RFID Training: The Best Hope For RFID ROI By Robert Sabella, OTA Training, LLC

RFID technology arrived on the scene with all the subtlety of a hurricane and all the stability of that tower in Pisa, Italy. Basically the word came down from on high and an industry was born. It's safe to say most companies did not have the internal resources to meet the challenge of RFID in the timeframe given, when a certain mass-market retailer mandated its top suppliers to start using RFID for supply chain operations. The big names had to act fast and the resources available to fill the slots were basically non-existent. So they either hired one of the few companies with a handle on the technology or they went through the often torturous process to RFID compliance through trial and error. Mostly error.

It wasn't pretty. Not only was there a shortage of knowledgeable personnel, but the only way you could get any training was to pay a manufacturer to let them try and sell you their product. ROI (return on investment) didn't top companies' lists. Scrambling to meet a retailer's deadline took precedence. At first, we had companies tagging cases and pallets at various volumes. Some had automated processes and some had slap and ship processes. Back then, what everyone mostly had was overhead.

Today, RFID as a technology is growing and changing. But ROI, especially for compliance driven implementations, isn't coming from buying equipment, buying tags, buying labor and inserting new processes into your supply chain. Not yet anyway ...