The RFID Weblog: Gen 1 Tag Out, Gen 2 in At Wal-Mart

Filed in archive Retail by gautam on April 15, 2006

The date has been finally set. Wal-Mart would no longer be accepting the use of Gen 1 tags on the cases and pallets it receives from its suppliers. The deadline was announced during a speech at the CIO summit which was hosted by Wal-Mart.

The RFID interrogators used at all RFID enabled Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores and distribution centers have been updated via firmware in order to read and process Gen 2 tags. The company's middleware platform has already been upgraded in order to manage the readers and process data from Gen 2 tags.

Wal-Mart has already started piloting some beta types of RFID enabled forklifts in their labs which is being conducted since the past three months.

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Permalink: Gen 1 Tag Out, Gen 2 in At Wal-Mart

Tags: WalMart Gen rfid mart more rfid+enabled case+studies social+networking

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Rating: 9.33 out of 3 vote(s) cast.

Response from: Chris Kapsambelis (04/15/06 6:13pm)

Why is Wal-Mart so secretive about their tests with the RFID enabled forklift? Do they want to keep any lessons learned to themselves for competitive advantage? If they want others to follow their lead, they need to share what they learn, and publish their work for honest peer review and comment.

The RFID enabled forklift is a major departure from the full automation envisioned with the use of RFID. Location data was to be derived from Bin/Shelf interrogators on a constant real-time basis. This was to enable the automatic detection of items being added or removed from inventory, and the ability for instantaneous inventory counts.

By adding location tags that will be read for Pick and Place transactions, the process is reminiscent of the use of Barcode based systems that require manual inputs. Why is the Wal-Mart approach any more accurate or efficient?