How Manufacturers are Improving Processes by Using RFID

Bill McBeath

Published on Dec 13, 2006

While many manufacturers are adopting RFID by force of mandate, even more of them are seeking ways to use the technology to improve their operations. Our survey of 275 manufacturing companies across a wide range of enterprise sizes and industries found that two-thirds of the companies' RFID implementations were driven in part or entirely by process improvement goals, rather than just by customer mandates. The actual and potential uses of RFID are astonishingly wide-ranging and diverse. Not every conceivable use of RFID makes sense, at this time. But time is an important factor. The cost of tags, maturity of solutions, and availability of skilled implementers, is improving dramatically over a short period of time. Ever-increasing numbers of RFID-enabled business process improvements are becoming feasible and cost-justified. Selecting the right approach and timing requires knowledge and creativity. This report illustrates many different examples of actual implementations, including the goals, and results. It describes survey findings in detail, such as the percentage of companies using RFID for various specific process improvements. By seeing all the different facets of actual implementations, we can begin to recognize the patterns and how they might apply to each of our own companies.