interesting articles.
A few weeks ago, ABEW also announced its entry into the mobile sensor technology market, which the company will service through its ZigBee-compliant software stack and radio frequency identification device ("RFID") technology. As a technology for asset tagging applications, RFID is already scheduled for implementation and rollout by 2005 in Wal-Mart (WMT - news) stores, and both Hewlett-Packard (HPQ - news) and IBM (IBM - news) also recently announced their entry into the RFID space: IBM will establish a new business unit to exploit sensor networks and support the adoption of passive radio tags, while Hewlett Packard has already used RFID on its own products and provided consulting services for others.
Wal-Mart Expands Test of Radio Frequency Identification
Wal-Mart Expands Test of Radio Frequency Identification
By Heather Landy
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
01/05/05 11:41 AM PT
To assure shoppers that the company is not using the technology to track what shoppers buy or gather other information, Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores involved in the pilot program have posted signs on their doors and along specific merchandise displays to explain how the electronic product codes and radio tags work.
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Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) Latest News about Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores across North Texas are about to take one small step for retailing and one giant leap for radio frequency identification, the new tracking technology that one day may replace the ubiquitous bar code.
Eight months into a pilot program involving eight Dallas-Fort Worth stores and 21 merchandise items supplied by eight major vendors, Wal-Mart is expanding its test of the RFID technology.
By the end of January, more than 135 suppliers will be shipping RFID-ready products to 90 Wal-Mart stores and 31 Sam's Club wholesale stores in North Texas, along with 16 Wal-Marts and five Sam's Clubs in Oklahoma.
Pilot Program
Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark and Hewlett-Packard are among the suppliers tagging cases of goods with RFID labels. Each tag contains an electronic product code that can be scanned at the manufacturer's warehouse, the retailer's warehouse, and store stockrooms and sales floors.
The tags help determine when an order was received, whether it was filled correctly, and how quickly it moves off the store shelves. The pilot program has helped Wal-Mart "to get the technology into the real world," said Wal-Mart executive Simon Langford, who is overseeing the chain's adoption of the radio frequency ID tags.
He called the initial test a success, with the tags properly read more than 90 percent of the time. Employees and consumers quickly adapted to the RFID technology, he added.
Customers Reassured
Shoppers rarely see the tags, which typically are used to track cases of products -- or entire pallets -- rather than individual items.
But to assure shoppers that the company is not using the technology to track what shoppers buy or gather other information, Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores involved in the pilot program have posted signs on their doors and along specific merchandise displays to explain how the electronic product codes and radio tags work.
Wal-Mart's top 100 suppliers and 37 smaller vendors that volunteered to participate in the pilot program this month will put RFID tags on some of the merchandise they ship to Wal-Mart. In the coming months, more suppliers and products will be added to the program. Wal-Mart expects to use RFID technology in 600 stores and 12 distribution centers by October.