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The combination of EPC and RFID taken together are providing the foundation of value chain efficiency and profitable operation across many industries, with retailing being one of the most rapid adopters (Trunick, 2005). Wal-Mart's pilot in 2004 of its top 100 suppliers further legitimized the use of EPC codes in RFID pilots and discovered that mixed-pallet mode shipping was even more cost-effective than large-scale logistics and supplier enablement (Khanna, 2006). Since 2004 to today, Wal-Mart has continually championed the use of RFID across its global supply chain to reduce inventory carrying costs and also increase the efficiency of its massive distribution centers. While its competitors continue to challenge its pricing strategies and programs, Wal-Mart continues to dominate the financial metrics of performance that matter most. The legacy of Wal-Mart's expertise in analytics and the ability to quickly parse trends out of complex data sets also made the integrated of RFID data easier to accomplish than many of its competitors as well (Krishnamurthi, 2001).
Due to all of these factors and the rapid integration of RFID as a core technology for automating and bringing greater clarity to the value chains of enterprises, analysts predict that the $233 million spent in 2006 will grow to $874 million by 2011 (Trebilcock, 2007). An additional aspect of RFID implementation today is the pervasive benefits occurring for manufacturers, logistics providers and retailers. Table 1, RFID Benefits for Supply Chain Partners provides an overview of the many contributions RFID is making within enterprises with specific focus on...
those who have distribution- and logistics-centric business models.
Table 1: RFID Benefits for Supply Chain Partners
Manufacturers
Logistics Providers
Retailers
Shorter shipment loading times
More efficient order selection and order fulfillment
Better store planning, programming and merchandising with real-time data
Greater shipment accuracy
Better order fill rates
Improved Point-of-Sales productivity and accuracy at checkout
Better consumer sales data from retailers
Less inventory shrinkage due to more efficient inventory tracking
More accurate returns
Reducing the level of counterfeiting of products and diversion throughout channels
Fewer administrative and other human errors caused by mislabeling products
Improved reverse logistics
Improved support for Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI)
Lower labor requirements
Greater inventory accuracy and velocity
Easier product safety recalls
Less vendor fraud and higher levels of vendor auditing
Optimized store in-stock levels
More accurate demand planning
More accurate inventory
Reduced internal and external shrinkage
Shorter order lead times
Less time and lower cost for managing inventory
Lower labor requirements
Less need for safety stock
Higher routing efficiency throughout warehouses and distribution
The greater the functionality of the tag the higher the frequency required to communicate the contents of it, hence the spectrum of frequencies shown in Figure 3, Comparison of RFID Frequencies. Figure 3: Comparison of RFID Frequencies Sources: (Cheung, Chu, Du, 2009) (Wang, Wang, 2009) The greater the frequency of a given set of tags the greater the flexibility and the more data they are often capable of storing, capturing as they
Wireless Broadband Technology Overview of Wireless technology Presently it is quite evident to come across functioning of a sort of wireless technology in the form of mobile phone, a Palm pilot, a smart phone etc. With the inception of fast connectivity in the sphere of commerce it is customary and useful to operate from central locations communicating with the remote branches, conducting conferences in remote places, discussing with every body at every
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These technologies will need to be integrated into collaborative supply chain processes that will need to be put into place first however. The use of RFID as a tracking technology will also help to alleviate out-of-stocks as perishable products that have a relatively high level of orders will trigger re-orders in real-time, alleviating the need to re-order manually. RFID will also make it possible to create more effective audit
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