On my professional experience I have learned that every business and enterprise process shares several commonalities when compared to others. Operational efficiencies, supply chain, logistics, manufacturing, IT infrastructure, human resources, etc. There are several operational aspects on each business that are common across each industry and accepted as disciplines that are well established and managed as typical business processes. Yet each business has its own unique way to execute and depending on its size and market focus there are aspects that may only apply to the particular business.
On my opinion, this can be considered a business signature or business profile that is also noticed and experienced by the consumer that uses the end product or service. In a competitive business landscape most enterprises constantly work towards differentiating and adding value to its end users. In retail, for example, stock replenishment, material movement, forecast, distribution, and advertisement are critical besides the product market mix. Retail stores, to be competitive, must have the product in its shelves and product forecast depends on dynamic demand that puts pressure to the business supply chain.
What if there was a technology (or set of technologies) that enabled a differentiator and added competitive advantage increasing margins and diminishing operational deficiencies? Most likely the business would keep them as trade secrets for competitive advantage. RFID is one of those technologies and RFID suppliers and manufactures tout the benefits of RFID. Yet, RFID technologies still not widely adopted when compared to bar-code technology for example. On my opinion, one reason is that RFID must follow each unique business profile. This implies that RFID is a technology the must fit the existing business process and not the other way around. Therefore each RFID solution may be somewhat different from other similar business process elsewhere. In an age where most of us experience products and services that follow one size fits all or where a repeatable business model is desirable, RFID stands out as made to fit the business process. RFID is a wireless technology that is prone to interference, materials, polarization, RF power and frequency constraints. Therefore for a business to successfully deploy RFID needs to understand that RFID is all about the business and their application.
The best advise I provide to my customers when they ask me about RFID is why they believe they have the need for it. This conversation is key for operation managers, supply chain and logistics to understand so that the business buys internally the rightful need for such a system. In turn must business manager appreciate the advise and more often than not act on the suggestion. I believe business can greatly learn and discriminate form vendors that are product focus form customer/solution centric focus. This is a shift on business philosophy that will enable the wide adoption of RFID in the industry since this approach has a higher rate of success when compared to product centric vendors or solutions providers. In conclusion, RFID is a technology that is made to fit and businesses that see a need for RFID can increase their rate of success by adopting solutions form costumer and solution centric providers to bring value, uniqueness in their business profile and differentiation for their market.
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