Competitive benefits will drive demand for applications

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: The globalisation of the Indian economy and the entry of MNCs alongwith the retailing shifts has exposed the domestic companies to the free market dynamics. Among other things, deployment of IT has been extensive in the better-managed companies and one field where it is being successfully deployed is the management of the supply chain. This has brought the focus on the automatic identification and data capture technologies, which in several companies is integrated with the ERP/EDI applications.

Today, radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is being driven by an electric mix of researchers and businessmen of Indian origin and provides an unprecedented opportunity for the country to export services and software. The technology is beginning to revolutionise the way business is done and the potential of RFID is virtually limitless. RFID has placed the Indian retail industry at the door of a new era where real-time determination of product availability and movement is enabling drastic improvements in operational efficiency and profitability.

The RFID technology is primarily finding use in fleet management, inventory and asset management warehouse automation, asset tracking, quality control, packaging, security and access control, delivery and smart card-based payment systems. The application is happening in many industry segments but still the areas of focus are retail and supply chain management. The technology has got a new impetus with recent advances in RFID technologies that has created new opportunities for cost reductions and productivity improvements.

As more manufacturers of RFID tags, readers and software solutions enter the market, the price of implementing the technology will continue to decline. According to a survey, manufacturing executives anticipate a high return on investment (ROI) from their RFID investment. The companies will start to implement the technology, when RFID will becomes more pervasive across the supply chain. RFID will ultimately revolutionise the business performance of manufacturers and create opportunities for innovation and new ways of generating revenue.

The effective RFID implementation and utilisation in long-term will separate the wheat from the chaff in terms of high-performing companies.