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By Enrique Herrera | Nov. 11, 2026
How Can Manufacturers Deploy RFID in Days and See ROI Faster?
- Turnkey RFID platforms allow organizations to deploy automated tracking in as little as days and scale globally without complex, custom development.
- By eliminating local server dependencies and bespoke code, these modern cloud-based systems seamlessly integrate into existing ERP, WMS, MES and other business systems.
- Real-time operational visibility can dramatically improve turnaround times and cut down production bottleneck backlogs, in some cases reducing cycle times from seven days to just 24 hours.
RFID technology has been helping manufacturers and other companies track inventory, assets, orders, tools, and work in progress for years. But deploying RFID at scale hasn’t always been simple.
Traditional implementations often require extensive professional services, custom code, specialized expertise, and lengthy pilots. Once a solution is finally built for a specific process or facility, expanding it to other applications or locations can require even more development and IT resources.
But today’s cloud-based RFID platforms are changing that model by making it possible to deploy RFID in as little as days, scale it up and expand it, and start realizing the full benefits much sooner.
To find out how they do it, I recently sat down with Garrett Gross, a Senior Director at Xemelgo, one of the leading developers of RFID platforms for manufacturers and other businesses.
A Better Alternative to Complex, Custom RFID Projects
As Garrett explained, one of the biggest historical challenges with RFID has been the amount of technology that organizations and systems integrators need to put together before they can start achieving real business value.
There are RFID tags, readers, edge devices, data collection, data filtering, integrations, applications, and back-end systems that all need to be considered. In the past, connecting all of those layers often meant building a highly customized solution from the ground up. However, a new generation of turnkey RFID solutions now eliminate those time-consuming, complex, and custom RFID deployments.
For example, Xemelgo has developed a turnkey software platform that provides real-time RFID tracking and visibility across manufacturing, logistics, and other operations. The platform connects and manages the entire RFID technology stack - from RFID readers, edge devices and data collection to filtering, system integration, and applications.
According to Garrett, RFID deployments that once took months or even years to complete can now be completed in as little as a day and a half or two days in some cases. So, instead of spending months building, piloting and proving that an RFID solution works, organizations can start tracking inventory, assets, orders, and other business-critical items far sooner, and achieve the visibility and operational improvements needed.
Scaling RFID Across Operations
Older RFID solutions were often purpose-built for one process and dependent on local servers, custom applications, and specialized IT support. That makes it difficult to expand the same solution to another facility, another use case, or a global operation. Conversely, cloud-based platforms offer scalability and flexibility when integrating with existing enterprise systems, including ERP, manufacturing, accounting, and other business applications.
That means no custom applications, and freedom from local servers or specialized on-site expertise or support. The same platform supports a small use case with a few handheld RFID readers and users, or an entire global enterprise with hundreds of facilities, thousands of devices, millions of tracked items, and tens of thousands of users.
The result is a much more flexible approach that enables starting with a specific operational challenge and then expanding RFID to additional workflows, facilities, and applications as needs grow. The platform eliminates the need for custom builds and simplifies connection and management of all the required hardware and software, without long, drawn-out piloting and testing.
Turning RFID Visibility into Real Business Results
Garrett shared a great example involving a company that manufactures and repairs mission-critical oil and gas valves. Before implementing RFID, the company had significant work-in-process inventory moving through its facility, and repairing and returning a valve could take approximately seven days. Teams had to locate orders and parts using information that could quickly become outdated as work moved through the facility.
With Zebra RFID technology and Xemelgo, tags are associated with each job, fixed readers automatically track parts as they move through production, and teams can see real-time order locations, status, priorities, and department health through a visual dashboard.
That visibility has helped their operations team clear backlog, reduce inventory costs, and cut turnaround time from approximately seven days to just 24 hours according to the case study.
Instead of spending time searching for work or relying on yesterday’s reports, frontline teams can see what needs attention and act on current information.
That’s where RFID delivers its greatest value: converting real-time visibility into better decisions, faster throughput, greater inventory accuracy, and improved service for customers.
To hear the full discussion and learn more about simplifying RFID deployment and creating faster business value, watch or listen to the full podcast below.
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