This commentary from Forrester Research hilights Wal-Marts requirement that its suppliers use RFID on pallets and cases, and concludes that things are looking good for the RFID industry. It wraps up with the following recommendations:
• Focus efforts on supply chain visibility. As Forrester has long maintained, RFID projects yield the biggest immediate benefits when they support order fulfillment and logistics. Why? Because these activities, which span the supply chain and require fast decision-making, lack visibility. As such, most near-term RFID testing should concentrate on pallets, cases, distribution centers and warehouses--not items and store shelves.
• Stop talking smart refrigerators and start talking real consumer benefits. Talk of refrigerators that monitor food consumption smack of an Orwellian society and will only fuel more protests against the implicit collection of consumer data. More responsible dialogue must center on the most valuable benefits of item-level RFID, such as tamper prevention for prescription drugs and the elimination of smuggling rings that distribute stolen goods throughout the developing world.
• Create an RFID privacy policy--now. Packaged-good manufacturers and retailers must address privacy concerns by adhering to best practices like outlining uses of RFID data and providing consumers with opt-in and opt-out choices. By doing so, companies will avoid missteps like Benetton's: The Italian clothier put its item-level rollout on hold, because it had not adequately addressed consumer privacy concerns.