RFID Technology at Walmart

Abstract

The technological advancements have significant impact on businesses and the way business are conducted. RFID can be seen as a major way to manage product arrivals, purchases and inventories for companies. The influence of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) on Walmart is very obvious and bringing various commercial benefits. The current literature shows vast use of RFID technology in different organization that range from the retailers to the use of implants in humans. This paper aims to understand the importance of RFID technology and examine its role at Walmart.



Table of Contents

Abstract2

Introduction4

Discussion6

RFID Technology7

RFID at Walmart8

Conclusion11

References13

RFID Technology at Walmart

Introduction

In today's rapidly changing business environment, businesses are now more dependent on information technologies and also investing on data security to protect their data (Magal & Word, 2009). No doubt, the implementation of information technology became paramount for business success. However, it brought several challenges along as well. Electronic commerce is a platform for not just larger business but for small businesses as well to sell their products in a virtual global market (Laudon, 2011). Since its emergence in mid 90s, the internet trading has significantly increased and attracted many small, medium and large businesses. RFID or Radio Frequency Identification can be seen as an effective technology to conduct business in an efficient way (Reyes, 2012). In fact, RFID uses a wireless radio frequency system (chip) that transfers data from a host (to which it is attached) to a data reader. Because, this system uses radio waves instead of bar codes it may also be imbedded into objects and does not need to be straight sighted to be read. This technology is far more advanced today than ever before (Miles et al., 2011).

According to Maloni (2005), RFID was first invented by Leon Theremin in 1945. It is important to know that Theremin invented this technology while experimenting with different espionage tools for the Soviet Union. Word of the new technology finally got out and other countries followed suit to gain a competitive edge on other countries. For example, the United States Army used these chips in the early days to track pallets and bundles through the logistics pipeline. According to the Department of Defense, the chips were also used to provide standoff visibility for container contents (Reyes, 2012). It is also essential to know that this technology was used heavily by the military years ago and it is still being used today by all branches of the armed forces. In fact, data rich RFID tags were used in the last war in Iraq for mandated material entering the theatre of conflict. This technology is also used by many industries in the civilian realm today such as pharmaceutical, agricultural and automotive.

RFIDs technologies were made in 1948, but it did not come into the commercial applications until the 1980s. One of its first known applications was during World War II, when it was used by the RADAR (radio detection and ranging) system of Britain to distinguish between German aircraft and their own ...