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RFID, Business Intelligence (BI), Mobile Computing, and the Cloud
inventory accuracy is particularly high in a clothing retail setting, especially in terms of
avoiding out-of-stock situations. A story may have 100 pairs of blue jeans on display
racks, but if there is not a pair in a customer’s size, then a sale is not possible. A 2007
pilot project at American Apparel Inc. resulted in sales increases of 14.3 percent in stores
that using RFID technology. Garment-level RFID tags also have the potential to reduce
employee theft by making it easier to check stockroom inventory and determine what
items are missing.
Pharmaceutical firms are also evaluating the use of RFID technology to comply with
requirements to combat counterfeit drugs. Regulatory agencies such as the FDA are
developing rules that would require companies to track pharmaceutical products down
to the package level. California is leading this trend with their ePedigree law that will
take effect on a staggered basis from January 1, 2015, through July 1, 2017. An 217
ePedigree is an electronic record that contains information regarding each transaction in
the supply chain that results in a change of ownership of the given prescription drug,
from initial manufacturer to returns from retailers. To accomplish this, manufacturers
mustcreateaunique serialnumberfor thesmallestpackagesizethatcan be soldto a
consumer.
RFID technology is also being employed to track medical devices. For example,
Spectrum Health’s Meijer Heart Center is using RFID technology to track stents—wire
mesh tubes that are implanted into weakened or narrowed cardiac arteries to keep them
open. The Meijer Heart Center implants thousands of stents each year, and managing the
inventory of stents is challenging. Stents are small, but can cost up to $2,000 each. In
addition, stents have an expiration date. In the past, manual systems were used to manage
stents, a time-consuming process that was error prone. Inventory accuracy in the old
system was 95 percent accurate—a figure that might sound good at first glance, but not
when you consider that if the heart center handles 2,000 stents per year (at $2,000 each),
a 5 percent inventory error becomes a $200,000 problem.
With the new system, stents are stored in RFID-enabled cabinets. Attached to each
stent is an RFID tag, which provides it with a unique identification number. To withdraw
a stent for use, a nurse swipes his or her ID card to a device attached to the cabinet.
Through the device, the nurse can then access a list of patients in the hospital database.
The nurse identifies the patient requiring the stent, and the cabinet unlocks. Then all the
nurse has to do is remove the required stents from the cabinet; the RFID technology
tracks which stents have been removed for the patient. In addition to tracking the
removal of inventory, the system sends the information on the stents used to the
hospital’s information system for patient billing. The system also monitors inventory levels
and triggers an order for new stents when necessary. If some of the stents that were
removed for a patient are not used, the nurse can return the stents to the cabinet, and the
RFID device will automatically credit the patient’s account. The system also tracks
expiration dates so employees can make sure those stents are used before their expiration
date. With the new RFID cabinet system, Spectrum’s inventory accuracy for stent
inventory is now nearly 100 percent.

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