The potential of RFID technology in the textile and clothing industry. Opportunities, requirements and challenges

In the current competitive environment companies need to extensively exploit the use of advanced technologies in order to develop a sustainable advantage, enhance their operational efficiency and better serve customers. In this context, RFID technology has emerged as a valid support for the company progress and its value is becoming more and more apparent in several industrial contexts. In particular, the textile and clothing industry, characterised by short life-cycles,quick response production, fast distribution, erratic customer preferences and impulsive purchasing, is one of the sectors which can extensively benefit from the RFID introduction. However, actual applications are still very limited, especially in the upstream side of the supply network. This chapter provides an insight into the main benefits and potentials of this technology and highlights the main issues which are currently inhibiting its large scale development in the textile and clothing industry. The experience of two industry-academia projects and the relative fallouts are reported