The Business System Spectator
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has ordered its entire source base to start use of radio regularity identification tags (RFID), january 2005 effective. DoD’s mandate follows an identical mandate by Wal-Mart on its largest 100 suppliers. Since these two mandates are going to drive quick adoption of RFID technology over another couple of years, let’s have a glance at RFID and what it means for manufacturers and vendors.
RFID technology allows products to be recognized far away, by means of a tag that, when energized by radio waves, responds with identification information. You’ve probably already seen RFID in another application. It is the same basic technology used in proximity gain access to control cards, which unlock a hinged door when waved in the overall section of a cards audience. RFID tags in supply chain applications are similar except that the RF signal is stronger, allowing goods to be discovered at a larger distance.
The RFID standard being followed by DoD is equivalent to that being adopted by Walmart, so there will be only 1 standard for suppliers to adhere to. The brand new standard is called the Electronic Product Code (EPC), which is under development by the Uniform Code Council (UCC) and EPCglobal, a new business under UCC.
Benefits of RFID. The RFID tag is affixed to the product Once, case, or pallet, any participant in the source chain may use RFID visitors to automatically identify and track them, untouched by individual hands. The ultimate benefits are huge for … Read more






