News from the C-Lab

One of the most common questions we receive from companies approaching RFID technology for the first time is: where do you begin? There is no single answer, because it depends on the production environment, business objectives, and the organisation's level of operational maturity. But there is one principle that holds in every case: progressive adoption produces better results than a full-scale implementation in a single intervention. Not because it is simpler or less ambitio

n recent years, global RFID adoption has grown significantly. According to the RAIN Alliance, 52.8 billion RFID tags were sold in 2024, a 17% increase over the previous year. The overall market is valued at approximately $15.6 billion, with projections pointing to a doubling within the next decade. Yet in our experience working with Italian manufacturers, we observe a recurring pattern: many companies adopt RFID and achieve tangible operational results, but fail to unlock the

Photo credits: UPS. Taken from UPS's Newsroom. UPS recently announced the completion of its RFID rollout across the entire U.S. small package network. This marks the first time a major logistics provider has deployed RFID sensing technology, which enables automatic reading without manual scanning, at this scale: over 5,500 retail locations, 60,000 delivery vehicles, and 1.3 million packages processed daily with RFID tags. The investment exceeds $100 million. This strategic co

Maturità tecnologica e organizzativa nell'adozione RFID: la matrice

Un sistema RFID che automatizza l'inventario o monitora la produzione è un investimento che si ripaga attraverso la riduzione dei costi operativi: meno ore uomo, meno errori, meno tempi morti. I benefici sono reali e misurabili, ma facilmente replicabili. Qualsiasi concorrente può adottare la stessa tecnologia e ottenere risultati analoghi. Esiste un utilizzo diverso dell'RFID che cambia la natura stessa dell'investimento.

What are the real benefits of RFID for manufacturers? Inventory time cut from 8 hours to 20 minutes, error rates below 0.5%, and measurable ROI within 18 to 36 months.

Calculating Return on Investment in RFID: cost-benefit analysis for manufacturing companies

La maggior parte dei progetti RFID nasce per risolvere un problema operativo specifico: automatizzare un processo manuale, ridurre gli errori di inventario, velocizzare le operazioni di magazzino. Sono obiettivi validi che producono risultati misurabili, ma rappresentano solo il primo di quattro livelli di valore che la stessa infrastruttura RFID può generare.

Molti progetti RFID vengono dismessi non perché la tecnologia non funziona, ma perché l'organizzazione non era pronta ad adottarla. Le criticità tecniche si possono risolvere in un secondo momento. Quelle legate alle persone e ai processi, se trascurate nelle fasi iniziali, diventano difficili da sanare.

When a company decides to test RFID through a pilot project, the tendency is to treat this phase as a straightforward technical trial. In reality, how the pilot is designed and executed largely determines the success of large-scale implementation. A poorly designed pilot project is worse than no pilot at all. It creates the false impression that the system is working correctly, only for the real problems to surface during the production rollout — when the cost of intervention

Today, RFID technology is the best ally for meeting these new challenges: it is one of the most effective tools for collecting, monitoring and analysing real-time data on workflows, material movements and production, and then optimising both resources and business processes.

Ensuring maximum precision in readings, achieving 100% accuracy while reducing tag reading times. These were the ambitious goals of one...

how to map the value stream automatically. with RFID

Csolutions joins the MADE Competence Center network for Industry 4.0