60 seconds with ... Dave Asiala

Dave Asiala of Dow Chemical on finding the sweet spot for RFID.

By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 6/1/2006

Not every RFID project having to do with the supply chain today is compliance based. At Dow Chemical, we wanted to see how RFID could be used to make our supply chain more secure. But narrowing down the options here is a big job.

We took our strategic business evaluation process and adapted it to creating an RFID/GPS Strategy. It took us nine months to go through the evaluation. We formed a technology advisory panel to help us with external perspective on the technologies. We recognized the importance of standards so we joined EPCglobal and together are forming a chemical industry vertical.

From there, we developed a list of opportunities that could drive value to the bottom line. Providing leadership in the chemical industry, improving safety and security and adding value is our goal.

That led us to identify 450 opportunities we considered for RFID/GPS technologies. Opportunities to monitor materials in transit via various transportation modes came to the top as did internal process productivity improvements.

In the end, we prioritized the initial list to 50 opportunities. We'll take 10 this year and next and complete the top 50 in three generations over the next 10 years. It's a measured approach but we are focused on getting the value from RFID at the same time we improve safety and security of our supply chain.