Retailers to drive ahead with the adoption of RFID tagging
Nearly half of all Europe's retailers plan to conduct pilot trials of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology over the next six months.
According to a survey by market researcher Vanson Bourne for US printing equipment firm Printronix there has been strong take-up of RFID over the past 12 months among leading retailers in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. It found that 35% of retailers were experimenting with the technology in their supply chains and 89% planned to use RFID by 2006.
Sainsbury and Marks & Spencer were among the first to investigate the technology in the UK and the latter is now expanding its use.
However, it is Wal-Mart's plan to get 137 top suppliers to adopt the technology from January 2005, and Tesco's decision to roll out RFID that are likely to galvanise the industry. Asda said it would not be looking at the technology until the results of its parent company's studies were completed.
Tesco's roll-out was delayed by the absence of standards (Food Manufacture July 2004, p4). The European Telecommunications Standards Institute has now accredited a new standard for using RFID in ultra-high frequencies which will permit the use of high-power RFID tags and readers across Europe.
"This positive development will help greatly in advancing the use of RFID tags and will enable the use of electronic product code (EPC) across supply chain operations in Europe," said Chris Adcock, president of EPCglobal, the body leading the drive for a worldwide standard.
The Printronix research revealed that a third of retailers had concerns about the cost of implementing RFID and 30% lacked a good understanding of the technology. It also found that because of the absence of a 'dominant standard' retailers had been pursuing different routes.
Brad Jarvis, product marketing director at Printronix, predicted that item-level tagging would become a reality within two years as the roll-outs accelerate. He believed the price of tags would have fallen within striking distance of the 5 US cents goal by then.
Jarvis said that the imminent agreement on UGEN2 -- a generation 2 ultra high frequency protocol for the silicon used in tags -- would help to drive down the price, which has already fallen from 70 US cents to 30 US cents over the past year. (See p54)
