Testing times for RFID tags

Last week’s news that supermarket giant Tesco has delayed rollout of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology by several years is clear evidence of the technology’s growing pains.

Tesco initially tagged pallets of high-value goods such as razors and mobile phones, but limitations have forced it to tag returnable transport items such as cages and trolleys in depots instead (Computing, 29 June).

Nigel Montgomery, RFID specialist at analyst AMR Research, says retailers have faced challenges with readability, interference and consistency.

‘Because many RFID readers are situated close to consumers, retailers must use low power, which does not offer flexibility to read over distances,’ he said.

‘Then there is the issue of whether the reader can read large volumes of information fast or accurately enough.’

RFID tags on returnable cages can also run into difficulties when the cages are folded together, because this creates a different consistency that interferes with the reading.

Peter Harrop, chairman of RFID research specialist IDTechEx, says confusing standards do not help. ‘The ultra-high frequency has caused a lot of problems with one reader interfering with another, and it has no prospect of offering the necessary efficiency in reading tags,’ he said.

‘Radio regulations are also more hostile than in the US. It is a real dog’s dinner.’

Despite the US being further advanced than Europe in use of RFID, US companies have also had problems, including food manufacturer Del Monte.

Del Monte tested RFID in warehouse conditions for 18 months, subjecting tags to interference from mobile phones and other electronic devices. The tags’ ultra-high frequencies caused immediate difficulties because of interference from metals and liquid.

‘This created a challenge for us: how do you put on a tag that you know will not work with metals? All our products are in cans or encased in foil,’ logistics systems manager Jim Lamagna told Computing last year (Computing, 29 September).

But Marks & Spencer, involved in one of the world’s largest rollouts of item-level tagging, has avoided many of the problems experienced by large retailers.

Because M&S has limited tagging to clothing, there is no interference from metal or liquid and scanning.

AMR’s Montgomery says retailers should not use Tesco’s problems as an excuse to hold back testing the benefits of RFID.

Tagging snags

* The initial Tesco pilot tagged delivery pallets of high-value items, but limitations prevented the planned nationwide rollout to 1,400 shops and 30 distribution centres, to just 40 shops and one distribution centre

* Tesco cited problems with radio frequency standards, high number of readers in the warehouse affecting performance, slow read speeds and insufficient tag quality.

* US food manufacturer Del Monte had problems with non-interoperable tags, and decided against expanding its RFID pilot.

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Further reading

Tesco RFID trials hit problems

Tesco remains on course to meet RFID rollout deadline

Interest in RFID grows