New Disappointment for $12 million RFID Project

A leading advocate of Radio Frequency Identification, (RFID), has been the US Department of Defense (DoD). After announcing in early 2007 that contractors were required to put passive RFID tags on shipments to the DoD's Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) operated distribution depots, it seems as though compliance has not been close to 100%. This week a report from the DoD's Office of Inspector General showed that in an audit carried out between December 2007 and January of this year, shipments from vendors who signed contracts to provide RFID tags, 43% failed to contain the required tag.

The DoD has spent over $12 million on the RFID project to improve supply chain visibility and the results of this audit are obviously disappointing. For companies considering RFID implementation this is another indication that vendors are either unwilling or unable to fulfill their RFID responsibility.