Heres something you dont often hear how are you dealing with rifid? OR RFID. If you DO often hear it, then this article isnt for you, its far too simplistic. However, if you have never heard of RFID before, read on. It might just change your life, or at least the way you organize it. Radio Frequency Identification or RFID is the use of radio waves to identify objects; in English, the ability to track items without coming into contact with them. This is accomplished by a microchip attached to an antenna called transponders or tags. The chip transmits ID information to the receiver which converts it to a digital format which is then read by a computer.

RFID isnt new, its been with us in its current guise since the early 80s, and around since the 1920s you know the tag that they stick on jackets in the clothes store to stop you stealing them However, its just grown up; businesses can track products throughout the manufacturing process from start to finish. These items can be tracked while in trucks, on shelves, wherever.

The Benefits of RFID include:
1. The ability to eliminate time consuming bar-coding or other tracking processes. Instead, all data can be collected along the production line. This also helps to lower production costs.
2. Prevention of the distribution of counterfeit products.
3. Elimination or reduction of theft and loss.
4. Reduction of supply chain cost.
5. Elimination of data entry and other tedious manual business process transactions.
6. Increase in order fulfillment time
7. Less time spent in check out lines, as consumers will only have to push their shopping carts in front of the readers.

The predominant downside is the high cost of the RFID hardware. Where tags alone can cost twenty five cents each or more, many retailers wont get much of a return, if any, on their investment.

Its hoped that Wal-Mart, the Defense Department and others will start using RFID, which could cause the prices of the tags to drop to five cents each, making it a more affordable solution for many.