Manufacturing Insights forms RFID Executive Council for retailers

The RFID Executive Council, a new professional organization formed by research and analysis firm Manufacturing Insights, will offer presentations by Best Buy Co. Inc. and Sears Holdings Corp. on an “alternative RFID technology” at its Sept. 28 inaugural meeting. The technology involves item-level tagging of several product categories.

“Our council takes a practical approach to improving business through RFID,” says Bob Parker, vice president of research at Manufacturing Insights, a unit of IDC Co., which is a subsidiary of IDG. RFID, or radio frequency identification technology, uses a system of radio frequency tags and readers to collect and distribute product information over the Internet, providing retailers and suppliers with information on products as they move through a supply chain.

The council is charging a membership fee of $45,000, though attendance is free at the Sept. 28 meeting’s general sessions for retailers and manufacturers involved with the main product categories covered by the council. Those categories include audio-video, computing, appliances, lawn & garden equipment, and media and entertainment.

The council is meant to appeal to retailers who are focused on practical ways to implement RFID programs, rather than just issuing mandates for supplier compliance, council chairman Pete Abell says. “The retailers involved in this alternative RFID effort are not interested in a mandate,” he says. “They want their suppliers to invest in the necessary infrastructure because it represents a compelling return to both parties. The product categories we’re addressing are more suitable to item-level tagging because the cost of a tag is marginal when selling prices are above $10 per unit or as high as thousands of dollars. There are many applications where RFID can improve performance.”

The council will focus on RFID applications that address areas such as data product data collection and recording of historical data at the factory level, guarding against counterfeit products, and providing end-to-end visibility of products as they move through a supply chain.