Whether in the construction industry, in furniture making, for machine tools or food packaging – steel or iron are indispensable in our everyday lives and demand is growing. And as things stand at present, fossil fuels are still required for their production. This is because coal is an essential material in the steel and iron production process. A special form of coal known as “coking coal” or “metallurgical coal” is used here. Coking coal is mainly found in Canada, Australia and the US, where it is mined in large pits.

As demand for coal increases, so does the workload in mines. One way to increase productivity in multi-layered operations such as a mine is to use an RTLS. A tracking solution can help improve operational processes and detect bottlenecks, especially in large areas. A lot of time can be saved simply by assigning work orders to the closest employee, so that as little distance as possible has to be covered between two work orders.

In addition to saving walk and search time through asset tracking in coal mining, real-time location of tools or machines helps to prevent theft or loss. Just the fact that tools are used above and below ground and in areas covering several thousand square kilometers means that things can get lost, and searching for them is usually very time-consuming. To compensate for these losses, mining companies frequently acquire a surplus of expensive equipment. This way, every piece of equipment is at hand at the right time. But this also quickly leads to misinvestments in the millions. If machines, tools or other assets can be located in real-time over the entire area of a mining site, the tools are at hand when they are needed. But without equipment overhang and immense additional costs.

The situation is similar with maintenance of mining machines. Whether dump trucks, dozers or excavators – machines used in mining are exposed to harsh environmental conditions and must work reliably. Predictive maintenance is the key to avoid breakdowns and extend the life cycle of expensive machines. With the help of special tags that, in addition to pure location data, also have integrated temperature, […]

It has now been over 2.5 years since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a global pandemic in March 2020. For a long time, therefore, public life was almost at a standstill and most people spent a lot of time at home. Much that originally took place in presence suddenly existed – if at all – only in a digital way and events, such as soccer matches, took place in front of empty stands.

One might now assume that the ghost games have increased the number of viewers in front of their TV screens at home. But the opposite is the case. Viewing figures in Germany for soccer matches – whether in the Bundesliga or international games – fell significantly during the corona pandemic. This also has an impact on fan engagement. It is therefore all the more important for soccer clubs to bring fans back to the stadium. But how can this be achieved when sports are now competing with streaming providers such as Netflix, people’s habits have changed as a result of the pandemic, and the sofa is so much more comfortable than a standing or, in the best case, sitting position in the stadium?

Fan experience is key

What actually motivates fans to watch sporting events like soccer matches live in the stadium? The decisive factor is the experience gained on site: Watching a game or a competition together with other fans, cheering or shaking together – that’s what unites people. The good atmosphere in the stadium, the exchange with like-minded people, an appealing stadium design and the opportunity to pass the time at kiosks or fan stores during breaks. These are all factors that help to create a positive fan experience.

And the more positive this fan experience is, the more likely it is that fans will come back. Not only that, but they are likely to tell others about their positive experience or even motivate others to come along on their next visit.

Improving fan experience with location-based services

In addition […]

It is no coincidence that large construction projects often have the reputation of exceeding every previously set budget and usually taking much longer than planned. On the one hand, construction projects are becoming more and more complex with increasingly tight schedules, but at the same time the construction industry is one of the sectors in which digital transformation is still in its infancy, especially regarding project and process management.

Yet a large construction site is in many ways like a temporary industrial enterprise. Numerous assets of different sizes are used in a limited space to produce a large “(end) product”. As in classic production facilities, it makes sense to use digital asset management tools here as well. In this way, inefficiencies and information losses (so-called bottlenecks) that lead to cost overruns, schedule delays and a general project risk can be avoided.

How to avoid unnecessary search times at construction sites

Often the main problem is not knowing where the damn thing you are looking for is. Be it material, tools or a machine. So a typical case of lost productivity and resources due to unnecessary search time and potential loss of material and equipment. This is where Real Time Location Services in the broader sense and Asset Tracking Systems in the narrower sense come into play and provide visibility and transparency.

Of course, the lifecycle of a construction site is somewhat different from that of a static production plant. While industrial companies usually only cover indoor areas with tracking solutions, the tracking system of a construction site has to remain flexible and “grow” with it, so to speak, from outdoor to primarily indoor tracking. This makes it an ideal location for an indoor/outdoor combination solution with GPS & Bluetooth (BLE), in which data is transmitted via LoRa antenna.

While the outdoor theme is covered during the entire construction phase via GPS tracking, the BLE installation virtually grows with the building. The mobile assets that are to be tracked are equipped with multi-mode trackers. These then calculate their position either via GPS or – as soon as the building shell is closed – based on BLE signals […]

Simplifying processes and saving resources are now more than ever the major topics of digitization in the healthcare sector. However, the time and financial effort that seems necessary is causing many long overdue projects to fall further and further behind schedule.

That’s why Favendo and SECANDA have teamed up to offer an effective centralized solution for authorization management, identification and localization from a single source, which improves processes in everyday hospital life, saves time and money, and makes day-to-day work easier for everyone involved.

At the heart of the solution is a simple implementation process with an API that bundles various applications and provides user-friendly features.

These are the benefits offered by the joint digital solution for clinics:

Increase security

With the SECANDA system, each person receives a single ID to identify themselves anywhere in the system using the same app or smart card. One medium for payment transactions, time and attendance, identification, as well as for unlocking and locking. This enables automated data management while reducing security gaps. Authorization management happens in real time for all apps, regardless of employee badge (or other medium).

