Wal-Mart Grows Its RFID Initiative

Expecting that the use of Gen 2 will increase and become an industry global standard, Wal-Mart has adopted them as their only RFID tags. As remaining Gen 1 tags finish making their way through Wal-Mart distribution networks, the company will convert all of its systems to read only Gen 2 tags.

Rollin Ford, the company’s executive vice president and chief information officer explains that, “Recent internal analysis of our ongoing efforts, along with the launch of EPCglobal Generation 2 tags reinforces the value of this technology for Wal-Mart, our suppliers and ultimately our customers.”

Wal-Mart expects its next 300 largest suppliers to begin shipping test cases with Gen 2 tags in October and to have them go live in January 2007. When that is accomplished, Wal-Mart will have more than 600 suppliers working with it in the use of RFID technology.