InFlow use case
RFID inventory management for goods and consumables
InFlow brings RFID inventory management to finished goods, kanban bins, MRO supplies, lab consumables and consigned stock, the fast-moving items where the count is right on paper and wrong on the shelf. Stock levels and locations stay current, and bins get refilled before anyone runs out.
The problem
The system says you have 400. The line is still waiting.
Stock levels are only as good as the last count. Consumables get taken without a transaction, finished goods end up in the wrong aisle, and consigned stock at a customer site needs someone to drive out and count it before you can bill.
So cycle counts eat labor, safety stock creeps up “just in case”, and people walk the floor looking for material the system says is there.
- Finished goods
- Warehoused inventory, cases and pallets, with lot and batch records
- Consumables
- Kanban bins, MRO supplies, lab and research consumables
- Consigned inventory
- Supplier-owned stock at customer premises, billed on consumption
- Regulated stock
- GxP and 21 CFR Part 11 audit-ready inventory with shelf-life tracking
What changes
What RFID inventory management changes
- Cycle counts at the precision you need: shelf level with a handheld, zone level with fixed or phased-array readers, aisle level with readers on forklifts and AGVs
- Kanban and min-max replenishment triggered by actual consumption, so bins are refilled before they run empty
- Consumables decommissioned automatically when they move to an “out of use” area, with shelf-life reminders
- Consigned stock counted automatically, so billing follows consumption without site visits
InFlow customers report 99.6% average inventory accuracy. With RFID, a warehouse cycle count runs up to 60 times faster than counting by hand, and our warehouse inventory solution has been shown to cut inventory operating cost by up to 92%.
How it works
Capture, understand, act.
- CaptureBarcode or RFID labels printed and encoded on receipt, location markers on shelves, and handhelds, fixed portals or vehicle-mounted readers.
- UnderstandTrapeze updates quantity and location with every read and compares stock against min-max rules and expected consumption.
- ActReplenishment triggers, stock-out and shrinkage alerts, pick lists on Visium Mobile, and inventory published to your ERP or WMS.
Where it runs
The inventory jobs we see most.
Warehouse inventory
Finished and semi-finished goods in private, public and bonded warehouses and distribution centers. Choose shelf-level location with a handheld running Visium Mobile, zone-level with phased-array or fixed readers, or aisle-level with readers on forklifts, pallet jacks and AGVs. Pick orders can start in Visium or in your back-end system, and the handheld walks the picker to the right item.
Consignment inventory
Your stock on a customer’s shelf, still owned by you. Readers at the customer site see what was taken, so replenishment and billing run on actual consumption. That supports pay when sold, pay per period or pay when consigned, and the end-of-month drive to count shelves goes away.
Consumables tracking
Kanban bins, MRO supplies and lab consumables are counted as they move, flagged before they run out and retired automatically when they reach an “out of use” area.
Workflows this use case improves
Part of the InFlow material lifecycle.
Receiving & put away
Label, enroll and store items with location updated automatically.
Workflow details
Stock & cycle counts
Counts at shelf, zone or aisle level, with shrinkage detection.
Workflow details
Production & material planning
Kanban and min-max replenishment with re-order triggers.
Workflow details
Alerts & reports
Exceptions surface themselves.
- Inventory aging & stock status
- Search time for inventory
- Pick rate accuracy
- Re-order trigger
- Shrinkage and stock-out
- Shelf-life reminder
Technology fit
Start with what you have. Add what pays back.
- Barcode & NFCLabels and the handhelds you already own. A practical place to start.
- UHF RFIDBulk counts of shelves, cases and pallets, and portals at storeroom doors and docks.
- Bluetooth LEZone presence for high-value stock and moving carts.
Proof
Consumables made findable.
Applied Materials
Expensive lab components and consumables, such as precious-metal sputtering targets, are tracked with RFID across engineering labs in the Metal Deposition Products group. Targets used to be re-ordered because nobody could find the ones in storage.
60 → 5 minto find a sputtering target, with 99% accuracy
$125Kin unnecessary purchases avoided within three months
By vertical
Where goods and consumables tracking matters most.
Manufacturing & Logistics
Finished goods, kanban consumables, MRO inventory and consigned stock.
Manufacturing & Logistics
Life Sciences & Healthcare
Research consumables, cold-chain materials and audit-ready GxP inventory.
Life Sciences & Healthcare
Questions buyers ask
RFID inventory management FAQ
Do we need RFID on every item?
No. Many teams start with barcodes on the handhelds they already own, then add RFID at dock doors or storerooms where the volumes justify it. The right mix depends on your process, your volumes and your building. Read: what is material intelligence?
How precise is the location: shelf, zone or aisle?
Your choice. Handheld RFID readers running Visium Mobile give shelf-level location. Phased-array or fixed readers give zone-level location. Readers on forklifts, pallet jacks or AGVs report inventory as they drive the aisles.
Does it replace our WMS or ERP?
No, InFlow keeps them accurate. Pick orders can start in your back-end system, and EAI-Bridge publishes counts, movements and consumption to SAP, Oracle, WMS and MES platforms.
Related reading
More on inventory and material visibility
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Lab note
Visium AI: ask your operation anything, in plain English
“Where was forklift 01 last seen?” Visium AI answers from your live data, respects every permission and changes nothing without your approval.…
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Lab note
Autonomous RFID inventory: a robot that counts the warehouse
We connected PAL Robotics’ STOCKBOT, an autonomous robot with an RFID reader, to the InThing platform. It is now running a pilot…
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Lab note
Centimetre-level tracking on Ginosko’s modular construction line
Ginosko builds homes in a factory. With HID ultra-wideband (UWB) tags and anchors feeding InThing, it now sees how crews, stations and…
Part of InFlow
One material tracking application for every material in motion.
Goods and consumables is one of four InFlow use cases, alongside parts and raw materials, shipments and milk runs, and jobs and travelers. All four run on the same InThing platform.
- Related use cases
- Parts & raw materials · Shipments & milk runs
- Platform
- Trapeze · Visium · EAI-Bridge
Find your stock blind spots
Bring your hardest storeroom.
We’ll look at how stock moves today, where counts and reality drift apart, and which capture method fits, starting with the technology you already have.