An increasing number of mandates and the adoption of standards is driving the use of RFID technology, but this does not mean the end for barcodes, according to the industry.
“RFID is a technology that’s been around for decades,” said Rob McGregor, business development manager at Toshiba Tec Europe. “Why use RFID? To meet mandates.”
McGregor said that shops such as Marks & Spencer and Tesco, and large pharmaceutical companies are mandating that suppliers use RFID.
For pharmaceutical firms it is important for product authentication as the US drugs agency will hold the firms responsible for any deaths due to counterfeit drugs.
“RFID is not going to kill the barcode,” said Mark Gillott, CEO of industry-driven standards body, EPCglobal. “It will function at the same time and in 20 years time we will still have barcodes and RFID.”
RFID adoption has been held up by cost, technology and standards but Gillott said this is being overcome. “A combination of many things slowed it down. In the last 18 months many of these have been knocked down,” said Gillott. “From a standards point of view, it’s no longer a barrier for doing RFID.”
McGregor said there are limitations regarding RFID working in the presence of metals and moisture which will always be there, but it was “likely to improve as we become smarter”.
McGregor said the industry is very fragmented which has not helped adoption. It has launched ‘RFID@Toshiba’ to address this, offering access to everything for a complete RFID system.