Models of Teamwork
Collaboration is the key to getting RFID's benefits, but there's no one right way to work with supply chain partners on an RFID project. Here are three models that can work in many industries.
By Mark Roberti
Collaboration is easy to talk about and hard to do. Companies have their own agendas and their own competitive issues that makes them reluctant to share information with business partners and work with them to achieve mutual benefits. But early adopters of the Electronic Product Code (EPC) technology understand that they need to work with each other to achieve many of the much-heralded benefits it offers.
During the past year, many companies began working together on pilot projects to begin to understand and address the issues surrounding the deployment of EPC systems. These efforts can serve as models for companies looking to work together within particular industries to achieve benefits across the entire supply chain. Broadly speaking the models fall into three broad categories described below. Which one is right for a particular company will depend on the industry that company is in, the level of adoption within that industry and the assertiveness of third parties, such as trade organizations, within that industry.
One-to-One Collaboration
When an industry is dominated by one or a few major companies, these so-called channel masters can drive collaboration. Boeing and Airbus are cooperating to establish standards for tagging major airplane parts within the airplane manufacturing industry. These two companies control the entire market for large commercial jets and share many of the same suppliers. Both plan to run pilots with their suppliers and then compare what they’ve learned to set standards for data sharing and establish procedures for common business processes, such as shipping and receiving.
Wal-Mart has been driving adoption within the mass-merchandise retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG) industries. The press generally portrays Wal-Mart as a heavyweight forcing companies to use RFID technology against their will. It’s true that Wal-Mart has mandated RFID tagging as a condition of doing business with the retailer, but the effort is more collaborative than many news stories suggest.
Collaboration is easy to talk about and hard to do. Companies have their own agendas and their own competitive issues that makes them reluctant to share information with business partners and work with them to achieve mutual benefits. But early adopters of the Electronic Product Code (EPC) technology understand that they need to work with each other to achieve many of the much-heralded benefits it offers.
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During the past year, many companies began working together on pilot projects to begin to understand and address the issues surrounding the deployment of EPC systems. These efforts can serve as models for companies looking to work together within particular industries to achieve benefits across the entire supply chain. Broadly speaking the models fall into three broad categories described below. Which one is right for a particular company will depend on the industry that company is in, the level of adoption within that industry and the assertiveness of third parties, such as trade organizations, within that industry.
One-to-One Collaboration
When an industry is dominated by one or a few major companies, these so-called channel masters can drive collaboration. Boeing and Airbus are cooperating to establish standards for tagging major airplane parts within the airplane manufacturing industry. These two companies control the entire market for large commercial jets and share many of the same suppliers. Both plan to run pilots with their suppliers and then compare what they’ve learned to set standards for data sharing and establish procedures for common business processes, such as shipping and receiving.
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Wal-Mart has been driving adoption within the mass-merchandise retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG) industries. The press generally portrays Wal-Mart as a heavyweight forcing companies to use RFID technology against their will. It’s true that Wal-Mart has mandated RFID tagging as a condition of doing business with the retailer, but the effort is more collaborative than many news stories suggest.
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