Thousands of hours and millions of dollars are spent each year by retailers and CPG companies to resolve conflicts and discrepancies caused by mis-matched and out-of-date item data. Now, all that is about to change.

In a perfect world, the tight coordination of systems and processes would allow goods to flow continuously from manufacturer to customer. With total understanding of consumer demand, who needs a lot of excess product taking up valuable real estate? • Second in the Best Practices series.

Even if you are not among Wal-Mart's top 100 suppliers, the retail giant's push for RFID labels at the case and pallet level by January 2005 deserves your attention. The mandate will have repercussions throughout the supply chain.