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Wal*Mart continues push for RFID adoption
John3 writes "Wal*Mart is continuing to push for vendors to add RFID tags to cases of products for easier tracking through their warehouse distribution system. Most vendors have until 2006 to comply, but their top 100 suppliers must have the tags in place by 2005. Wal*Mart stopped their push for retail level tagging last summer, but by forcing tagging at the wholesale level the cost of the technology will drop as vendors comply with Wal*Mart's decree. How long before price is no longer a barrier to RFID item level tagging?"
You don't appear to have read the article, it's about tagging of wholesale cases for use in the whole inventory control/distribution system, not for the end-consumer.
This only helps Wal~Mart make their warehouses and backroom more streamlined.
As I understand it, current RFID solutions are based on small silicon chips - which are probably going to remain rather expensive, even in bulk (at least compared to a bar code). The real explosion of RFID will probably come with the commercialisation of any of the large-scale non-vacuum deposition semiconductor techniques - printable metals, organic polymer transistors etc.
Because this particular use of RFID's has nothing to do with your privacy, but RFID's as a whole do.
:)
Note the question asked at the end of the post:
"How long before price is no longer a barrier to RFID item level tagging?"
If this goes on then probably, eventually RFID's will replace barcodes.
Not that I think that's such a bad thing.
The path I walk alone is endlessly long.
30 minutes by bike, 15 by bus.
Just because walmart prices are lower doesn't mean they are making less money on each item. They are such a powerhouse that they actually dictate to there suppliers what they are willing to pay for the merchandise. Your local department store will pay more for the product so it must sell it at a higher price. Walmart's major advantage is it's supply chain. If a supplier doesn't agree with walmart on thing such as pricing, merchandising or anyother aspect of buisness walmart just pulls their product or buries it on some obscure shelf.
Wal-mart is one of our bigger customers, and they originally has us slated to be an early adopter of RFID in the case.
We were supposed to be working on this in 2004, however they pushed out implementation out to beyond 2006. As far as I know they didn't say why either.
All I know is that we're not slated to be doing anything with RFID anytime in the near future, and just six months ago we were planning on gearing up to implement across our entire supply chain.
That's $0.30 - $0.40 per CASE, not per item.
It's for warehouse inventory tracking, not shelf stocking.
You'd think people would at least read the article summary.
"Wal*Mart is continuing to push for vendors to add RFID tags to cases of products for easier tracking through their warehouse distribution system. Most vendors have until 2006 to comply, but their top 100 suppliers must have the tags in place by 2005.
You have to be pretty close to the tag to read it. The walmart folks have large tags (4" to 6") on their boxes. The larger the tag, the further away it can be read. The distance of reading is a function of tag size and power.
So, unless they get super powerful readers, they won't be able to tell that you have a pair of granny underwear at home. (900mhz readers have their own problems, especially in countries other than the US) If you don't like the tag, cut it up. I really don't see the big deal with this. Can a tinfoil hat person explain to me why this is such a bad thing?