RFID requires industry-specific expertise

Rob Spiegel -- Supply Chain Management Review, 2/20/2007 10:29:00 AM

Results from a Manufacturing Insights report reveal that most companies are cautiously spending on RFID. The study, “RFID Worldwide Perspective,” shows continual growth in RFID sales, but points out that this growth is driven by a variety of factors.

In Asia, companies are adopting RFID for asset tracking and improved supply chain visibility, while North American companies point to retail mandates and federal regulatory requirements as the reason for adoption. Western European companies are implementing RFID in an effort to improve supply chain efficiencies and deal more precisely with the tight logistics and the smaller retail stores in Europe.

“Despite a general uptake in RFID spending over the next few years, the aggregate results shine a light on the difficulties in justifying broad deployment of RFID for buyers and the associated disappointing market growth for technology sellers,” says Kimberly Knickle, director of research at Manufacturing Insights.