According to a recent survey, a majority of U.S. supply chain executives consider RFID and Electronic Product Code (EPC) technologies important to their companies' supply chain management operations, with more than 85% of respondents deeming the technology extremely important, very important, or somewhat important. The survey, which was commissioned by EPCglobal US, polled more than 400 U.S. supply chain executives across multiple industries and found that 99% of those who consider themselves familiar with EPC/RFID technology cited the technology as extremely, very or somewhat important to the future of supply chain management. Manufacturers are slightly more likely than retailers to recognize the importance of the technology, with 87% of manufacturers putting RFID in the top-three categories, compared to 80% of retailers who chose those descriptors.

Meanwhile, RFID technology is getting a closer look lately from groups concerned about privacy issues that go along with it. A piece of legislation introduced in California that would ban uses of RFID for identification in California was held up in committee and may come up again in another session. State Sen. Joe Simitian was behind the legislation, which sought to prohibit use of RFID for three years for driver's licenses and student identification, library and health insurance cards. The main reason was that RFID radio signals potentially could be intercepted by unauthorized readers.

While not a direct concern for most businesses and shippers, the security issue may be the defining factor for some potential business adopters down the road.