IBM Global Business Services

RFID Solution

Your People and Assets - for Asset Tracking

Visible, Safe and Secure

 IBM’s leadership in RFID technologies now extends to a solution
that can bolster personnel safety and security by making it much
easier to know where employees, visitors and key physical
resources are located.

Highlights
 Automatically identify, locate and account for workers, contractors and visitors
in hazardous areas
 Strengthen safety and security facility-wide by
identifying and locating personnel in emergencies
 Tighten access control for secured areas
 Locate high-value equipment and strategic production materials
 Integrate information with security, human resources and other systems

The chemical and petroleum industries are steadfast in their
commitment to the safety of their personnel and the efficiency
of their operations. And yet these facilities often encompass
large areas, multiple levels and complex layouts. Workers, con-
tractors and visitors are often surrounded by highly flammable,
corrosive or other potentially dangerous materials. In emer-
gency or safety drill situations, it can be exceedingly difficult to
quickly learn who has been evacuated, who is still missing and
where the missing persons were last seen. While this critical
information is gathered, rapid response can be delayed, and
incorrect and potentially time-consuming decisions made in di-
recting rescue and accountability activities.
Even under routine operating conditions, costly, critical equip-
ment and materials can all too easily be lost or misplaced.
Efficiency can drop and needless resources spent finding or
replacing the needed items.
A comprehensive solution
To address these issues, IBM has developed a solution com-
posed of hardware, software and services that can provide your
facility with a customized way to improve personnel safety and
security in critical areas –while also helping you increase the
productivity of high-value capital assets and materials.
IBM’s solution is based on advanced radio frequency identifica-
tion (RFID) technology, an area that IBM helped develop and
one in which we continue to be a worldwide leader. Although
designed initially for petroleum and chemical sites, this solu-
tion can also be used effectively in other potentially hazardous,
high-security or complex facilities, such as healthcare facilities,
manufacturing plants, pulp and paper mills.
This new solution – the IBM RFID Solution for asset tracking,
location awareness and safety for chemical and petroleum
industries – uses sophisticated identification badges and asset
tags to meet your facilities’ unique safety, security and asset-
location needs. For safety and security applications, employees,
contractors and visitors to hazardous or secure areas of your
sites can be provided with a badge containing an integrated
RFID transponder. To constantly monitor the location of key
tools, equipment and materials, an RFID tag can be affixed to
the assets.
A network of receivers throughout the site picks up the unique
signal transmitted by each specially tagged ID badge or asset
tag. Areas where privacy issues outweigh safety concerns can
be screened from monitoring. A computer then monitors the
exact location of the tag and provides identification and loca-
tion information to the dashboard, as well as identifies events
that deserve attention by facility personnel. Watching a display
showing a site plan of your facility, your safety team can know
the exact location of each person wearing a “location aware”
badge. Likewise, production personnel can track the location of
key assets throughout the monitored areas of the facility.
Safety first
Traditional methods of managing access and accounting for the
location of personnel in hazardous or secure areas are often
difficult to manage, prone to human error and neglect, and slow


to yield critical information. Regulatory bodies have become
involved and are stepping up demands for facility managers to
find better ways of addressing the problem.
With IBM’s solution, you can know which approved ID badges
are in a problem area and which are not. Should an emergency
take place, rescue personnel not only can be directed to iso-
lated parties more quickly, but the locations of the rescuers and
plant service personnel themselves can be tracked in real time.
Mobile receivers can provide rescuers with both historic and
real-time information that can help them avoid danger, or find
personnel and lead them to safety.
You can also use IBM’s solution to immediately detect when a
person carrying an unauthorized identification badge enters a
critical area or fails to leave. The appropriate parties can then
be immediately alerted.
Built-in flexibility
Different areas of your facility may need different levels of safety
and security resources at different times, so IBM makes it easy
to modify the solution accordingly. The solution coverage zones
can be redrawn or expanded as your needs change.
In addition, the IBM solution can be integrated with human
resources and other enterprise solutions to automatically
update personnel certifications, access authorizations and
other security information being managed elsewhere in other
business systems.
Companies can also monitor the location and
utilization of high-value equipment and
materials, thereby reducing capital and operating
expenses while improving operational efficiency.
Beyond safety and security
IBM’s location awareness and safety solution can enable you to
remotely track the location of many different kinds of high-value
assets. Because you can flexibly manage your monitored areas,
you can attach RFID tags to critical tools, machinery, materials
and other items as your processes and priorities change. You
can gauge where and how often particular assets are being
used, thereby acquiring a valuable new tool to use in managing
capital and operating expenditures to your best advantage.
By making it easier to locate and redeploy critical assets, the
IBM solution can also improve the scheduling and efficiency
of turnarounds and routine maintenance. Tools and equipment
are quickly accounted for; their mobility can be managed within
areas of proximity to key elements of your physical plant, your
rolling stock or trained maintenance and security personnel.
Tools and instruments can be quickly found and deployed to
meet planned as well as unexpected requirements.
Plant safety rule compliance can be more effectively managed,
too. For example, you would no longer have to rely on equip-
ment location information provided by manual tracking process-
es and filtered through layers of paperwork. Your plant main-
tenance, regulatory and security officers would have real-time
visibility to location and availability of equipment and trained
personnel during regular operating conditions as well as during
emergency situations.
IBM builds customized solutions for clients
around proven components; flexible, robust
infrastructure; and comprehensive planning,
design, implementation and support services.
Simplifying implementation
To help you identify your needs, plan your solution and implement
it on schedule with minimal disruption, IBM consultants will work
closely with you and your staff every step of the way. Capitalizing
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2006
on our experience from similar engagements, we’ll focus on topics
IBM Global Services
such as: Route 100
• Current employee safety, security, human resources and Somers, NY 10589
U.S.A.
asset-tracking systems
Produced in the United States of America
• Privacy issues – i.e., zones that should be screened from monitoring 08-06
• The unique layout of your facilities All Rights Reserved

• On-site emergency resources IBM and the IBM logo are trademarks or registered
trademarks of International Business Machines
• Technology integration needs and opportunities – for example, the exis- Corporation in the United States, other countries
tence of any human resources databases available to automatically feed or both.

employee data into the solution Other company, product and service names may
be trademarks or service marks of others.
Using this and other background information, IBM and our
References in this publication to IBM products or
Business Partners will tailor a solution to integrate with your ex- services do not imply that IBM intends to make
isting systems, infrastructure and business processes, and then them available in all countries in which
IBM operates.
assist you through the entire implementation process –
arranging for and managing installation, training personnel in
BCB00264-USEN-00
using RFID, and handling virtually all other aspects of your asset
tracking system deployment and startup.

For more information

For more information about IBM Global Business Services and
RFID solutions for the Chemical and Petroleum industries contact
your IBM representative or visit:

ibm.com/bcs/petroleum

IBM’s solution can maintain the identity and real-time location of personnel to help you
quickly account for them as they work in potentially hazardous areas and, if necessary,
direct faster and more effective emergency response or rescue efforts.