Timeline for Tagging Sellable Units
Sam's Club suppliers that want to save money need to start planning now to meet the tagging mandate. The first steps are virtually cost-free—and could make the difference between achieving benefits and drowning in operation disruptions. RFID Journal has developed a timeline that details what you need to do—and why—and how long it will take.
By Mark Roberti
Apr. 1, 2009—Sam's Club suppliers breathed a collective sigh of relief when the wholesale division of Wal-Mart Stores delayed its plans to track sellable units with radio frequency identification tags based on the Electronic Product Code (EPC) standard. The new deadline for suppliers to tag pallets is 2010, and although Sam's Club hasn't set a date for sellable-unit tagging, sources with insight into the company say it will most likely be early 2011.
Two years down the road, suppliers are thinking—no need to worry about complying now. But two years is just around the corner, say RFID experts and manufacturers that have had experience with RFID-tagging products for supply-chain partners.
"It will take you six to 12 months to examine your business practices and determine how and where to tag sellable units in your operations," says Jamshed Dubash, an independent consultant who led Gillette's EPC RFID efforts for several years. "It will take another six to 12 months to integrate it with your back end and scale it up, which means that if you have to do this by early 2011, you are already behind."
Apr. 1, 2009—Sam's Club suppliers breathed a collective sigh of relief when the wholesale division of Wal-Mart Stores delayed its plans to track sellable units with radio frequency identification tags based on the Electronic Product Code (EPC) standard. The new deadline for suppliers to tag pallets is 2010, and although Sam's Club hasn't set a date for sellable-unit tagging, sources with insight into the company say it will most likely be early 2011.
Two years down the road, suppliers are thinking—no need to worry about complying now. But two years is just around the corner, say RFID experts and manufacturers that have had experience with RFID-tagging products for supply-chain partners.
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"It will take you six to 12 months to examine your business practices and determine how and where to tag sellable units in your operations," says Jamshed Dubash, an independent consultant who led Gillette's EPC RFID efforts for several years. "It will take another six to 12 months to integrate it with your back end and scale it up, which means that if you have to do this by early 2011, you are already behind."
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