Encourage 'C-Level' Thinking For RFID

Considering the size of the company, a $50 million manufacturer with a very small IT and operations staff, I could understand this, but it got me thinking.

It is natural to address immediate issues, particularly when customer service is at stake. But assuming the “C” title carries with it certain responsibilities. The C-level executive brings value to the company by using strategic and visionary thinking. Too often, we find CxOs too preoccupied with tactical problems to strategically ask questions like, “What if?” And yet, to implement effective value through industry-critical applications such as RFID throughout the synchronized value chain, an executive must stand back and think strategically.

When discussing RFID with clients, I find that often the first thing they mention are the demands that their own clients like Wal-Mart, Target or the military are mandating. Such compliance issues are important, but focusing exclusively on them is working backward.

Wal-Mart&'s senior executives did not arrive at their RFID model by looking at the demands of their customers, the consumer. Instead, they asked themselves, “What if?” and recognized an enormous opportunity to reduce costs and increase competitive advantage.

RFID can do much more than just inform the database that three cases of screws have arrived and 12 cabinets have left, or act as a glorified bar-code system with expensive single-use tags. This model has its place, but it only makes up a fraction of the potential uses for RFID. Quite often, it is these other uses that will provide the greatest benefits.

When exploring potential RFID applications, we must look beyond passive tags. For instance, active tags can be highly cost-effective when configured to be reused hundreds of times. They can provide current status, availability data or report on the condition of an object throughout a plant or campus. One auto manufacturer uses active RFID to track new auto quality control prior to shipment. Another logistics company traces and secures valuable assets. A food processing company uses RFID to trigger raw inventory alerts to automate procurement. These are what Marlo Brooke, president of Avatar Partners, calls “The Three T&'s of RFID”—track, trace and trigger. The applications for RFID, when used in conjunction with other devices and systems, are enormous, and they will be limited only by imagination and vision.

It is time for C-level executives to ask, “If we could know anything about our products or operations at any time or in any way, what would it be?” This type of critical strategic thinking has propelled every great company into their position of prominence.

Strategically considering what data a potential customer needs that they do not have or that is not realtime does not cost much—it simply requires you to encourage a small time commitment from strategic-thinking executives along with the assistance of supply chain and RFID experts. As Deon Nel, my colleague and RFID engineer at Avatar Partners says, “The returns can be enormous if just a few critical areas are exposed.”

It is likely no one has yet thought up the killer application for RFID in the industry you serve. Will it be your company?

EDITOR&'S NOTE: CRN welcomes letters on current news and guest commentaries from solution providers. Please limit to no more than 550 words. Letters or columns may be abridged for space. Send suggestions to CRN Editor Heather Clancy at [email protected].