Abstract:
RFID represents a fundamental shift in the ease, ability and speed at which information about events in any operation (e.g. supply chain) can be gathered. Conventional systems, such as bar code printers and readers, were designed for human processing that limited transaction volumes. RFID can automate these processes and has the potential to generate orders of magnitude more information. Moreover, the amount of data increases exponentially with the increase in size of the network. The most cited example has been the estimate that Wal-Mart's in-store implementation will generate about 7.5 terabytes of RFID data a day. This clearly shows the possibility that the volume of information could be overwhelming in larger operations. Probably 99 percent of RFID data may not be relevant to enterprise applications, but it's critical to process the intelligence within that data. This means that firms must intelligently incorporate RFID data into applicable business processes.
