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What have we learned about RFID from Wal-Mart?
Last January, Wal-Mart launched a new era in supply chain management when 100 or so suppliers began shipping cartons and pallets tagged with radio frequency identification tags (RFID) to a few distribution centers in Texas.

Although the initial shipments were limited in scope, this is potentially a big deal. While it's too early to predict the outcome of the Wal-Mart RFID mandate, ten years from now it may prove to be as important a step as the first bar code scan in an Ohio grocery store in the 1970's.

With another mandate looming for 200 more suppliers in January 2006, what have we learned about RFID in the supply chain from Wal-Mart so far? There are at least four lessons.

The first is this: within certain limitations, the technology works.   ...More>>>

Improving supply chains with RFID data
In return for tagging cartons and pallets, Wal-Mart has promised to provide five points of information previously unavailable to its vendors: when their product arrives at a Wal-Mart distribution center; when it leaves; when it arrives at a Wal-Mart store; when it leaves the store room; and when the product is consumed and the carton goes to the crusher.

That sounds good. But that information has little value if vendors don’t have systems in place to take advantage of that information.

Two new solutions have been introduced to address just that. Neither company is trying to save the world with software. Instead, they have created applications specifically designed to use this new data to solve old problems.    ...More>>>

Going mobile
While most of the focus these days is on EPC-compliant RFID tags used in retail mandates, the companies getting the most return on their investment from RFID are using the technology to track mobile assets in closed-loop applications.

There are a number of reasons. One is the element of control that comes with a closed loop, says Michael Smith, business development manager for RFID, LXE. "Closed loops infer greater control over processes," says Smith. "It's easier to define an ROI, monitor the process and achieve the benefit in a closed loop."

A second is that in a closed loop system, a tag gets used over and over again. While the price of the tag may not be any less, the cost per use goes down with each cycle.     ...More>>>

 More RFID News from the Industry:
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• Leading suppliers discuss best practices for working with Wal-Mart at Prescient's annual client conference
  Leading national suppliers identified the ability to use data effectively as the most important factor to consider when supporting Wal-Mart initiatives.
  
  

• Suppliers to the U.S. Department of Defense can now use RFID tags based on EPCglobal standards to meet shipping requirements
  U.S. Defense Department suppliers may now use Electronic Product Code (EPC) tags to comply with the department's request to integrate RFID into supply shipments by 2007.

• Datamax selects new SAMSys RFID reader module to provide Gen 2 encoding for RFID printers
  SAMSys Technologies Inc., an international provider of Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) hardware solutions, announced a contract to supply its new MP9311 RFID UHF Reader Module for use in all RFID label printers manufactured by Datamax Corporation.

• SAMSys introduces Gen2 RFID UHF reader module.
  SAMSys Technologies Inc., an international provider of Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) hardware solutions, opened the door for RFID smart label printer/encoders and other devices to read and write to EPC Generation Two (Gen 2) tags with the introduction of the new SAMSys MP9311 RFID UHF Reader Module.

• Intermec and METRO Group demonstrate Intermex IP4 ,first generation 2, ETSI-compliant handheld RFID reader
  Intermec Technologies Corp. and METRO Group announced the successful demonstration of the first EPCglobal Generation 2 RFID handheld reader that also meets stringent European requirements for radio frequency and reader communications protocols.