Challenges of RFID (3): What should the managers do?

Filed in archive Interviews on September 6, 2005

(This is the last part of my interview with Anita Campbell on challenges of RFID industry)What do you think Supply Chain Managers, CIOs and other professionals in charge of IT in their organizations should do to deal with these challenges?They need to do two things above all else:

(1) Read and get training: A recent workforce study by RFID Tribe showed that most people have very little experience and formal education in RFID. Sixty percent of those responding had 2 years or less work experience in RFID. More than 70% had no formal training whatsoever. RFID is simply new to many organizations. So, ensuring that the learning curve within the organization can be mastered will be critically important. Managers and executives need to understand the basics of RFID not only for their own decision-making, but also must ensure that their teams are well-versed and ready to evaluate and deploy RFID.

(2) Do enough up-front work and break down projects into manageable chunks: The best thing that any executive or manager can do is to make sure enough time is spent up front evaluating why, how and where to deploy RFID within the organization. A clear strategy and plan needs to be developed in advance. This will save missteps and costly mistakes later on. Also, it is foolhardy to attempt to implement RFID across an entire supply chain or in wide swaths. The chances for success increase dramatically if a deployment is broken down into smaller-sized projects, and taken one at a time. Only when one piece is successfully deployed, should the organization then move on to the next piece.