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Is Wal-Mart Canada’s New RFID Strategy A Hint Of A Gentler Wal-Mart CIO?

Written by Evan Schuman
July 11th, 2006

Wal-Mart Canada’s new RFID program will be entirely voluntary, which is the latest tealeaf suggesting that the chain’s new CIO is adopting a gentler tone.

This is all going on with the background that Wal-Mart is still quietly struggling with its RFID efforts. “Wal-Mart is having significant problems. There are problems inside of Wal-Mart,” such as distribution centers that “can’t handle” Gen2 communications, one observer said. “They’re looking to replace those readers. They can’t comply with the latest standards.” To read the full story, please click here.

Posted in IT Strategy/Industry, RFID
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One Comment | Read Is Wal-Mart Canada’s New RFID Strategy A Hint Of A Gentler Wal-Mart CIO?

  1. Chris Kapsambelis Says:
    July 13th, 2006 at 6:44 am

    The initial RFID pilots are a failure. RFID Portals do not work and are being abandoned in favor of RFID Fork Lifts which will perform even worse. Smart Shelves don’t work and are being abandoned for heavy Hand-Held RFID Readers. Wal-Mart is going to have to retool before it can proceed. Look for this Canadian effort to stall and then fade away.

    Then, there is the wacky idea of RFID clad Wal-Mart associates running through a chaotic back room searching for items in demand. What happened to the expectation that RFID was capable of precisely tracking everything in the world automatically? Now we are being told that RFID can find everything that has ever been lost manually. Wow!

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