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| To the extent that the much-touted “RFID revolution” is underway, it is occurring somewhat out of public sight – in warehouses, distribution centers, and other stages of the supply chain. RFID’s impact on the flow of goods through distribution channels has implications not just for manufacturers, suppliers, and retailers, but also for the consumers. |
| Supply chain management objective is to increase the long-term performance of individual companies and the overall supply chain by maximizing customer value and minimizing costs. Not all companies achieve these goals with the same strategy. A supply chain is either agile or lean and given this, a different approach to increase the efficiency and effectiveness is adopted. Companies such as Wal-Mart and Dell have gained efficiencies by having a clear understanding and a tight commitment to deliver customer value by maximizing not only the value provided by their companies but also aligning their partner's interest to create unique supply chains. |
| Enhance supply-chain control: |
| As the location of a part can be identified at every transfer point with accuracy, the whole supply-chain can be controlled with close to 100% accuracy. |
| Security and authentication: |
| A RFID tag can be written with an identifier chosen by the enterprise. This unique identifier can be used to authenticate a part or a document. The RFID technology also supports encryption and other security models so that a tag cannot be easily duplicated or forged. |
| Enhanced customer service: |
| The RFID technology can promote customer service by allowing faster check-outs, returns, and personalization of service. |
| RFID will have a significant impact on every facet of supply chain management—from the simple tasks, such as moving goods through loading docks, to the complex, such as managing terabytes of data as information about goods on hand is collected in real time. It has a potential to dramatically improve supply chain by reducing costs, inventory levels, lead times, stock outs and shrinkage rates; increasing throughput, quality, manufacturing flexibility, inventory visibility, inventory record accuracy, order accuracy, customer service, and the collaboration among supply chain members. |