RFID Trials Show Mixed Results

Recent RFID trials are showing mixed results for RFID, with London-based retail leader Marks & Spencer declaring its 42-store test a success and preparing to add 80 more test stores in 2007 while Cardinal Health said RFID has “real promise” but a “great deal of additional work needs to be undertaken” before it’s practical.

The $14 billion M&S chain has a history as a longtime RFID proponent. The chain’s trial used “throwaway paper labels attached to, but not embedded in, a variety of men’s and women’s clothing items in stores,” according to a report in Silicon.com.

For more on this topic, see Technology Focus: RFID in the Real World

“M&S uses mobile scanners to scan garment tags on the shop floor, and portals at distribution centers, and the loading bays of stores allow rails of hanging garments to be pushed through and read at speed.”

The story quoted an M&S representative as saying that the item-level RFID tagging will hit an additional 80 stories in the spring of 2007 and will be limited to apparel that has an especially wide variety of sizes, with the possibility of “extending RFID tagging to other clothing departments from the autumn of next year.”

Read the full story on eWeek.com: RFID Trials Show Mixed Results