RFID unlikely to be adopted until 2013

Although RFID will be ready for adoption in supply chain infrastructures by 2005-6, it won’t be widely implemented until around 2013 at the item level, according to analysts and early adopters. Analyst AMR Research’s Nigel Montgomery, for example, told delegates at the Softworld Supply Chain conference last month, that RFID is still not ready for wide-scale adoption, and at current development rates won’t be for years. And Ken Douglas, technical director BP, who manages the firm’s sensory network initiatives, concurs. Speaking at a round-table event in London said: “RFID has been dangerously hyped and it’s got the attention of the CEO.” He expects some companies to use it as an excuse to do something they’ve wanted to do anyway, but suggests that for the next five years, RFID will almost exclusively be seen only at the container and pallet level. Large scale item level adoption is likely to be a decade away. Montgomery forecasts three phases: pilot studies this year and on to 2005; a macro level supply chain infrastructure phase from 2005 to 2009; and the item level phase from 2009 to 2013 and beyond. “RFID tagging’s potential to revolutionise supply chain management is widely accepted – real-time location and identification, compliance initiatives, and within service, maintenance and repair, to name just a few,” says Montgomery. “The main obstacles to adoption currently include the question of tag application, readability, quality and price.” And he could have added standards, data management, integration, confusion, business culture and misinformation. “These will be addressed in time, with collaboration throughout the supply chain driving the process forward. However, overhauling today’s global supply chains won’t happen overnight.”