rfid fabric rental management system composition

Hotels, hospitals, organizations and professional laundry companies are facing the process of handing over, washing, ironing, finishing and storing thousands of pieces of work clothes and cloths every year, how to effectively track and manage the washing process, number of washings, inventory status and effective categorization of each piece of cloths and grasses is a great challenge. In response to the above problems, UHF RFID provides a perfect solution by embedding UHF laundry tags into the fabrics and binding the tag information with the information of the labeled fabrics to achieve real-time tracking and management of the fabrics through the acquisition of the tag information by the reader equipment to form a mainstream fabric rental management system in the market.

The fabric rental management system firstly gives each piece of fabric a unique fabric tag digital identity (i.e. washing tag), and utilizes industry-leading data collection equipment to collect real-time information on the status of fabric in every handover and washing process, realizing full-process, full-life-cycle management of fabric. Thus, it helps operators to improve the flow efficiency of fabrics, reduce labor costs and improve customer satisfaction. The rental management system grasps the status of each link in the flow of cloth in real time, and provides real-time statistics on the number of washings, washing costs, and the number of rentals and rental costs of hotels and hospitals. It realizes the visualization of the whole washing management and provides real-time data support for the scientific management of the enterprise.

System Components

Fabric Rental Management System is composed of 5 parts: UHF RFID Wash Tag, Handheld Reader, Channel Machine, UHF RFID Workbench and Fabric Tag Wash Management Software and Database.

Label features: in the fabric life cycle management, based on the washing industry, High Temperature resistance, high pressure resistance, impact resistance and other multiple elements, the industry's research data on the service life of the fabric in the number of washing performance: cotton sheets, pillowcases 130 ~ 150 times; blended (65% polyester, 35% cotton) 180 ~ 220 times; towels 100 ~ 110 times; tablecloths, tablecloths, mouth cloths 120 ~ 130 times and so on. Washing label life should be greater than or equal to the life of the cloth, so the washing label must be subjected to 65 ℃ 25min warm water washing, 180 ℃ 3min high-temperature drying, 200 ℃ 12s ironing and leveling and 60 bar, 80s high pressure pressure, as well as a series of rapid machine washing, folding, and experiencing more than 200 times the complete washing cycle. In the fabric management solution, the washing label is the core technology, as shown in Figure 8-22 is a photo of the laundry label, which follows the fabric to go through each washing session, high temperature, high pressure, impact, and repeated many times, section 4.2.2 describes the characteristics of the label in detail.

Figure 8-22 Wash Label

Handheld readers: for single or small quantities of fabric for additional identification when used. Can be Bluetooth handheld or Android handheld.
Tunnel machine: as shown in Figure 8-23, when there is a carload of fabric needs to be packed or handover, it needs to be recognized quickly in large quantities, usually there are several hundred pieces of fabric in a car, and all of them need to be recognized within 30s. Washing factories and hotels need to hand over the tunnel machine need to be equipped. There are generally 4 to 16 antennas in the tunnel machine, the purpose is to identify the fabrics in all directions, to prevent missed readings. Fabrics that need to be recycled and rewashed can also be counted through the tunnel machine.

Figure 8-23 Fabric Count Tunnel Machine

The UHF table can be associated with laundry equipment, such as the industrial laundry equipment shown in Figure 8-24. It will count all the fabric flow during normal operation, and the machine can automatically reject tags when they are recognized as exceeding their working life.

Figure 8-24 Industrial Laundry Equipment

Fabric label laundry management software and database is the basis of the whole system operation, not only to provide data to the customer, but also help to realize the internal management.

