While the initial buzz for RFID will be with the pure plays like tag makers and software, there will be a huge network and IT component as all this new information is stored, transmitted, and processed. Cooters
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washingtonpost.com
Sun Microsystems Opens Smart-Tag Plant
By David Koenig
The Associated Press
Wednesday, May 5, 2004; 1:06 AM
DALLAS -- Sun Microsystems Inc. is opening a Dallas-area facility on Wednesday to test radio tags for tracking consumer products and improving inventory control in stores.
Sun is trying to help manufacturers who must meet a deadline set by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, to use the tracking technology in pallet shipments by January.
Wal-Mart and other retailers believe that radio frequency information, or RFID, technology could replace bar codes and help them improve control of their inventory, cut costs and reduce theft.
At the 17,000-square-foot warehouse that Sun is leasing in suburban Carrollton, manufacturers such as Gillette Co. will load pallets of actual products in their packaging and run them through mock-ups of loading docks.
Technicians will test whether RFID tags in the pallets - and eventually on individual items - can be read by systems that Wal-Mart and other retailers will use, said Larry Singer, Sun's senior vice president of global markets. Sun will give manufacturers a stamp of approval if their shipments can be tracked successfully by the stores, he said.
Sun's technology partners in the venture include Nortel Networks, Texas Instruments Inc. and i2 Technologies Inc.
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sun expects to open a similar facility in Scotland in the next few months.
Experts believe that the tags could be cheap enough to be placed on individual products within about five years.
David Syzmanski, director of a retailing center at Texas A&M University, said retailers are waiting to see Wal-Mart's results before deciding whether to also require vendors to put tags on shipments.
"There will be a lot of bugs to work out," he said.
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We have an RFID thread if anyone is interested.
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