Production/operations Management from Light Frequency Identification (lfid) to Radio Frequency Identification (rfid) in the Supply Chain Automatic Identification

Conceivably one of the most successful technologies in the history of retail supply chain has been bar code identification along with the Universal Product Code (UPC) symbology and numbering system (Larurer). The first item with a UPC bar code, taken to a cashier for scanning by a customer, was a 10-pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit chewing gum. It happened on June 26, 1974, at Marsh’s supermarket in Troy, Ohio. Which retail store will make a similar historical hallmark with respect to radio frequency identification (RFID) and Electronic Product Code (EPC) in the U.S.? Answering this question is hard because there are many technological as well as social obstacles that should be resolved first. Perhaps a more sensible question to ask is how would the RFID technology evolve, will RFID offer a strategic advantage for adopters, and where is the ROI? For a meaningful analysis, one needs to understand the current status of automatic identification technologies and the corresponding standards as they relate to supply-chain applications. They include bar coding (Exhibit 1), Global Trade Item Number (GTIN, a superset of UPC) (Exhibit 2), RFID (Exhibit 3), and EPC (Exhibit 4). Understanding bar coding may also help better anticipate the future of RFID. Interestingly, from a technological standpoint, both rely on the electromagnetic (EM) energy for data transmission. Bar coding uses light or infrared frequencies, but RFID uses radio or microwave which has lower frequencies than light in the EM spectrum. Using an analogy similar to RFID, we may refer to bar coding as light frequency identification, or LFID, which inspired the title of this article. LFID seems to be more meaningful and inclusive than bar coding as Exhibit 1 indicates because some of the so-called “bar code” symbologies do not have bars; they have dots instead.