RFID moves beyond supply chain mandates

Computerworld - At the recent RFID Executive Forum sponsored by the University of California, Los Angeles' Wireless Internet for Mobile Enterprise Consortium (UCLA-WINMEC), participants displayed a strong and upbeat expectation of radio frequency identification as a broad-based technology that would be applicable to a wide variety of uses.
This contrasted with the apprehensive mood of many at last year's inaugural event. Last year, many companies from a diverse group of industries that have been developing or deploying RFID systems were primarily concerned with meeting RFID mandates made by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and the U.S. Department of Defense.
While the supply chain continues to be a driving factor for the momentum in RFID, companies also are looking to use RFID in more focused applications where incremental returns on investment may be obtained.
While supply chain tends to be far-ranging and disparate (open loop), focused, localized applications (closed loop) can provide such incremental justification for the RFID investment. These applications include warehousing, theft detection, asset location/tracking, people location, mobile payments, in-process inventory tracking, repair and maintenance, and luggage tracking.
Yet another change has been the remarkable interest in this technology by enterprises that weren't affected by any of the mandates -- these organizations are rapidly educating themselves on using RFID to gain a competitive edge or for solving a business problem. For them, the excitement stemming from the rapid reduction in RFID tag and reader prices -- along with standardization -- provides justification in trying out limited pilot studies.

The applications in which companies are inserting RFID are typically niche-oriented with limited budget needs as opposed to a mandated supply chain. They are typically closed-loop, can have measurable results in the short term and can be deployed in phases.
For example, equipment renters are looking to perform check-in, check-out and security functions with RFID technology to reduce labor costs. Hospitals are investigating pilot studies on tracking of staff and patients to better utilize their resources and reduce incorrect medication administration. Airports/airlines are tracking baggage with tags to reduce losses associated with lost baggage. Some aerospace companies have started to tag and track high-value components of their aircraft.
Companies are starting to use writable RFID tags for automatic tracking of maintenance status on products to reduce human errors in data entry. Warehouses are piloting RFID-based solutions to monitor, track and find warehoused goods. A common challenge reported by these companies is justifying the business case for RFID.
This optimism isn't without caution, however. Concerns about privacy and security persist. Privacy becomes important if a customer's