http://www.ihelpyoublog.com/20070316-101-great-posting-ideas-that-will-make-your-blog-sizzle

Thanks, Philip, by way of Chris.

Pricing
As a follow-up to UPM and Avery putting forward announcements of a 10% price increase, we have a few observations and a comment. With respect to our observation, we have heard of several instances where existing customers have been told that their pricing won’t change, potentially undermining the cost increase effort. Our view is that this is a natural phenomenon as customers place significant resistance to the increase and individual salesmen seek to protect their relationships. Our view is that it is too early to truly understand to what extent the price increase will take hold. Our comment is this – the companies should be absolutely focused on pricing the tags appropriately to make a profit. It is time to focus on customers that will gain appropriate value from RFID and are willing to pay accordingly. And, it is sure not time for one vendor to play price games to gain share. It is an emerging market that needs to realize value to progress, playing a share game is not helpful.

I think it would be premature for the major players to wage war on market share by dumping or loss-leading.

But, then again, I’ve always advcated a price-plus pricing model.  I believe in this day and age, consumers are sympathetic to the constrains on an organization.  They recognize that companies are out there to make a modest profit.  So, if there is transparency, and companies are saying “hey, this is how much it costs us to produce product or service x and we’re going to charge you x plus y% profit,” consumers get that–they’re okay with it.

Consider that more than 34,000 of the 5.25M people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease in the United States wander out of their homes or care facilities each year (missingpatient.com).  Elopement, as it is known in the industry, is a real problem.   According to Dennis Thompson, Jr. in an article on everydayhealth.com, “fewer than four out of every 100 adults with memory impairment who wander away from home are able to return without assistance.  ‘If not found within the first 24 hours, half will experience serious injury or death.’”

We propose using an active RFID tag on patients susceptible to elopement and then an array of readers to provide RTLS and zone access/restriction.  Our analysis suggests that assisted living facilities will benefit from this type of setup in several ways.  First, we believe that they can market this product to their patients and their families and markup the equipment that they purchase from us.  This will provide an additional revenue stream.  Second, we expect this type of product will reduce their staffing needs and may reduce construction costs of facilities.  These costs would be replaced by the costs for the RFID solution, but would be passed directly onto their clients.

Also of note is the benefit conferred to the families of these patients.  Our solution includes web-based platforms which family members could log into and see the current location of the patient.  This will provide much needed peace of mind and a new way to stay engaged in the life of the patient.

Bhima & Brothers Jewellers (B&BJ) is tracking its high-value inventory and providing customers with immediate information regarding its jewelry, with an RFID system deployed at one of its five stores. The system has reduced the amount of time the store requires to take inventory from 36 man-hours down to one, and has decreased the time necessary to complete a sales transaction from between six and eight minutes, to less than one minute.

This is the type of project that will generate a positive ROI—something that is desparately needed to push RFID into the mainstream.

1. By using RFID to track wandering patters of suspected dementia patients, researchers have been able to accurately diagnose dimentia.
   http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/4542/
2. By sewing an RFID tag in the clothing of dementia patients, Shady Palms assisted-living facility can accurately respond to eloping (fleeing) patients.
   http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/4610/
3. Elderly facilities in England use RFID buttons sewn to clothing to avoid frustrating apparel mix-ups.
   http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/4511/

Finding these examples adds legitimacy to the market research we are undertaking for our class project referenced earlier.

Improvements are often best made on the margin.  Particularly in large, well developed organizations, much of the efficiency has already been squeezed out.  Stop looking for something to change your world over night and look for several (or many) things that will change your world just a little bit.  Consider the compass-heading analog.  If you are off course by a few degrees in the beginning, you wind up way off course the further out you go.  So goes efficiency improvements.  Small differences can manifest change dramatically over time, either by growing exponentially themselves or by turning you on to new ideas as you slowly evolve.  Agile is a great illustration of this concept.  Do something, take a snapshot and re-evaluate.  Small, incremental changes will begin to lead you in directions you never knew were possible.

Instead of one 10% improvement, consider ten 1% improvements.

Early competition appears to be Project Lifesaver.

Perhaps a good extension of the mirror is a rear-view mirror.  I like this quick review from Supply Chain Digest: http://www.scdigest.com/assets/On_Target/09-01-15-4.php?cid=2161.