Technology trends: Large users sparking new growth in RFID market
By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 5/26/2008 2:37:00 PM MDT
Several large multinational companies have demonstrated a renewed commitment to the use of RFID in their supply chains over the past year, and that signals a pending growth spurt for companies that develop and sell this technology, according to new analysis from ABI Research.
European aerospace manufacturer Airbus recently announced a significant commitment to RFID technology for numerous projects throughout its supply chain and assembly operations. In January, Sam's Club, a division of Wal-Mart, announced its RFID compliance program for retail CPG manufacturers in the US, while in Europe and Asia, Metro AG is interested in RFID supply chain applications. And, most recently, the U.S. Department of Defense announced a new RFP for passive UHF solution components.
ABI Research predicts these announcements, combined with others that are destined to be made by other companies, will push the total RFID market to roughly $9.7 billion by 2013, representing a 15 percent compound annual growth from 2008.
"These figures highlight an RFID market that is growing robustly," says research director Michael Liard. "Across all product categories and flavors of RFID technology, market trends continue to be positive. We saw a strong finish to 2007, which continued into a healthy first quarter of 2008."
The commitments to RFID by Wal-Mart, Airbus, and the DoD indicate the technology is gaining popularity across vertical markets. Laird says it also is gaining favor in the energy and utilities, healthcare, transportation (for asset management), and the fashion apparel and footwear sectors (for item-level tagging), particularly among specialty retailers.
The energy, healthcare, and transportation sectors are deploying the technology primarily as a means of keeping track of high-value assets, while apparel and footwear companies—particularly specialty retailers—have begun doing item-level tracking to augment inventory management processes.
Liard concludes, "Future RFID market growth will come from many sources and applications. ABI Research sees growing strength across many industries, including those applications that are unique to particular verticals, as well as those—such as asset tracking, security/access control, and supply chain management—that are common to a range of verticals."
