EDITORIAL
Sustainability through RFID?
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When you hear the word sustainability, what comes to mind? Earth-friendly stuff, like recycling, green energy, and waste reduction? How about RFID?
For Wal-Mart, use of radio-frequency identification is key to sustainability. “RFID is not a magic bullet, but it is a combination of things,” said Rollin Ford, chief information officer and executive vice president for Wal-Mart. RFID can help companies identify “the right product, right place, right time, and the right price, and it can move beyond to sustainability.” Ford gave the keynote address at RFID Journal Live in Orlando, FL, on April 30.
Efficiency has always been important to Wal-Mart. Now, the global retailer is counting on RFID to drive its “21st-century focus on cleaner, healthier, more-efficient ways to live,” said Ford. Referring to packaging and transport, he said that Wal-Mart is looking at “how technology plays a role in improving quality and lowering costs.”
RFID has a distinct role to play in reducing healthcare costs, he continued. “We need a new healthcare delivery system that reduces costs, achieves new efficiencies, and improves safety and quality for all American consumers. We also need supply-chain efficiencies in receiving, inventory management, and replenishment. And we need standards.”
Ford said that the healthcare industry has made little progress in these areas, many of which were established by the Efficient Healthcare Consumer Response initiative. “There is no widespread method today for efficient and safe product movement. The same bar coded products that come to us are not bar coded for hospitals.”
Ever the low-cost leader, Wal-Mart believes that EPCglobal has a vital role to play in creating business value in RFID, said Ford. “EPCglobal has to connect the dots: product flow, visibility, information flow, and data. Inaccurate data causes miss picks, wrong items shipped, errors in receiving, and inaccurate inventory. These all lead to out-of-stocks and overstocks.”
Connecting the dots himself, Ford said that “accuracy leads to efficiency, and efficiency leads to sustainability.”
Inventory efficiencies aside, RFID’s contributions to sustainability could spread outside the business world. “Every day, 24 million shoppers visit Wal-Mart stores,” reported Ford. “In-stocks could translate into gas savings by reducing return trips.”
Further, Ford asked the audience to imagine these scenarios made possible by RFID:
- Peace of mind that a prescription is the right product and right dose.
- Highest quality of food.
- Best price given the efficient supply chain.
- Authentic products.
- Healthcare more affordable.
- Checkouts in under 30 seconds.
- Recycling without manual sorting.
Ford was definitely cheerleading for RFID, but his insistence that the wireless technology can lead to sustainable healthcare is more than just a game-side observation. Products, especially healthcare products, need better identification methods and more supply chain visibility. And everyone involved in the healthcare supply chain needs better data.
A few short years ago, bar codes looked like they could provide that data. Now, maybe it’s RFID. Regardless of the technology, better product identification and better data are key
to sustaining the healthcare industry.
Daphne Allen
Editor
