Sooner or later, most consumer goods companies will encounter a downstream customer — think Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, or Target — that asks for product to be delivered with RFID tags and tracking. The prospect of ramping up an RFID infrastructure from scratch can be daunting, but progressive companies are already looking down that road.
For Sam's Club's current suppliers and prospective partners, the road is already underfoot.
Sam's Club's RFID project began in earnest in January, making suppliers that send product through the retailer's DeSoto, TX, distribution center responsible for adding RFID tags to the pallets they send. Manufacturers that fail to tag will incur a $2 per pallet charge, according to Sam's Club, increasing to $3 per tag as of January 2009.
Currently limited to the DeSoto distribution center and confined to pallet-level tagging, the program will expand markedly by 2010. Four additional Sam's Club distribution centers will require RFID tagging come fall 2008, with the remaining 17 coming on board next January.