excellent soloists who when put together finally give their best. Aton and Faster built all this together, and the results are real and tangible.

The ending is not a real ending, but a new beginning.

Enjoy the video!