UA Opens RFID Research Center
by June 20, 2005 12:00 am 102 views
Within 30 minutes after reading a radio-frequency identification tag, inventory information provided by the tag is available to suppliers of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. through the company’s Retail Link software.
For the first time, store managers can tell if inventory is in the back room or on the sales floor, said Kerry Pauling, vice president of information systems for Wal-Mart.
Pauling and seven other corporate RFID experts spoke on June 10 before the grand opening of the University of Arkansas’ RFID Research Center, which is located in Fayetteville’s Industrial Park in a building owned by Hanna’s Candle Co., a Wal-Mart vendor.
In 2003, Wal-Mart asked its top 100 suppliers to use RFID tags on crates and pallets going to Dallas area distribution centers by January 2005. All of Wal-Mart’s vendors are to be using the RFID technology by 2006. Pauling said RFID tagging of individual items won’t happen for at least a couple more years.
One of the main obstacles now is that RFID lasers can’t read through liquid and are reflected by metal. It’s a big problem with products like motor oil and soup, which are often packaged in metal cans.
Ken Mangold, vice president of information systems for J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. of Lowell, said the trucking company is still trying to determine how it could best use RFID technology.
“We’re sort of in the Spandex phase with RFID,” he told the audience. “I can wear Spandex, but should I?”
Mangold said Hunt is considering RFID technology for asset management, tracking and utilization, automatic payments, and safety and security.
One of the five main expenses for Hunt is tires, Mangold said. RFID technology could help the company monitor the mileage on tires and when the tread should be recapped.
The UA’s RFID center will primarily conduct research into the most efficient use of RFID and other wireless technology throughout the supply chain.
The research center’s “strategic sponsors” include ACNielsen of Schaumburg, Ill., Deloitte Consulting LLC of New York City, Cisco-Eagle Inc of Dallas, Hytrol Conveyor Co. of Jonesboro, Intel Corp. of Santa Clara, Calif., and Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash.