Launch and Learn, Say Early Adopters

"More ROI transparency is needed" for greater RFID adoption to occur, said Reik Read, senior research analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co., a financial services company.

Tom Pizzuto, director of RFID technologies at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, said that in addition to complying with retail mandates, his firm has spent millions in other RFID applications, including shop-floor automation process improvements and the retrofitting of a bottling facility in Puerto Rico to enable inline RFID-tagging of a half-million bottles. Wyeth will integrate RFID at the item level in its efforts to comply with electronic-pedigree laws that have passed in Florida and California.

Pizzuto encouraged attendees to begin their RFID deployments by forming a cross-functional team to study both the technology and the company's business problems such technology could be used to address. "We don't know what we don't know," he said. "As we work through the issues, we'll see more use cases and deploy RFID when and where appropriate."

The company wants to use RFID to bolster security-based initiatives designed to protect its supply chain, and its employees who handle or transport hazardous products—possibly by integrating RFID into personnel badges, and into containers carrying the materials. "Improving safety is a big player for us," says Dave Asiala, Dow's shared-services IT director. But David Kepler, Dow’s CIO. noted that the chemical-products manufacturer must also balance the benefits of integrating RFID into personnel ID cards with privacy concerns such a practice could raise.

Wal-Mart's Walton said the retail giant is set to reach its next milestone of 1,000 RFID-enabled stores and distribution centers by next year, when it will have its top 600 suppliers under its tagging mandate. She said Wal-Mart is exploring new ways to use RFID inside its stores and DCs, and that it is prototyping wearable devices containing RFID readers. The devices would read tags on cases as workers unloaded them from tractor trailers, instructing them as to where to direct each case. For instance, by cross-referencing a tag's ID with a store inventory system, the device could then instruct a worker to direct a case to the sales floor right away, in order to correct or prevent an out-of-stock situation.