 Actually, RFID has been around and utilized by companies and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) for several decades. Whether using passive or active tags, or HF or UHF frequencies, the majority of these applications have been closed systems in which all the data was utilized by a single organization. The major difference in the RFID requirements today is that companies are seeking to share RFID data among trading partners in their supply chains. Sharing data requires that RFID systems today be built on open standards. EPCglobal is the organization that has been developing standards to enable companies to share data. Compliance mandates from both Wal-Mart (the world?s largest retailer) and the DoD have incorporated EPC protocols in their specifications and have pushed adoption of RFID technology higher on the agenda of many leading businesses. Both organizations have indicated that they consider the early phases of their compliance initiatives successful and they will continue to scale-out their implementations. In addition, other retailers, including Target, Best Buy, and Albertsons have also issued RFID compliance requirements for their suppliers. |
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