There was tragic news this weekend which featured news accounts, pictures and video of the devastating effects of two separate typhoons that struck eastern Asia.  Typhoon Morakot struck both Taiwan and the mainland of China, resulting in the loss of human life, with hundreds still unaccounted for.  News reports indicate that the typhoon dumped more rain on Taiwan than any other 48 hour period since records began 100 years ago.  Over 80 inches of rain fell on some parts of the island, with Alishan in southern Chiayi County reporting that 118 inches of rain fell over a 3 day period. 

The storm weakened to a tropical storm status when it made landfall in mainland China, but according to The China Daily, has impacted more than 8.8 million people in three provinces.  The storm has toppled more than 6000 houses and inundated over 387,000 hectares of farmland. Direct economic losses have initially been estimated at $1.3 billion USD. China’s National Meteorological Center predicts violent rainstorms to continue in the southern region on Monday.  The impacted regions on mainland China supply much agricultural products including rice and tea, as well as providing manufacturing activities in certain industries. 

A separate storm, Typhoon Etau has slammed into the west coast of Japan with 13 people reported killed, and ten others missing. Authorities thus far have evacuated 47,000 persons. Transportation has already been disrupted including the closing of highways and suspension of rail lines in the impacted regions.

The effects of both typhoons are obviously still evolving as government and rescue agencies continue to deal with the ongoing effects of the storm on people, property and commerce.  Transportation to and from the impacted regions continues to be interrupted. 

Taiwan is a major area of high tech electronics and semiconductor manufacturing, and supply chain risk mitigation teams residing in these sectors should be mobilized to begin assessment of the storm and its impacts on supply or production, if any. 

In the coming days, teams should know more about the overall impacts to industry supply chains but from all of the initial reports, my sense is that supply chain impacts will be inevitable.

 Bob Ferrari

When RFID technology first came upon the supply chain scene in 2005, there was quite a bit of hype attributed to the technology.  Similar to the introduction of the bar code label, this technology had the potential to deliver untold benefits in the ability to once and for all connect the identity of a physical item with supply chain inventory tracking, planning, and analytical software applications.  There was much hype, driven by the infamous Wal-Mart and U.S. Department of Defense RFID mandates requiring suppliers to conform to tracking, as well as all sorts of technology companies who recognized the potential of this technology.  Our timing however, was somewhat premature. 

The context of RFID as one other option for deploying sensory network tools was overshadowed, while the economics of RFID investment were not attractive, and the momentum stalled.  The promise of RFID tags in the five cent per tag range that could justify item-level tagging were just not evident in the time horizon, and RFID deployments have for the most part been limited to asset and specialty item tracking.

It is interesting to note however that technology developments for RFID are continuing, and that goal is getting closer toward achievement. The ability to reach the elusive five cent goal, in my view, was pegged more toward printed label technology rather than semiconductor device laden tags.  Avery Dennison for one has been rolling out various RFID printed labels targeted for specific industry and product sectors.  An article penned by Steve Johnson of the San Jose Mercury News notes that another company, privately-held Kovio, is about to launch what is believed to be the first manufacturing plant for printed semiconductors.

Founded originally in 2001 by scientists at MIT, the company has now shifted its focus from flexible displays to printed semiconductors.  It is also interesting to note that the article also notes that Hewlett Packard has also been working on various printed electronics applications. While Kovio’s planned labels are not as complex and powerful as many other RFID chips, its CEO notes that the biggest benefit is cost, well within the five cent per tag range or lower.

The message for our community is to not give-up on RFID as another potential enabling technology for deploying sensory networks.  Printed semiconductor technology is advancing and similar to all other silicon-based technologies, there will come a time where the economics of RFID item tagging will come into play. The question will be when.

Bob Ferrari