7 Reasons to Act Now
If you make, move or sell products, you will need to deploy RFID at some point. What you do—or don't do—today could mean the difference between saving millions of dollars each year and wasting a fortune on a bundled implementation.
By Mark Roberti
Sept. 1, 2003—Few opportunities come without risk, and radio frequency identification is no exception. Yes, it has the potential to dramatically improve supply chain efficiencies, cut costs and reduce out-of-stocks. But there are still many questions surrounding the technology. Will the hardware you buy today be obsolete in a year? How long will it take for tag and reader prices to drop? Is the technology mature enough to deliver highly accurate information under real-world conditions?
These are important questions, and in a perfect world, you'd have all the answers before making a deployment decision. But any company that makes, moves or sells products—and wants to remain competitive in tomorrow's market-needs to take steps today to plan for an RFID deployment.
If you're one of Wal-Mart's many suppliers, you have little choice but to embrace RFID technology. The retailer is requiring its top 100 suppliers to begin, in January 2005, putting RFID tags carrying Electronic Product Codes on the cases and pallets that they ship to its distribution centers and stores. The rest of its suppliers will have to tag shipments by the end of 2006.
Sept. 1, 2003—Few opportunities come without risk, and radio frequency identification is no exception. Yes, it has the potential to dramatically improve supply chain efficiencies, cut costs and reduce out-of-stocks. But there are still many questions surrounding the technology. Will the hardware you buy today be obsolete in a year? How long will it take for tag and reader prices to drop? Is the technology mature enough to deliver highly accurate information under real-world conditions?
These are important questions, and in a perfect world, you'd have all the answers before making a deployment decision. But any company that makes, moves or sells products—and wants to remain competitive in tomorrow's market-needs to take steps today to plan for an RFID deployment.
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