Chantal Polsonetti, vice president of manufacturing advisory services for Arc Advisory Group, said manufacturers are not looking to reap major benefits from radio frequency identification (RFID) moving product from the factory to retailers' distribution centers or the backrooms of stores.
"Our manufacturing customer base is telling us they already have sophisticated supply chains, so the benefit from RFID in the distribution center is incremental at best," she told Modern Materials Handling. "Instead, they're looking at applications around asset tracking, work-in-process and how product moves through the retail store to get an ROI."
According to Ms. Polsonetti, "To most people, RFID is associated with automatic identification. We see the greater value in using the data to automate decision-making."
She added, "Out of stocks are the poster child, but the sophisticated suppliers want to know if their product isn't on the shelf, whether it's in the backroom," she said. "Others are looking at whether their promotions do better in aisle three than in aisle seven. They have this data, so now they're turning to analytics to make these kinds of inferences."
Discussion Questions: Where is the biggest return on the RFID investment going to ultimately come from for manufacturers? For retailers?