RFID growth at T&A

Read rates at T&A’s DC have consistently been around 98%.

“Our RFID program with Albertsons uses corrugated boxes,” says Casas, “and the read rates were slightly lower than with the plastic bins we use for Wal-Mart. Our guess is that RPC gives us a little greater distance between the tag and the product. In other words, the wall thickness with the plastic on RPCs is thicker than the medium and liner on corrugated boxes.” T&A’s best reads occur while spinning pallets on a stretch wrap machine.

“As I’ve stated from the start, the advantage in RFID will be in how companies make process changes as directed by the data,” says Casas. “We see opportunities in making process changes based on the data, though we need more experience before we can finalize our findings and make those processing changes. I know it’s an overused term, but we need to reach ‘critical mass.’ The catch is that even if we get critical mass, I’m still not sure there is a return-on-investment for us with RFID. The question is: Although we will be able to make better decisions on product handling using RFID, will those decisions pay for the tags?”

The recent drop in RFID reader and tag costs could provide additional help on the bottom line.

T&A is interested in Gen 2 technology, but is awaiting delivery of its first Gen 2 reader, Casas says: “We expect to begin testing Gen 2 before the end of 2005.”