Reduce search times

Medical asset tracking with a Real Time Location System (RTLS) from Favendo helps clinicians to locate medical equipment as quickly as possible. This is not only beneficial in medical emergencies for better patient care, but also helps you save resources and avoid “safety purchases” for expensive equipment.

Improve orientation

Hospitals are usually complex multi-level buildings and often the wards are even spread over several buildings. This poses challenges for visitors and patients looking for their rooms or treatment rooms, but quite possibly also for staff or external service providers, such as maintenance and cleaning companies. To counteract this, Favendo offers a Bluetooth-based indoor navigation that helps everyone find the right way quickly. If an infrastructure with Bluetooth-enabled WLAN access points is already in place, these can be used for the navigation solution, thus saving costs for the hardware infrastructure.

Optimize processes

Thanks to the SECANDA software solution, staff, […]

There are countless use cases for location or tracking solutions – both indoor and outdoor. Finding the right technology for the respective use case is a very complex task: What are the wishes and current requirements for the technology, and which could arise in the future? Once these points have been clarified, the next step is to compare technologies.

First of all, it is often a mistake to confuse technology and methodology, or to lump the terms together. For example, Bluetooth, WiFi or GPS are (radio) technologies used for positioning, while RSSI or AoA are the methods used to determine a location.

Just like use cases, there are also countless location technologies that work with specific methods. To go into all of them in depth would definitely go beyond the scope of this article and would require an enormous breadth of expert knowledge that Favendo alone cannot cover. Of course, we have tested various solutions over the past 10 years and learned from our customers’ experiences, but we still don’t know everything 😊. Therefore, in this article we limit ourselves to the technologies and methods that Favendo uses for RTLS solutions. Of course, this implies that this comparison is neither complete nor completely neutral. Nevertheless, we hope that the overview will help a little in the decision-making process or inspire you to discuss internally – or, of course, directly with us.

BLE (RSSI)

Bluetooth Low Energy with the RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) method is the hobbyhorse of Favendo’s positioning and navigation solutions. BLE RSSI works with beaconing, which means that the mobile beacons transmit Bluetooth signals and corresponding fixed trackers measure the received signal strength to locate the tagged object.

In this way, an accuracy of 3-5 m can be achieved with indoor positioning and precise planning of the infrastructure. We also call this room-accurate positioning. With BLE RSSI, both tracking and navigation solutions can be implemented in real time. The big advantage is that the infrastructure costs and TCO of a BLE RSSI solution are very low.

BLE (AoA)

Like BLE […]

Swipe right – it’s a match! Tinder is one of the largest dating apps in the world. In the first quarter of 2022, user numbers amounted to over 10 million paying users (statista, May 2022) – and the trend is rising.

Okay, but what exactly does Tinder have to do with asset management and especially with Favendo? Tinder is the perfect example to explain, close to everyday life, what has to happen in the background of a tracking solution to find exactly the asset you are looking for. But let’s start at the beginning:

Asset Management in a production environment

Let’s assume that in a production environment, containers with manufactured workpieces should be located within the production line as well as in the warehouse in order to reduce search times and create more transparent production processes. This requires an RTLS. Depending on the size of the premises, the environmental conditions and also the desired accuracy, different technologies and solutions come into play for the RTLS.

Together with the customer, Favendo evaluates in each individual case which solution is best suited to the specific scenario. Once a solution has been chosen, the next step is to plan and install the static hardware on site. In the end, the moving assets also need to be provided with hardware, the tags. And here we are again with Tinder and the matching process. Because obviously, the moving assets, in this case the multiple containers for workpieces, need to be “married” to the tags attached to them. Namely, in such a way that they are uniquely identifiable.

Example: The tag with the “ID 456” is attached to the “Container 123”. This physical connection must of course also be reflected on the software side. Thus, employees searching for “container 123” will receive the location of the tag with the “ID 456” from the RTLS and will be able to find the asset they are looking for.

This matching process between asset and tag is a key element for asset tracking solutions. If there is any confusion here, the […]

Climate crisis, energy crisis, economic crisis. Companies of all sizes are increasingly dependent on adapting their work processes and corporate strategies to current developments on the global market in such a way that they remain economically viable and at the same time become fit for the future. Sustainability was, is and will remain a decisive factor, which also includes a well-thought-out digital transformation strategy.

Industry 4.0 has become a popular buzzword in this context, but processes often remain sluggish and fall by the wayside in the daily struggle for budgets and priorities. Real-time location services such as asset tracking, however, could go a long way toward optimizing processes for the benefit of all involved and thus making them more efficient.

ESG is receiving more and more attention by investors

After all, criteria for how companies are evaluated by potential investors, for example, are increasingly being applied where sustainability comes into play. In fact, in addition to conventional rating agencies that focus solely on a company’s financial status, there are now also sustainability rating agencies whose criteria reflect the dimensions of “Environmental – Social – Governance” (ESG for short).

Depending on the industry in which a company operates, environmental, social and governance factors are given different weightings. Whereas an automotive supplier tends to focus on the environment, a service provider is more likely to emphasize social aspects.

Above all, manufacturing companies of all kinds can benefit from an RTLS system tailored to their needs from an environmental perspective. In a first step, a successful RTLS implementation also includes a critical review of the current processes and, in case of doubt, their adaptation. In the long run, nothing makes less sense than setting up an asset tracking system that is detached from – or based on inconsistent – process chains.

In a second step, asset tracking makes production processes and machine utilization transparent. This transparency enables more efficient use of energy and raw materials – more important today than ever before – and, as a result, more environmentally compatible production. In this way, overproduction of semi-finished products or excess stocks of […]