RFID for the Real World: Challenges and Opportunities in the Warehouse and Distribution Center Environment

Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) is one of the most promising new technologies to reach the warehousing and distribution sector in many years. While RFID technology offers a variety of benefits and advantages over current bar code ID technology, the cost of the technology and a number of technical hurdles have prevented it from attaining wide use in warehouse and distribution center operations. In the near future, while RFID technology strives to overcome these limitations and gain wider implementation, hybrid bar code-RFID systems will be the norm. Incremental implementations of RFID will provide initial successes and improve the learning curve for large-scale projects. In this two-part white paper, the authors' discuss the challenges of RFID adoption, and a common-sense, measured response to intelligently evaluating and implementing RFID.