Closed LoopCattle WranglingRegarding Ralph Kimball's "RFID Tags and Smart Dust," (July 18, 2003), I work for a company that currently sells business management software and services (data collection, storage, and analysis) for the livestock industry. We have been working with some key accounts in the area of unique animal identification for improving inventory management accuracy and, more important, supply chain management throughout the animal's life cycle. In RFID-based initiatives with these accounts, we quickly realized the benefits of electronically tagging livestock. However, most of the deployments required BPR [business process reengineering] efforts as part of the initial rollout, as well as a multitude of other issues. Other livestock factors: life of the product (the animal can live for two or more years), environment (extreme hot and cold weather), and wear and tear on equipment, such as handheld computers and RFID readers. In an industry with razor-thin margins, these factors can become major issues. A quick dimensional modeling note: The type 3 slowly changing dimension approach worked best for the animal dimension because up to 20 percent of the animals that were tagged at birth outlived the original tag. Also, 99 percent of cattle producers still use visual tags on their animals, and each segment uses its own tagging mechanism. Fortunately, we realized that standards were lacking for animal identification and designed our data warehouse with the necessary flexibility. In summary, I do agree with you that with technology improvements and lower price points, RFID will become a regular part of businesses worldwide. I also believe that more and more companies will be formed that will provide specialized horizontal technology solutions for their respective industries. RFID will introduce some major investments for companies that deployed business management systems (ERP or DSS) without these considerations. Steven Poliska
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