A method and apparatus for tracking items automatically is described. A passive RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) tag is used with a material tracking system capable of real-time pinpoint location and identification of thousands of items in production and storage areas. Passive RFID tags are attached to the item to be tracked, remote sensing antennas are placed at each remote location to be monitored, interrogators with several antenna inputs are connected to the sensing antennas to multiplex the antenna signals, and a host computer communicates with the interrogators to determine item locations to an exacting measure.