When Wal-Mart decreed that its top suppliers would have to install Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips in pallet and case-sized loads, a lot of potential RFID users celebrated. It meant Wal-Mart and its cronies would be doing a lot of the work to get RFID working.
Fast forward a couple of years and Wal-Mart’s cronies still don’t have it working very well, and everyone else who’s interested in it is having problems, too.
How much can a technology improve your supply chain if your accuracy rate in tracking packages is already above 90 percent and it can deliver only in the 80s? Add to that security problems, cost, difficulting in getting and using the data, and you have a technology that’s still on the road to greatness, but is still at least a couple of exits away.
The stories below may or may not show the way forward, but they will surely provide a progress report:
RFID-Ready (or Not)
Issues
Costs