RFID's Three Hurdles

Filed in archive Implementation on March 11, 2004

Via Atmaspheric Endeavors comes a report on CNet suggesting that retailers' RFID mandates will be successful only if RFID vendors overcome 3 issues:

• Define rules for where on a case to place RFID tags (such as the upper right corner when the case is filled with bottles of liquid). Right now suppliers are spending time and money figuring this out on a case by case basis. Industry standardization will cut testing time and costs.


• Deliver source-tagging infrastructure. That way suppliers can incorporate RFID into their production environments and gain sufficient value from it, rather than investing in RFID simply to comply with retailer mandates.


• Provide better interfaces between RFID readers and applications. Today suppliers need an additional layer of middleware in order to get the right data from readers and into applications like warehouse management. First, middleware vendors must provide simple interfaces. The second step is for middleware providers to bundle their software with back-end applications.