RFID - News, Features, and Slideshows

Features

• RFID tags arrive on store floor as retailers go after ROI

  For the retailing industry, the adoption of radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology this decade has been one long, strange journey: Periods of irrational exuberance followed by times of great frustration and confusion; expensive pilot projects riddled with technical, standards-based and cost complexities; and a widespread belief among those retailers or CPG manufacturers that were forced into the RFID universe that it is a technology solution in search of a problem.

• Technology runs the Boston Marathon

  The runners took center stage during the Boston Marathon Monday, but behind the scenes of the prestigious road race was an enterprise-class data center capable of accurately tracking more than 26,000 runners and relaying that information to a number of outlets.

• RFID: A New Hope in a New Decade

  For the past 10 years, radio-frequency identification (RFID) has followed the classic buzzword trajectory that is typically a blessing and a curse for new technologies: Next-generation appeal, bursting hype, rampant confusion and fragmented success.

• Wal-Mart orders suppliers to go green, some see red

  A famous superhero once noted, with trepidation: "With great power comes great responsibility." Retail juggernaut Wal-Mart, with US$401 billion in worldwide sales, has always wielded the "great power" part with its suppliers.

• EC sets out privacy requirements for smart RFID tags

  The European Commission has set a code of conduct for companies using RFID (radio frequency identification) tags that it hopes will safeguard citizens' privacy and allow the quick rollout of the new technology.

• Trial Without Error: Office Supplier Puts Together Active RFID

  The company is reducing shrink, boosting sales and eliminating the need to do inventory counts on high-ticket items. And, oh yes, the system has so far not made a single reading mistake.

• Wal-Mart Aims To Go Green With Global Supply Chain Makeover

  Wal-Mart has demanded that its Chinese suppliers adhere to green, environmentally friendly and product safety standards. But experts say that ensuring compliance in the complicated, vast network of Asian suppliers will be nearly impossible.

• RFID ROI: Think Servers and Laptops

  Wal-Mart's super-streamlined retail supply chain fantasy is still just that, but there's good news on the RFID front. Tag technology has improved, and a number of companies now successfully use RFID to track high-value IT assets in house or on campus -- exactly where RFID makes the most sense.

• RFID Ratchets Up Responsiveness For Fashion Retailer

  In the fashion retail business, speed is what separates the chumps from the Valentino's. How fast an organization can respond to new customer demand is key. And when creatives and seamstresses are all driven to turn around ideas quickly, frittering the time gained makes a mockery of the system.