The key issue surrounding RFID during its emergence as a technology has been how to best derive value from it. The potential to provide clarity to otherwise obscure processes led companies to first apply the technology to back-end areas such as inventory or supply chain management. Unfortunately, as with any new technology solution, implementation was sometimes not quite as easy as it looked. While it would be a gross overstatement to claim growth in passive-tag supply chain applications has stalled, it has certainly not met the industry’s original growth expectations.
October 21, 2007
How Wal-Mart lost its technology edge
Sam Walton didn’t care much for technology. The legendary patriarch of Wal-Mart Stores was well-known for his lack of excitement about “computers,” as he called the company’s IT systems. “Truthfully, I never viewed computers as anything more than necessary overhead,” he wrote in his 1992 memoir, Made in America. “A computer is not-and will never be-a substitute for getting out in your stores and learning what’s going on.”
