International retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, Tesco and Metro, who operate at razor thin margins in competitive and undifferentiated markets, have been looking to technologies like RFID to create opportunities that have a positive impact on the bottom line. RFID is being leveraged by these retailers to reduce stock-outs and improve visibility to inventory. For these retailers to fully leverage the potential of this technology their suppliers need to place RFID tags on cases and pallets that are delivered to their distribution centers and retail stores. This requirement from the retailers has placed a demand on Indian textile and pharmaceutical exporters to evaluate and adopt RFID. To apply RFID tags on cases and pallets shipped to retailers like Wal-Mart, the textiles and pharma exporters will have to deploy RFID technology in either their packaging facilities or in their distribution centers which ship to Wal-Mart. This allows the exporters to not just have accurate data on what was actually shipped to Wal-Mart on real-time basis but it also reduces the manual labor involved by automatic identification of the shipped cases and pallets. In addition by placing RFID readers at strategic locations within the facilities, exporters can collect further data to better understand the handling of goods within their facilities which can be analyzed to identify bottlenecks or process inefficiencies. Thus, RFID data can be leveraged to audit how well their facilities operate. Additionally, as RFID tagged goods reach retailers like Wal-Mart, the RFID infrastructure on the retailer's side collects data on what was actually received and where it currently is in the retailer's supply chain. This data, when made available to exporters, can be used to reconcile what was shipped against what was received and to apply any charge backs if applicable. This data can also be analyzed in real-time to better understand consumption patterns of goods within the retail stores, thereby resulting in better planning and replenishment of goods within the stores. Thus, Indian textile and pharmaceutical exporters can expect to improve their operations by leveraging RFID.

Indian manufacturers in industries ranging from automotive spare parts to healthcare equipment are evaluating how RFID can help improve their operations. The automatic identifications and data capture capability of RFID can help in better visibility in work-in-progress, tracking utilization of leased assets, inventory levels of expensive equipment and better tracking of samples for quality control and testing. In all of these areas, RFID can help by eliminating the need for manual labor to identify and track goods and assets while providing the ability to handle large volumes of goods in an automated environment as well as help identify the physical location of goods and assets. In the automotive manufacturing area, especially, RFID can be used to help ensure that correct parts are fitted to a particular specification of a vehicle. Also, applying RFID tags to reusable containers used to move automotive parts within the supply chain will help in better tracking and utilization of these containers. RFID tags on vehicles will ensure correct assembly and sequencing of assembly steps as well as help in locating the assembled vehicles in parking lots using Real Time Location Systems (RTLS).

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