working step

The working steps of using UHF RFID fabric management are as follows:
Sewing, registration: After sewing UHF RFID washing tags to fabric quilts, uniforms and other items, the coded information of the pre-made rules of the rental management company will be written to the tags through the card issuer, and the information of the tag-bound fabric will be entered into the backstage of the fabric management system, which will be stored in the database of the independent web-based software system. For high volume management, the information can also be written first and then sewn.
Handover: When the cloths are sent to the launderette for cleaning, they are collected and packed by the service staff, and then passed through the tunnel machine, where the reader automatically obtains the EPC number of each item and transmits these numbers to the back-end system through the network connection, and then stores the data, marking that the part of the item has left the hotel and been handed over to the launderette staff. Similarly, when the fabric is cleaned and sent back to the hotel by the laundering store, it is scanned through the reader scanning channel, and the reader acquires the EPCs of all the fabrics and sends them back to the back-end of the system to be compared with the EPC data of the fabrics sent to the laundering store, in order to complete the handover of the part of the fabric from the laundering store to the hotel.
Internal Management: Inside the hotel, for the fabrics installed with RFID tags, the staff can utilize the RFID handheld reader to complete the inventory work in the fabrics quickly, accurately and efficiently. At the same time, it can provide fast search function, track the status and location information of the fabrics, and cooperate with the staff to complete the work of taking the fabrics and so on. At the same time, through the background of the statistical analysis of data functions, can be accurately obtained for each single product fabric washing situation, life analysis and other data, to help the management grasp the quality of the fabric and other key indicators, and according to these analytical data, in the fabric to reach the maximum number of times of cleaning, the system can receive alarms, and timely remind the staff to replace, to improve the level of service of the hotel, enhance the customer experience.
System Benefits

The advantages of using UHF RFID fabric management system are:
Reduced fabric sorting labor: the traditional sorting process usually requires 2-8 people to sort the fabric into different chutes, and sorting all the fabric can take hours. With UHF RFID fabric management system, when the fabric passes through the assembly line, the reader will recognize the EPC of the tag and inform the data to the automatic sorting equipment to implement the sorting (with the same sorting principle of 8.3.2), the efficiency can be increased by dozens of times.
Provide accurate cleaning quantity records: The number of cleaning cycles per piece of fabric is a very important data, and the cleaning cycle analysis system can effectively help predict the end-of-life date of each piece of fabric. Most fabrics can only withstand a certain number of intense wash cycles, after which they begin to break down or become damaged. Predicting the end-of-life date of each piece of fabric without a record of the number of washes is difficult, and makes it difficult for hotels to plan their ordering for replacement of old fabric. When a fabric comes out of the washer, the reader recognizes the EPC of the tag in the fabric, and the number of wash cycles for that fabric is then uploaded into the system database. When the system detects that a fabric is approaching its end-of-life date, the user is prompted to reorder the fabric. This process ensures that the business has the necessary fabrics in stock, thus greatly reducing the time it takes to replenish lost or damaged fabrics.
Provide quick and easy visual inventory management: Lack of visual inventory management can make it difficult to accurately plan for emergencies, operate efficiently, or prevent fabric loss and theft. If a piece of fabric is stolen and the organization does not have a daily inventory audit, the organization may be exposed to potential delays in daily operations due to inaccurate inventory management. UHF RFID-based laundry systems can help organizations manage inventory faster and more efficiently on a daily basis. Readers placed in each warehouse provide continuous inventory monitoring to help pinpoint where fabrics are missing or stolen. Inventory count readings via UHF RFID technology can also help organizations that use outsourced cleaning services. Inventory counts are taken before the fabrics are sent away to be washed, and again when the fabrics are returned to ensure that no fabrics are lost during the final wash.
Reduce Loss and Theft: Most organizations around the world are still using simple, labor-dependent inventory management methods to try to count lost or stolen fabric. Unfortunately, the human error involved in manually counting hundreds or thousands of pieces of fabric is significant. Often when a piece of fabric is stolen, it is virtually impossible for an organization to locate the thief, much less receive compensation or reimbursement. The EPC serial number within the UHF RFID tag gives organizations the ability to identify exactly which piece of fabric was lost or stolen, and to know where it was last located.
Provide meaningful customer information: Rental fabric companies have a unique way to study user behavior by understanding their customers through tags on rental fabrics. UHF RFID-based laundry systems can help record customer information such as historical renters, dates of rental, length of rental, and more. Keeping these records can help organizations understand product popularity, product history and customer preferences.
Accurate check-in and check-out system management: The process of renting out fabrics is usually very complicated unless the company can establish a simple concept of saving information such as rental date, expiration date, customer information, etc. The UHF RFID-based laundry system provides a customer database that not only stores important information, but also reminds the organization that the expiration date of a piece of fabric is approaching and other minor matters. This function enables the enterprise to communicate with the customer the approximate return date and provide to the customer instead of only providing the customer with the assumed return date as before, thus effectively enhancing the customer relationship, and in turn, also reduces unnecessary disputes and thus improves the rental income of the fabrics.