Military Marches Toward Adoption
The U.S. Department of Defense provides more details about its RFID tagging requirements, its initial implementations and the benefits it expects to achieve from RFID.
By Mark Roberti
April 12, 2004—Last week, at the Washington Hilton, in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Department of Defense held its second industry summit to brief its suppliers and solicit feedback on its plans to use passive RFID tags to track pallets, cases and high-value items in its complex supply chain. Some 700 people crowded into a semi-circular room to hear those in charge of the military's RFID efforts explain the DOD's goals and get an update on its progress since the last meeting in December.
Alan Estevez, the assistant deputy undersecretary of defense for supply chain integration, hosted the gathering. Estevez explained that RFID is part of the DOD's move toward what he called knowledge-enabled logistics. "When you are implementing knowledge-enabled logistics, you need to know what you have, and you need to know where it," he said. "We view RFID as a tool to get us there. You may have heard of sense and respond logistics. RFID gives the sense to sense and respond."
In his brief remarks, Estevez pointed out that when Wal-Mart has an out-of-stock situation, it loses a sale, but when the military is unable to get goods to soldiers in the field, they are unable to do their job. "We take this very seriously," he said. "We see [RFID] as a tool that will enable us to provide the support to our forces in the field that they deserve."
April 12, 2004—Last week, at the Washington Hilton, in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Department of Defense held its second industry summit to brief its suppliers and solicit feedback on its plans to use passive RFID tags to track pallets, cases and high-value items in its complex supply chain. Some 700 people crowded into a semi-circular room to hear those in charge of the military's RFID efforts explain the DOD's goals and get an update on its progress since the last meeting in December.
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| Today, MREs arrive in Iraq without RFID tags |
Alan Estevez, the assistant deputy undersecretary of defense for supply chain integration, hosted the gathering. Estevez explained that RFID is part of the DOD's move toward what he called knowledge-enabled logistics. "When you are implementing knowledge-enabled logistics, you need to know what you have, and you need to know where it," he said. "We view RFID as a tool to get us there. You may have heard of sense and respond logistics. RFID gives the sense to sense and respond."
In his brief remarks, Estevez pointed out that when Wal-Mart has an out-of-stock situation, it loses a sale, but when the military is unable to get goods to soldiers in the field, they are unable to do their job. "We take this very seriously," he said. "We see [RFID] as a tool that will enable us to provide the support to our forces in the field that they deserve."
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