Wal-Mart addresses missed RFID deadline

-- Packaging Digest, 4/1/2007

Wal-Mart recently acknowledged that radio frequency identification implementations in its distribution centers are behind schedule, but it says that the overall effort is on track, and it has hastened efforts to add the technology to its stores. According to a report in February by The Wall Street Journal, the company’s tests with the tags aren’t indicating the savings the company anticipated. A spokesman acknowledged that the company missed its goal of installing RFID technology in 12 of its 137 distribution centers by the end of 2006.

Though Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. expects the number of its stores using RFID systems to reach 1,000 in April, it has come under fire from some analysts and users for failing to meet its plan for installing the technology in the DCs. But Simon Langford, Wal-Mart’s director of RFID and transportation, was quoted as saying that several of Wal-Mart’s top suppliers are achieving benefits from tagging pallets, cases and promotional displays that are shipped to the DCs. He was also attributed as saying that the missed goal reflects a change in course by the company to instead concentrate on RFID enabling its retail stores. Despite the missed deadline, Langford also insisted that Wal-Mart’s overall RFID effort is on track and has been successful so far. “We’re accelerating [RFID adoption] and doing so at a greater pace than last year,” he added.