Wal-Mart Goes International
Smart retailers and suppliers around the world will be watching Wal-Mart's next moves.
By Mark Roberti
Aug. 1, 2006—"This is absolutely a global directive for Wal-Mart."
That sentence was spoken back in June 2003 by Linda Dillman, then CIO of Wal-Mart, when she announced that Wal-Mart would require its top 100 suppliers to begin tagging pallets and cases in January 2005. Dillman indicated that Wal-Mart would quickly move to implement Electronic Product Code technology in Europe and then in the rest of its international operations.
Wal-Mart has not moved aggressively on the international front. One reason, perhaps, is that the first-generation EPC tags and interrogators didn't perform well in Europe. But in June, Wal-Mart announced plans for its first RFID trial outside the United States-albeit closer to home, in Canada, where the RF regulations and supply chain operations are similar to those in the United States.
Aug. 1, 2006—"This is absolutely a global directive for Wal-Mart."
That sentence was spoken back in June 2003 by Linda Dillman, then CIO of Wal-Mart, when she announced that Wal-Mart would require its top 100 suppliers to begin tagging pallets and cases in January 2005. Dillman indicated that Wal-Mart would quickly move to implement Electronic Product Code technology in Europe and then in the rest of its international operations.
Wal-Mart has not moved aggressively on the international front. One reason, perhaps, is that the first-generation EPC tags and interrogators didn't perform well in Europe. But in June, Wal-Mart announced plans for its first RFID trial outside the United States-albeit closer to home, in Canada, where the RF regulations and supply chain operations are similar to those in the United States.
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