Tangible RFID Benefits

As you can see by this month's cover, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is alive and well with one of the industry's biggest thought leaders: Johnson & Johnson (J&J). With 2005 sales at more than $50 billion, J&J is a company that stands to reap unknown supply chain efficiencies from the incredible visibility that RFID offers. Think about the thousands of SKUs across the 50-plus countries where J&J products are sold. Now think about knowing exactly where all of these products are and how they are selling at retail. It's an awesome scenario to say the least, but as you'll soon read, even J&J execs agree that RFID technology is still in its infancy and has many technical glitches to work out before it can truly be deemed the next heir to the barcode. Most companies that share the same RFID outlook as J&J also agree that the price of tags need to come down (way down) before RFID can begin to make sense from an IT investment standpoint.

Tangible RFID Benefits

A very tangible RFID business case is also beginning to percolate in the trade promotions arena. Walgreens (Page 20) has embarked on a project with 15 of its biggest suppliers to track and monitor the performance of promotional displays across 5,000 of its stores. So instead of looking at historical POS data to determine promotional viability, a rising number of consumer goods execs are now able to turn their brokers into "firefighters" as one pharma exec recently put it. Knowing the root cause of a promo problem as it happens is something the industry has been craving for quite some time. Don't wait for an invitation from Walgreens. Look into the incredible business benefits that RFID can generate today within your promotional strategy. It's low-hanging fruit just waiting to be picked.