The Army To March On Its RFID in 2005
By George Anderson
Suppliers to the U.S. Department of Defense are expected to have radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on their product shipments ready for tracking by January 2005, said a DOD official.
Alan Estevez, assistant deputy undersecretary of defense in charge of supply chain integration said in a conference call with reporters yesterday that moving on the RFID initiative was critical because, “We have to change the way we handle our logistics to support our war fighters.”
The assistant deputy undersecretary was realistic about the chances for 100 percent compliance by military vendors by the deadline.
“You’ve got to start somewhere,” he said, later adding: “Even Wal-Mart doesn’t expect it on every piece of supply coming to them.”
Moderator’s Comment: What percentage of shipments received would have to be using RFID technology for a retailer to reap some benefit? Do RFID tagged
pallets not make supply chain sense below a certain percentage point of compliance?
The DOD, as with Wal-Mart we suspect, would be thrilled if they could get their biggest suppliers up and running on RFID ASAP. Assistant deputy undersecretary
Estevez said getting the top 100 suppliers RFID-ready by 2005 would cover 80 percent of the product received by the military. [George
Anderson – Moderator]