After a decade of conducting pilots to track the movements of supplies using active and passive radio frequency identification tags across multiple agencies, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is entering phase two of its RFID deployment, with an eye toward adopting end-to-end solutions, according to Paul Peters, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for supply chain integration. These end-to-end solutions would allow greater visibility across the DOD's supply chain, thereby reducing the risk of errors, enhancing safety and security, and lowering expenses through reductions in inventory and improved utilization of labor devoted to tracking items at each point along that supply chain.
That second phase will involve the use of RFID data integrated with the DOD's existing enterprise resource planning software, as well as certain legacy systems, providing the DOD with insight into business processes, and thus identifying areas in which efficiencies might be improved.
