RFID technology in the life cycle of complex machinery and plants

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is entering ever more domains of logistics and engineering. RFID components are for example used in the manufacture of complex machinery and equipment and in their delivery to customers and commissioning as well as in the subsequent phase of maintenance by plant operators. Awareness is increasingly growing in companies that such holistic and cross-company process chains require new approaches to and methods for the integrated utilization of RFID components. This begins in the design engineering of components, which are outfitted with RFID components either permanently or only to support selected process steps, and ends with the removal of the transponder or the deletion of the data stored on a component's transponder. An issue parallel to the physical handling of RFID components is the use of RFID to support cross-company information exchange