INVESTIGATING THE ROLES FOR RFID IN THE WATER INDUSTRY FOR ASSET MANAGEMENT PURPOSES - PRESENTATION TO THE 2005 IEE WATER EVENT

摘要

This paper reports on the interim findings of a study into the use of RFID technology for asset management purposes within a UK water company. The study, undertaken by the author as the subject for an MSc IT dissertation, included the analysis of the existing processes involved with asset management eg maintenance, non-scheduled repair work etc., and postulated on how RFID might enhance the efficiency of these processes. The author is indebted to Yorkshire Water Services (YWS) and their staff for providing information on their systems and processes and a valuable insight into the issues they face with delivering increasingly effective asset management in support of their vision to be 'clearly the best'. The content of this paper has been developed entirely by the author and does not necessarily reflect YWS views, policy or future strategy. The main advantages that it is believed RFID could deliver for this application are centred on providing positive identification of assets and an audit trail of when assets have been visited ie time stamp of when a tag was read. In isolation, the value of such information is limited, however if successfully integrated into an end-to-end process, the benefits could potentially be substantial. The challenge, as ever, is establishing if a business case for investment in such schemes can be proven.