Cannon Equipment Update on RFID Tracking in Dallas

Twenty years after it began work with the Miami Herald on a cart-based system for newspaper distribution, Cannon Equipment Co., Rosemount, Minn., provided an update last month at Nexpo on its distribution system's use of radio-frequency identification (RFID) for tracking at The Dallas Morning News.

RFID capability is tied into Cannon's Comet (Cart Operating and Mangement Enterprise Tracking) software, installed with the Cannon cart-loading system last year at the paper's new south Dallas plant. Relying on small, unobtrusive tags on the carts and stationary readers, the wireless technology was first used with the system's cart loaders, later at the dock doors, and now at all distribution centers, allowing virtually every cart to be tracked from loading to arrival.

RFIDs' presence and function are invisible except when they detect a product headed for the wrong destination, said Cannon Print Technologies Director Pat Geraghty.

To achieve the required level of accuracy, "we're now in fine tuning," Geraghty said last month, noting that 89% is not good enough. Other prospective newspaper customers, he added, are waiting to see the Morning News operating at 100% accuracy.

Customers also have asked Cannon to extend RFID use outside plants and distribution centers. So, said Geraghty, "we're looking at tracking product our of the cart and to the carrier." Though costs have come down, RFID technology - whether as tags or printed electronic labels -- is still too costly for application at the individual bundle level. For its half-dozen of more zones, Morning News bundles are barcoded.

The codes can be printed relatively fast but require handling to be scanned. In contrast, RFIDs automatically activate a nearby reader. In tests of RFIDs on bundles, said Geraghty, the cagelike metal carts did not block or interfere with tag-to-reader radio communication. Along with cost decreases, Geraghty said he expects further improvement in RFID technology, noting that second-generation tags with greater range are already in use.

For now, the RFID capability is set up for Cannon's automatic cart-loading systems, but Geraghty said there is no reason the technology cannot be employed on manual-loading systems.

While customers must install Cannon's Windows-based cart-loading-control Comet software, the RFID-based tracking was moved to the Web, using the Internet Explorer browser, which enables access to information anytime and almost anywhere.