RFID gets new life

摘要

The big picture for corporate RFID is getting a lot smaller. With large-scale, multicompany RFID deployments still in their infancy, a growing number of companies are discovering that automatic wireless identification systems can pay off in small-scale tactical applications in house, or with just one or two partners. RFID awareness blossomed a few years ago when retail giant Wal-Mart announced a plan to require its top product suppliers to add passive RFID tags to the shipping pallets or cases in which clothing, paper towels, books, coffeemakers and toys were shipped. So did the U.S. Department of Defense.These "open loop" systems were envisioned to span multiple locations and companies, and were touted as enabling organizations to see for the first time when and where tagged items were moving through the end-to-end supply chain.