AIDC Market Expecting Tremendous Growth Thanks To COVID

The Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) market is set to witness tremendous growth in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and increased demand.  According to the latest AIDC Market Report by Meticulous Research, a global syndicated research organisation, the AIDC market is set to reach $103.47 billion by 2027 with COVID-19 Impact, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9.8 per cent from 2020.

According to the report, the growth of the automatic identification and data capture market is mainly attributed to the increasing need for AIDC technologies to eliminate manual data entry and associated errors, growing government legislation on the usage of AIDC technologies, expanding e-commerce industry, and technological advancements in AIDC technologies. In addition, the increasing adoption of AIDC-enabled devices, particularly in the healthcare and the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) sector, has been witnessing rapid growth in the automatic identification and data capture market.

Automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) – also known as auto-ID – is a term used to group together several connected technologies, which identify products, collect data and enter it into a computer system. These technologies include sensors, barcodes, QR codes, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Real-time Locating Systems (RTLS), voice recognition, magnetic stripes, optical character recognition (OCR), and beacons.

AIDC technologies comprise three principal components namely data encoding – where alphanumeric characters are translated into a form that can be read by machine; machine scanning – a scanner reads the encoded data and converts the data into electric signals, and data decoding – electrical signals are transformed into plain text or any format.

Major players in this industry include Honeywell, NEC Corporation, and Toshiba Tec Corporation, among others. Notably, Honeywell’s Productivity Solutions and Services business create mobile computers, printers, and data capture devices that improve worker productivity in thousands of companies of all sizes around the world. Honeywell helped pioneer the barcode scanning market in the 1970s, and over the years its new innovations have helped retailers, distribution centers, transportation and logistics, and healthcare organizations achieve significant improvements in efficiency, speed, and accuracy in their operations, as evident from the following customer testimonials:

“We would like to take this opportunity to recommend the Honeywell printers that you supplied to our hospital. Previously, the label printers that we were using were not industrial-grade and would be prone to frequent breakdowns which would frustrate our users and disrupt our business processes which would ultimately affect our customer experience. We are glad to report that these issues have been addressed by the printers you supplied”, said Shiraz Dadar, Head of ICT Department, M.P. Shah Hospital.

Teddy Salano, Head of Infrastructure at Freight Forwarders Solutions (FFS), said, We have now been using Honeywell products in some shape or form for three years.  The overall experience has been good, with the label printers having served us for that duration with only a print head failure where a replacement part was promptly issued. The EDA51 devices have greatly improved efficiency due to the speed of the scanners during general operations and also battery capacity that allows our operators to stay on the task for longer”.

On his part, Julius Nakhungu, Head of Infrastructure at Dayliff said “Honeywell has helped our warehouse and distribution centres to revolutionise the way we operate and serve our customers. The handheld devices are state of the art and robust for the purpose. The printers are also great and serve our printing requirements very well”.

The benefits of AIDC cannot be gainsaid. Notably, AIDC reduces theft, contamination, counterfeiting, and piracy, offering high levels of security and accountability. Used alongside GPS and other sensors and data loggers, auto-ID is being used increasingly to track products and monitor weather conditions.

Notable advantages are found in the area of a product recall, where auto-ID enables manufacturers to know where items are in the supply chain. It also encourages standardisation as supply chain partners can share product data information in real-time via databases. This gives improved accuracy in shipping, receiving, orders and inventory.

Significantly. AIDC has enabled retailers to downsize bricks-and-mortar stores. If follows that continuous shelf inventory and frequent replenishments mean shelf space can be substantially cut. Shamir Jaffer, Regional Sales Manager, Honeywell, said, “This technology helps businesses to attain better efficiency, accountability, and traceability, reducing manhours and eliminating human errors associated with manual operations. The market is ripe for this technology and we hope to grow more business in the next two years”.

The technology has been used in supply chains for at least 20 years, removing tracking and tracing limitations and giving IT systems the precise identity and location of each physical item in a supply chain.  Based on end-user, the transportation and logistics sector is projected to account for the largest share of the overall automatic identification and data capture market in 2021.