There's No Packaged Answer for RFID

By Pat King

Level 2 Implementations: Assign a Leader
At the next level of need, there may or may not be a mandate to add RFID to the product or product packaging, but the number of affected SKUs is significant. Here is the first case where a cross-functional team needs to be formed with a clear leader. The selected leader does not need to come from a particular discipline. Rather, the leader needs to lead. This may sound naïve, but the fact is that a good leader possesses enough intellectual curiosity to surface and address any key issues while exhibiting the essential ability to be action-oriented and not overly adverse to risk.

This cross-functional team can include third-party consultants or contractors, provided they play no role in the final decision process. A leader never delegates to a third-party solution provider in strategic matters. The worst thing a company can do is to assign a leader either because he is perceived to be astute (but lacks leadership skills), or to assign a contractor regardless of such skills as acuity and leadership.

This middle level is, perhaps, the most difficult to lead. That's because it lacks the strategic aspects of the next highest level but, conversely, is critical enough that an incorrect decision is the most costly in terms of product performance, warranty, reliability, aesthetics and even market share.

For example, take the case of a recent supply chain pilot where one of the products the company needed to be tagged required a spacer under the tag. This is often the case when tagging products made of metal, liquid or carbon-loaded plastic. Since only one of the many SKUs had such a need, the team elected to ignore the fact that merely placing a spacer under an existing tag created an ugly solution that put the tag at risk—it was likely to be knocked off at any time, and it interfered with stacking and warehousing.

In this middle level, the 80:20 rule applies, and the first process must be a triage. The team must decide which 80 percent are standard (similar to Level 1), to which 20 percent of the resources will be applied; the other 20 percent of the products will have the 80 percent of resources applied. The first group—80 percent of products and 20 percent of resources—mirrors the process outlined above. The second group mirrors the process used for Level 3 implementations, described below.