For the past four years, Julio Cesar Lestido S.A., the official Uruguayan importer of cars and trucks manufactured by the Volkswagen Group, has been employing passive ultrahigh-frequency RFID tags to track the metal tools it uses to maintain vehicles. The company says that it is now developing a plan to utilize the technology to record each vehicle's life history, including its date of import and sales information, as well as all maintenance provided.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) is deploying a radio frequency identification technology that enables its own laboratory testing of samples from job sites, as well as inspections of precast concrete materials at the sites of suppliers, to be captured and then managed electronically.

The RFID market will increase from $6.98bn in 2012 to $7.88bn, and will reach $23.4bn in 2020, according to a RFID sector survey by IDTechEx Research.

When the molds used to manufacture aluminum engine blocks are built, visibility into the entire assembly process can help ensure that any defects are caught before the finished block is shipped to a customer. With that in mind, automotive components manufacturer Nemak has automated its work-in-process (WIP) tracking, with a radio frequency identification system supplied by Balluff Inc. that writes sensor data from automation equipment to ensure that any defects in the mold are caught before molten aluminum is poured into it.

Equipment Management Service and Repair (EMSAR), a company that services and repairs health-care and medical-services equipment for clients nationwide, is providing an RFID-based solution developed by Silent Partner Technologies (SPT) for its clients to track its assets' locations.