China drafts RFID standards, but compatibility expected.(Setting Efficiencies)

The dream of tracking goods in retail supply chains via RFID technology faces a distant but significant roadblock: China, the source for many manufactured goods, hasn't finalized its RFID standards. That translates into inefficiencies for suppliers to major retailers like Pacific Cycle, Chinese contract manufacturers make many of the bicycles sold by Pacific, a Madison, Wis.-based supplier of popular Schwinn, GT, and Mongoose brands.

Ed Matthews, IS director for Pacific, says that ideally the company would like its contract manufacturers to place RFID tags on the products, but that's not possible because China's standards aren't set. For now, says Matthews, Pacific is applying RFID tags at a stateside facility that meet the electronic product code...

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