Thin Film Electronics (Thinfilm) has announced technology partnerships with three leading providers of NFC-reader hardware - Socket Mobile, Famoco, and SpringCard. Each partner is collaborating with Thinfilm to the market and help position NFC as an enabling technology for a range of applications within the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) space.
Together, these partnerships allow enterprises to easily integrate Thinfilm NFC technology with installed desktop, embedded, and mobile infrastructure, including iOS (iPhone, iPad) and Android devices.
Davor Sutija, Thinfilm's CEO, said, "Just as brand marketers use NFC to add smartphone interactivity to everyday consumer products, industrial users can use NFC to streamline factory operations and protect supply chains." Davor added, "Thinfilm's technology partnerships with Socket Mobile, Famoco, and SpringCard - established leaders in the NFC reader hardware space - allow industrial users to implement NFC at any stage of operations while leveraging deployed IT infrastructure. This simplifies the creation of turnkey systems that will expand the basic IIoT into a comprehensive 'Industrial Internet of Everything'."
NFC and IIoT
Today's IIoT is primarily focused on adding connectivity, sensors, and software to factories and other industrial/commercial properties such as parking garages, logistics/shipping facilities, power plants, airports, shopping malls, and hospitals.
In factories, the McKinsey Global Institute forecasts a US$1.2 to US$3.7 trillion economic impact of IIoT by 2025.
Beyond investments in machinery and analytics, the IIoT has implications related to the physical items that help an industrial or commercial facility run smoothly - including service items and consumables such as lightbulbs, chemicals, filters, and batteries
To maximize the benefits of the IIoT both inside the factory and in the downstream supply chain, these essential items can be integrated with Thinfilm's NFC SpeedTap tags. This integration adds simple wireless connectivity and basic, uniquely identifiable intelligence to a wide range of physical items that can be quickly and reliably read using pre-validated, enterprise-ready NFC-reader devices.
NFC-enhanced items can enable a range of IIoT use cases with a single tap to a reader device:
- Verify industrial supplies and other items to ensure that the right parts, consumables, ingredients, and/or refills are being used with the right machines
- Manage consumables and instantly reorder expired or depleted stock via streamlined, frictionless e-commerce integration
- Report and manage quality issues with item-level precision
- Facilitate product recalls
- Secure supply chains with track & trace visibility, gray market activity detection, and end-user product authentication
Source: Thin Film Electronics