Target Pushes RFID Adoption

Target is joining the ranks of Wal-Mart, Metro Group, and the Department of Defense in requiring suppliers to use RFID tags on cases and pallets shipped to them. The retailer wants top suppliers to use RFID for shipments heading to several distribution facilities by spring 2005, and all suppliers to do so by spring 2007. "We see RFID as a complement to current bar-code and EDI technologies," CIO Paul Singer wrote in a note to suppliers on the company's Web site. "Target supports a retail-industry migration approach."

The retailer is testing concepts with several suppliers. Target's guidance is similar to that from other RFID backers, says Sue Hutchinson, product manager with EPC Global, a group working to define RFID standards. "Everyone is working to make sure, wherever humanly possible, that guidance given to manufacturers is similar," she says, "so that we aren't making them nuts with totally different requirements."