Are Companies Ready to Implement all Those RFID Mandates?

Filed in archive Implementation on April 19, 2004

An article in C-Net suggests that companies are still working to understand RFID technology.

They are still getting up to speed and thus few are talking about their plans in detail -- simply because they are still figuring out what those plans should be.

Tom Pounds, of RFID hardware maker Alien Technology is quoted in the C-Net article as saying:

"Of the Wal-Mart 100, you have maybe 10 suppliers who are really up-to-speed and have experience, and another 30 to 40 that have some basic understanding of the issues and have worked on it to some extent," Pounds said. "The other half--these are people who are just getting started and orienting themselves with technologies."

I've pointed out before that the RFID mandates making the news right now -- Tesco, Wal-Mart, U.S. Department of Defense -- have very aggressive time frames.

I think we should look at these mandates first and foremost as BHAGs (Big hairy Audacious Goals).

As with any BHAG, one of the primary values is their ability to motivate people to action. Even if the BHAGs are not met 100%, they are sure to be catalysts to dramatically advance the use of RFID in the supply chain.

Maybe the point isn't so much whether companies are meeting the mandates exactly on time, but instead whether they are finally taking action and making progress.