Are There Any Use Cases Involving the Tagging of More Than 2 Million Pieces?

Have any companies had such an experience yet with RFID? If so, to what uses is the technology being applied?

—Gabriël

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Gabriël,

There are many projects around the world for which more than two million items have been tagged with RFID. The most common use would involve apparel tracking in retail. Billions of items are tagged every year for and by retailers, including Macy's, Target, Marks & Spencer, C&A and many others. The main use case is to improve inventory accuracy and ensure on-shelf availability of products. See the following articles for more information:

• Macy's Expands RFID and Beacon Deployments
• A Conversation With Macy's Bill Connell
• Target Announces Nationwide RFID Rollout
• Learning from Target
• Marks & Spencer Leads the Way
• Marks & Spencer Embraces Change
• C&A Expands RFID Usage to Track Inventory
• C&A Rolls Out RFID to All of Its French Stores

There are manufacturers that track finished inventory and even parts containers (see RFID Prevents Johnson Controls' Containers from Being Lost). For manufacturers, the key use case for large-scale deployments is shipping the correct items to customers, as well as tracking containers that often end up missing and must be replaced.

Logistics companies also need to monitor shipments and the assets used to ship items. Container Centralen, for example, employs RFID to track millions of crates used to ship flowers and other items (see Container Centralen to Monitor Millions of Crates)

I hope that answers your question.

—Mark Roberti, Founder and Editor, RFID Journal