RFID tags work like sophisticated bar codes that can provide installation instructions, store a product's service record and monitor its movements - for the whole supply chain to see. So why is the construction industry being so slow to adopt them? Thomas Lane reports. In a supermarket near you is an IT product that could revolutionise the construction industry. It has the potential to benefit everybody in the entire construction supply chain from the day a building component rolls off the production line to the day the resulting building is demolished. But before you rush for your shopping trolley, its presence on supermarket shelves does not make it readily available - it's a type of sophisticated bar code attached to some supermarket products and, so far, its transferable applications have only just begun to be realised.
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