Driving new insights in asset utilisation by utilising RFID technology to deliver asset status updates in real-time

This paper focuses on the delivery of real-time asset visibility, in the form of automatic location and status updates to the asset management system. It presents a suitable architecture to capture and process asset location and status data in real-time to deliver an immediacy of information that is not traditionally available within the asset management function. It outlines three primary domains that deliver an end-to-end real-time location awareness asset management system: hardware, middleware and business applications domains. Firstly it presents an overview of several RFID technologies used to help underlie the delivery of asset location and status updates to the asset management system in a timely manner. Secondly it outlines how RFID-generated location and status data can be transformed through the middleware domain into contextually rich information useful to asset managers. This paper concludes by describing how this rich information can be exploited within the Asset Management System to deliver significant value to asset management practitioners.