Now could be a great time to jump into the RFID game. For starters, RFID has four immediate positive impacts on your company’s bottom line:

• fewer errors and lower labor costs
• better customer service
• better visibility into your supply chain, and
• improved ability to turn on a dime when business conditions shift.

Why aren’t more supply chains implementing RFID?

One of the factors holding back implementation of RFID has been the relative success of bar coding for tracking inventory. While bar coding remains a viable technology, RFID has now pulled ahead in several areas:

• inventory workers need direct access to “flash” a bar code; RFID equipment can read tags that are out of sight and further away
• bar codes must be read one at a time; RFID tags can be read in groupings
• a bar code can’t be changed; RFID tags have memories and can be updated
• a bar code only identifies an inventory item; an RFID tag has the ability to give the item’s tracking history
• reading bar codes is subject to human error due to the manual nature of it; RFID is fully automatic, reducing the odds of human error to near zero, and
• RFID makes it much easier to locate inventory items, quickly identifying the location.

One factor holding businesses back from RFID implementation has been the price. Now, as the demand for RFID tags and equipment increases, prices continue to drop.

Another reason businesses have been reluctant to implement RFID has been the concern about standards and universality for the equipment. Those concerns are being ironed out.

Two big reasons for that: Retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target and BestBuy are requiring suppliers to equip all goods with RFID tags. Also, the U.S. Department of Defense — arguably the world’s largest and longest supply chains — has ordered its 60,000 suppliers to start phasing in RFID.

Tags: bar codes, inventory, RFID, supply chain