By Mark Roberti

RFID is a great leveler. Regardless of size or industry, all retailers, manufacturers and distributors face the same challenge: how to decide which RFID applications will likely deliver tangible benefits with which products. Given the cost of hardware, software and integration, it's critical that companies—including those that are mainly trying to meet customers' tagging mandates—find ways to make their investment pay off.

Until recently, the business case for deploying RFID—in particular, Electronic Product Code technologies—in the open supply chain has been based on theory. But a few early adopters have completed pilots and discovered that there are applications that can deliver a return on investment. Each company is different, and so the business case for each is different, but one thing they all agree on is the importance of taking a systematic approach to deploying RFID.

After the benefits from one use case are confirmed, examine how the same infrastructure could be applied to other use cases.

Many of these early adopters are members of EPCglobal's Pilot and Implementation Working Group, which recently published the "EPCglobal RFID Implementation Cookbook," to help companies deploy RFID successfully. The cookbook says there are five phases of EPC adoption companies should follow: investigate, experiment, trial, pilot and deploy. Investigation involves learning the basics of RFID. Experiment covers setting up a lab, purchasing tags and interrogators, and getting some hands-on experience. Then it's time to do a field trial to identify potential business applications—or "use cases" in EPCglobal parlance—and gain practical knowledge in real-world environments. After the field trial, companies need to put out a request for proposal, choose their hardware and software vendors and launch a pilot, to work out any kinks and prepare for the final deployment.