Barriers to RFID Adoption in the Supply Chain

This paper explores the current barriers to adoption of radio-frequency identification (RFID) for supply chain applications, and documents the perceptions of key players in the Australian RFID market. The paper contains data collected from interviews of both technology providers (e.g. RFID vendors), and prospective business customer (i.e. a large retailer). Data collected is analyzed using qualitative content analysis, and supported with figures and tables. The findings show that the three main barriers to RFID adoption are: the cost of RFID implementation (especially ongoing tag costs), lack of customer awareness and education, and a technology which is only at the beginning of its lifecycle curve in terms of supply chain deployment. Prospective customers are also finding it difficult to justify a business case solely on RFID. Enter the idea of convergence between the long standing barcode and RFID technology. This paper argues that both technologies will co-exist in parallel, each with its specific function and set of advantages.