Tracking components and maintenance history within a facility utilizing radio frequency identification technology

Limitations in data transfer between maintenance workers and a central facility management (FM) system result in lower data quality, longer service process times, and ineffective capturing of component maintenance history. Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology provides an opportunity to meet the current needs for uniquely identifying facility components, storing some maintenance history information on the component, and accessing this information on-demand within a facility. There have not been any research studies that tested the performance of active ultrahigh frequency RFID technology on facility components during operations and maintenance phase repetitively over an extended period of time. The objectives of this study were to identify how RFID technology can improve current FM processes and to determine technological feasibility of using RFID within a facility repetitively on a daily basis. The writers tagged fire valves in a facility with RFID tags and conducted a longevity test for sixty consecutive days by simulating tag identification, data access, and entry in real-life conditions. The results demonstrate that current commercially available active RFID technology performs well in a building environment where metallic objects and different obstructions are present. The observed reading distances were approximately half of the reading range expected in open air provided that there are not any massive obstructions between the reader and the tag.