Introduction
What is RFID?
RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a technology used to identify and track objects using data transmitted via radio waves. In a laboratory setting, RFID tags are attached to physical assets and contain electronically stored information that can be configured with customer and instrument attributes.
What are the benefits of OneSource RFID in a laboratory?
PerkinElmer uses Passive RFID, meaning the tags are dormant and only respond to the request of a handheld RFID reader. The data is read and sent to the OneSource database over the Internet via a proprietary mobile application and software. The collected data is integrated with the OneSource Portal and visible through interactive dashboard visualizations, where you can quickly track your asset's location and movement, as well as correlate that movement to service history.
How does it work?
Passive RFID technology from OneSource will eliminate manual data collection, analysis, and reporting and improve your inventory accuracy above 98%. Once your laboratory assets have been tagged, the amount of time (and resources) needed to complete a subsequent RFID inventory will be drastically reduced, as multiple assets can be scanned at once, without line of sight and/or disruption to science. Our RFID solution provides you with the hardware, software, visualization, and integration services designed to ease the introduction of RFID management technology into your lab. With an advanced level of inventory tracking and management and a seamless integration, it is the perfect solution for labs of any size.
Interested in Asset Management Solutions?
Our Insights and Analytics team interviewed customers to understand the considerations taken during capital asset planning and what factors they felt could impact their actions. What we found was that most of the data they wanted to consume was available in our database, just difficult to visualize and understand. Our customers required a fast, easy and visual way to focus attention on the vital few capital assets requiring further discussion which saves time and removes emotion out of the process. After multiple iterations and validating our data with hands-on, real world asset checks, we created the PerkinElmer Index, which delivered on customer requirements. Data from an actual customer is shown in the chart on the next page. The PerkinElmer Index is a proxy for asset health that can be combined with other meta-data to allow our customers to quickly and easily identify outlier assets that require further investigation therefore saving time, effort and money while improving the management of their laboratory asset fleet.
Customer Impact
Customers utilizing the PerkinElmer Index to augment their asset management programs accelerate financial savings by saving time in their analysis and report fewer “tough conversations” as a result of access to data to drive discussion.
- Upwards of 7% annualized savings on capital asset OPEX through service contract management and asset optimization
- 25% reduction in cycle time for capital planning projects
- Fast identification of optimization opportunities … no need to manually review assets
- Quickly identify impact of product discontinuation notifications
Our use of RPA tools allows us to customize data points used in the calculation of the PerkinElmer Index and with anonymized access to the millions of data points associated with peer customer assets it provides our customers limitless possibilities. The ability to benchmark themselves in terms of overall asset performance and understand how particular makes and models of instrumentation perform relative to one another provides tremendous value to our asset management programs.
Next Steps / Road Ahead
While exact details of what comprises the PerkinElmer Index is proprietary, we can share that this new analytics tool is ever changing. As we work with customers through capital planning cycles, budget reviews and service contract renewals, we learn more about what data makes the biggest impact to the decision making process and look to incorporate that into our algorithm. Plans have already started to build a multi-year capital planner allowing customers to look out into the future beyond the current capital year to optimize their replacement cycle and manage CAPEX. We also aim to provide this analysis via our OneSource Service Portal for customers to self-serve. In the end, our goal is to utilize the millions of data points we manage, turn it into actionable, easy to digest information allowing our customers to make data-driven decisions to the benefit of their operational and financial goals.
