How to Relieve Labor Shortages with RFID in Supply Chain and Logistics
The world’s leading shipping organizations are outpacing the competition by automating manual tasks and boosting efficiency with RAIN RFID.
In today’s rapidly evolving global economy, there’s one critical challenge that supply chain and logistics organizations are facing more than any other: They don’t have enough workers. In a recent survey, a full 96% of supply chain professionals said they are worried about labor shortages.
The core issue is that workloads are increasing while workforces are shrinking or remaining stagnant — all while businesses wrestle with economic downturns, greater demands, and disrupted supply chains. To remain competitive, enterprises need to leverage technology as a tool to drive efficiencies and increase visibility.
Industry leaders like UPS are investing in innovative technologies that help them do more with less. By harnessing the power of RAIN RFID, sometimes referred to as ultra-high frequency (UHF) RFID, UPS is streamlining its warehouses and loading docks, making significant strides in efficiency and accuracy.
With RAIN RFID — a low-cost, battery-free, wireless technology that enables organizations to discover, engage, and protect tagged items — supply chain and logistics organizations can perform critical tasks more efficiently, eliminate loading errors, and reduce manual tasks. The benefits are concrete and considerable: By placing RAIN RFID tags on packages and giving wearable RAIN RFID readers to employees who load package cars, UPS expected to eliminate 20 million manual scans a day.
How RAIN RFID helps mitigate workforce challenges
- Automating manual tasks: RAIN RFID solutions accelerate productivity, allowing organizations to achieve more with the same number of workers. RAIN RFID readers can automatically identify, track, and verify up to 1,000 tagged items a second from as far away as 10 meters (30 feet) without direct line-of-sight. This significantly reduces the time employees spend performing manual tasks, such as scanning individual packages or ensuring the right items are on the right trucks.
- Reducing labor costs: Supply chain professionals whose companies use RAIN RFID reported a 19% reduction in labor costs due to decreases in manual scanning and sorting. RAIN RFID solutions enable supply chain and logistics organizations to better manage labor shortages and allocate existing resources more efficiently.
- Simplifying onboarding and training: With operations that are more automated, efficient, and straightforward, enterprises that use RAIN RFID can streamline onboarding and training processes for new employees. This, in turn, helps new workers become productive faster — critical in a tight labor market. And it helps businesses adjust more quickly to labor fluctuations.
The recent survey by Impinj and Supply Chain Dive reveals a stark contrast: 75% of companies using RFID are highly confident in their ability to manage supply chain pressures over the next two years, compared to just 51% without RFID. This underscores the necessity of RFID in addressing labor shortages and maintaining operational efficiency.
Those are just some of the reasons why 97% of supply chain professionals are turning to RFID solutions. Download the complimentary report to learn why smart, automated RAIN RFID solutions are combatting labor shortages and driving the success of the world’s most successful shipping and logistics systems.
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Wednesday, September 25, 2024
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeff Dossett
Chief Revenue Officer
Jeff Dossett oversees the Impinj go-to-market department, including sales, partner development, and marketing.
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