February 16, 2007
RFID and Wal-Mart: Going Over Like A Lead Balloon?
I doubt even a "little" thing such as supplier revolt will divert the steamroller known as Wal-Mart from pushing their RFID program forward. While suppliers probably aren't at the revolt stage yet, it does appear that they're not thrilled but afraid to criticize. And they have yet to find an ROI (return on investment), mainly because Wal-Mart declared last year that suppliers had to not only comply but had to find their own ROI. Wal-Mart wouldn't help.
That's a huge mistake, as far as I'm concerned. Instead of acting like a dictatorial government and holding threats of financial ruin over every supplier's head, they could have taking their integration sessions a bit further and nudged suppliers along with advice. Sure they're in business to make money. So charge for it then and stop being doofuses. I can't see Wal-Mart bartering, but you never know. For financially -strapped suppliers, Wal-Mart could consider product in exchange for some help finding ways to make RFID work for individual suppliers.
Ultimately, helping their suppliers find the ROI is a much wiser course of action that would help RFID take a better toehold in the supply chain. Not doing so suggests that Wal-Mart doesn't really care about anything but their bottom line - which is already the perception people in small towns have, where the retail giant has displaced mom and pop stores.
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