If you can't chip the guy, chip the supply!
Where does the totalitarianism end the selling of such as a good thing end, readers?
Who cares if a guy forgets a tool.
The world will continue, you know!
"RFID-equipped pickups won't let tools go missing" by Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff | February 11, 2008
Ford Motor Co. is teaming up with ThingMagic Inc., of Cambridge, to help ensure that construction workers always carry the right tools for the job.
The system they're developing, called Tool Link, will feature personal computers in Ford's popular F-series pickup trucks. A radio frequency identification (RFID) tag system will let a truck automatically take inventory of the tools it's carrying.
"It's as simple as turning on your ignition," said Ravi Pappu, head of the advanced development group at ThingMagic, which designs RFID tracking equipment.
An RFID device is a microchip with an antenna. Each chip costs as little as a few cents and contains a unique serial number. Manufacturers and retailers attach RFID chips to cartons or pallets of merchandise, then put RFID readers at key locations, such as loading docks and conveyor belts. The reader transmits radio waves which activate the RFID chips, causing each chip to transmit its ID number. The reader sends this number to an inventory control computer, which now knows the location of each package.
No more MISSING TOOLS, either, right?
You know, missing wrenches and screwdrivers that corporations have to replace from time to time.
Ford worked with ThingMagic and DeWalt Industrial Tools Inc., of Baltimore, to apply the technology to pickup trucks. Contractors and construction workers are among the biggest buyers of Ford's F-series trucks. Indeed, it's Ford's most popular line. The company sold more than 690,000 of them last year, with a large percentage bought by skilled trades people or the companies that employ them.
Researchers at Ford found that many F-series truck operators lose time and money by arriving at a worksite with the wrong tools, or by leaving tools behind once a job is done.
"It was a case of following customers and seeing the lost productivity that resulted when they didn't have a tool," said Bill Frykman, product and business development manager for Ford Work Solutions.
Ford reached out to ThingMagic and DeWalt, which already makes wireless security systems for preventing theft of tools and equipment at construction sites. The Tool Link system isn't a burglar alarm, but a system that instantly recognizes every tool carried in the truck.
Each Tool Link-equipped truck comes with 50 RFID tags that have been "ruggedized" to withstand harsh treatment. The customer glues a tag to each tool.
The truck contains an onboard computer, built by a subsidiary of the Italian carmaker Fiat, that's equipped with an automotive version of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system. The truck bed also contains a ThingMagic-designed reader to detect RFID chips.
Using a touch screen or a wireless keyboard, a user can create a tool inventory for the truck by scanning in each tagged tool and then typing in a description, such as "hammer" or "power drill." From then on, the truck will automatically scan itself at start-up to see which tools are present. The inventory appears on the dashboard computer screen. "There will be a playlist, much like the playlist on your iPod," Frykman said.
Well whoop-de-doo!
When are you going to get sick of the police state, readers?
And as with an iPod, the same truck can serve up multiple playlists. If a bricklayer uses the truck on Monday, he can check the inventory of bricklayer's tools. If a plasterer uses it on Tuesday, and a plumber on Wednesday, they can each have their own tool inventory.
Ford won't say how much Tool Link will cost. The company will introduce it during the 2009 model year as an option for F-series pickups and E-series vans, as well as a new line of "Transit Connect" miniature cargo delivery vans."
Cost? Who cares when you are enslaving people?
