Suppliers and retailers must work together to narrow down the best possible placement and type of RFID tag.

Label tracking and traceability has come a long way thanks to RFID tags. Supply chain businesses will likely see even more improvements to their effectiveness and reliability in the near future as the Board of Directors of the Voluntary Interindustry Commerce Solutions Association (VICS) has recently announced new guidelines for the identification, serialization and placement of Electronic Product Code (EPC)-enabled RFID tags, according to a press release.

Under the new requirements, suppliers and retailers must work together to narrow down the best possible placement and type of RFID tag that streamlines production and doesn't cost too much for either party.

Additionally, the VICS Board of Directors has announced that it will endorse the GS1 U.S. Serialization Management Working Group approach to reinforce the GS1 General Specification, which gives a product's brand owners sole possession of the serial numbers.

"The VICS board's decision to adopt the guidelines for tag placement and performance and serialization gives a strong signal to the industry that all trading partners need to move beyond limited trials and consider full fledged rollouts of RFID systems at the item level," Joe Andraski, president and CEO of VICS, said in a statement.

"The improvement in inventory accuracy alone has proven to deliver more than enough to pay for the investment. Now that we have a growing number of standards to guide companies through the process, the initial outlay for these systems is likely to decrease," he added.

This isn't the first time that the VICS board has encouraged supply chain businesses to adhere to GS1 criteria. In the past, VICS board members agreed to endorse GS1's EPC standards that called for companies to identify, capture and share information about their inventory and processes in real time, the release states.