The Trouble With Tags

Spotty read rates make it clear that the 'R' in RFID doesn't stand for reliability.

By Mary Brandel

December 20, 2004 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - When you hear the litany of reliability and readability woes that plague radio frequency identification (RFID) pilot projects in the supply chain arena, you may wonder how anyone is making any progress with this technology at all.
Problems range from nonfunctioning tags to environmental conditions, such as temperature, humidity and radio frequency interference, that can render tags unreadable. The challenges continue as containers move through the warehouse and onto trucks -- a process in which tags can be damaged or thrown out of alignment so they can't receive reader signals. And the list goes on: Forklifts cut cables, tag printers can't keep up with conveyor belt speeds, or adhesives that bond tags to containers fail at low temperatures.
"There's still a lot of immaturity in the technology," says Kara Romanow, research director at AMR Research Inc. She points to the 10% to 12% of tags that are "dead on arrival" -- meaning they arrive at the user site in nonworking condition. Even when you weed out the bum tags, average read rates are still just 80% to 90%, she says. Some of this is the result of tag failure, but other common problems are incompatible tag/reader combinations and products that aren't suited for RFID. "Companies are trying to tag RF-unfriendly products, like soup cans and baby wipes," she says. "It really varies by product."
And yet, if you talk to RFID users like Gene Obrock, vice president of operations at Henkel Consumer Adhesives Inc. in Avon, Ohio, or David Adams, senior vice president of corporate strategy at TrenStar Inc. in Greenwood Village, Colo., you find that they are more optimistic. Yes, they agree, RFID systems are fraught with reliability pitfalls, some of which never go away. But the potential payback is so great, they say, that building an RFID-based supply chain that takes these issues into consideration is worth the trouble -- even if the benefits are five to 10 years away.
"The equipment is becoming more durable, the technology more reliable, the tags are improving, and at the same time, we're more knowledgeable about the relationship between the technology and the packages we sell to our retail customers," says Obrock, whose company is testing RFID with Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Gene Obrock, vice president of operations at Henkel Consumer Adhesives
Image Credit: Bruce Zake

Obrock is clear that reliability will play a major role in determining Henkel's eventual return on investment, which will be achieved in part by obtaining more accurate and timely inventory data from retailers. But valuable data can be

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