That was the message Tuesday from a user panel at the RFID World conference in Grapevine, Texas, that looked at the myths associated with RFID implementations. While still not fully mature, RFID is rapidly becoming a stable, proven technology that has quantifiable return on investment and can deliver unique visibility into the supply chain, users said. But that added visibility comes at a price.

'In reality, it costs money,' said Jim McMasters, senior vice president of IS at Tandy Brands Accessories Inc.

When the fashion accessory maker partnered with Wal-Mart Stores on a vendor-managed inventory project, Tandy Brands found working with RFID relatively easy. But, 'anything you do is going to cost some money,' McMasters said.

He sees RFID use as a chance to be on the cutting edge of new technology. But to succeed, a 100% commitment to such projects -- and the support of senior management -- is needed. Additionally, there must be a plan in place to exploit all of the data provided by the tags, said McMasters.

Clothing manufacturer VF Corp. chose to wait for the price of RFID tags to drop before implementing the technology, said James Jackson, director of vendor relationship management at the company. However, because it took several years for VF to launch its RFID program, the company and its business processes changed, as did the need for the RFID systems, Jackson said. The company shifted to doing more contract manufacturing abroad rather than making clothes domestically, making the need to track merchandise from factory to distribution center 'someone else's problem,' he said.