conference, the third iteration of this ever-growing gathering organized by RFID Journal and Mosaic Media Partners, was abuzz with developments of interest to packaged goods companies. Held in Chicago in April, here are a few highlights:
• P&G’s $100ꯠ RFID investment in Spain had a one-year payback. Lesson learned: You can find return-on-investment in an RFID solution for a specific application.
• The Department of Defense’s Alan Estevez said, “Readers and tags will get better. While there may be a little spike with Gen 2 debuting, pricing [for RFID technology] is going to come down.” The DoD RFID program’s read success rate is 96% and the hardware was operational 100% of the time.
• Tesco’s chief technology officer John Clarke said, “RFID will disrupt your business, but that’s the whole point of it.”
• EPCglobal president Michael Meranda calls 2005, “the year of the network.”
• Tyson Foods’ chief technology officer Gary Cooper says it would be at least late 2006 before they have return-on-investment in RFID for their low-margin meat products. Tyson tags its meat packs to meet Wal-Mart’s mandate “at the last possible moment.”
• Best Buy is now at pilot implementation for RFID. Results from its RFID demo lab have been “phenomenal,” says Best Buy EPC/RFID director Paul Freeman. “We expect to have RFID on cases and pallets at all our stores by May 2007.”
• Wal-Mart’s Simon Langford, manager of Global RFID Strategy, declared that “RFID is not just a cool way to collect data, it’s how we use the data to drive efficiencies.”
• Privacy is a hot issue. Elizabeth Board, who heads EPCglobal’s Public Policy Steering Committee, stated that with RFID there can be no hidden tags and that deactivation is built-in with Generation 2 technology. “There must be a technical solution beyond just throwing the tag or tagged item away,” she said.
