By George Anderson
Wal-Mart's chief information officer, Linda Dillman, said the retailer is focusing its initial radio frequency identification (RFID) technology efforts on pallets.
Ms. Dillman believes other retailers will also focus RFID at the pallet level. According to Information Week, the Wal-Mart executive believes this is necessary "so consumer-goods suppliers won't face competing development agendas."
Wal-Mart is looking to have 100 key vendors supporting its RFID initiative by January 2005.
Moderator's Comment: What will Wal-Mart's RFID initiative mean for manufacturers and other retailers?
We found it revealing in the Information Week piece that Ms. Dillman says the value of RFID is it provides a more efficient and timely way of collecting information. Wal-Mart is not looking for RFID to deliver on the numerous potential benefits technology evangelists are prophesizing. According to her, "If we don't get one piece of data beyond what we get today, it's a great benefit." [George Anderson - Moderator]