DoD wants RFID

It seems it's no longer just Marks and Spencer and assorted supermarkets that are looking to tracking technology to increase efficiency – the latest organisation to announce its conversion to RFID is the US Department of Defense.

And while the DoD has yet to reveal whether it'll be using the technology to track down those pesky armaments that keep going missing and which particular agent lost them down the back of sofa, but it will be putting the tags to work to help out with inventory taking.

The idea behind the adoption is to enable what the DoD calls "hands-off processing". And no, that's not a request for the light-fingered agents. RFID will allow the Department of Defense to cut down the time needed to identify and account for their inventory by removing the human element.

The tags will be attached to the lowest part or pallet of the stock in question. While the DoD is hoping to roll out the scheme across its stock, certain items will escape the tagging drive – notably sand, gravel and liquids.

The DoD is hoping to "realign resources and streamline business processes" as a result of the technology, as well as improving data quality and get their supply chain running more smoothly.

The RFID tags will be in place throughout the department by January 2005 – the department plans to have its policy and implementation strategy sorted out shortly before that, in June 2004.