SCDigest
Editorial Staff
SCDigest Says: |
The middleware layer is becoming increasingly stable and easy to deploy, making the RFID data acquisition foundation for the business applications easier to manage.
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As always, we were interested to read the latest RFID Monthly report from investment company RW Baird. This month, the report again offers cautious optimism on the pace of RFID adoption, but notes that barriers to more aggressive deployment continue to exist.
As with other observers, the Baird researchers say the most real action seems to be occurring in two areas: the apparel supply chain, especially around item-level tagging, and various asset tracking applications.
“Last month we discussed good activity in apparel, which we believe continues based on recent conversations with industry participants,” the report notes. “We are seeing vendors dedicate more resources towards these opportunities, and we are clearly seeing an interest by software vendors, including independents, to devote more resources towards building up apparel solutions. Most use cases continue to be focused on out of stocks, inventory management, security and cycle counts.”
While it says most of the apparel RFID pilot activity seems to be in Europe and Latin America, it notes that in the US, the most noteworthy rollout has been American Apparel, which has seen significant improvements in inventory accuracy (to greater than 99%) and labor savings (greater than 60 hours/week/store). The vertically integrated retailer expects to expand its rollout to roughly 250 stores by the end of 2009.
Others see similar opportunities in apparel. Dean Frew, CEO of Xterprise, recently told SCDigest that using RFID, “You can do a rack inventory [of apparel] in 40 seconds versus something like 8 minutes with bar code, and that’s with a 30% error rate with bar code if you can get the 18-year-old worker to do it to begin with.”
RFID-based asset tracking, in general, and IT asset tracking, in particular, also seem to be moving ahead nicely. The report notes that Wells Fargo bank has already implemented an RFID-based check-out process for laptops, and that Bank of America and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. are also conducting asset tracking pilots, and that several major financial institutions are working on standards for asset tracking.
(RFID and Automatic Identification Article - Continued Below)
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