In addition, the price of RFID equipment dropped considerably during the evaluation, further reducing start-up costs, Shields noted.

Shields also said that TI created an RFID study team with employees from IT, supply chain operations, field sales and the finance department, letting each part of the organization feel invested in the project.

Kevin Brown

"We were compliant for under half a million dollars," said Shields. "We were meeting our customer's requirements. That's what business is. You can't always measure it as ROI. Part of it is more of an ROR—a return on relationship."

Meanwhile, Daisy Brand has extended the RFID efforts undertaken for Wal-Mart into other parts of its business.

Kevin Brown, director of information systems at Daisy, said the return-on-investment criteria weren't based meeting a single customer's requirements, but on how the technology addressed the supplier's own business needs.

"If you don't do anything with [RFID for yourself], the payback period is obviously going to be longer," Brown added.

Five months after Daisy became compliant with Wal-Mart's edict, an entire inventory management system based on pallet tags had been implemented. As goods move through facilities, workers don't have to take notes, since all pallets are tracked by RFID readers. A Second Chance

The experiences of Daisy Brand and TI could provide helpful lessons to small and midsize suppliers, should Wal-Mart revive its mandate.

And analysts say that the recent launch of an RFID program at Wal-Mart unit Sam's Club, a warehouse retail chain, could signal an imminent resumption of the program.

Wildeman noted that more than half of Sam's Club's suppliers are also Wal-Mart suppliers. "If you're asking a large portion of those same suppliers to start tagging to avoid a penalty, is that a step in the overall Wal-Mart journey to get its suppliers to be compliant?" he asked.

Sam's Club announced its plan on Jan. 7 and ordered that tags be attached to all pallets shipped to its DeSoto, Texas, distribution facility by Feb. 1.

Other distribution centers will come online as part of a graduated rollout over the next two and a half years.

Simley noted that untagged pallets that arrive at distribution centers after deadlines will be tagged by Wal-Mart employees. The suppliers will be charged a $2 fee per missing tag, which could quickly become a major expense.

Meanwhile, the fully equipped Wal-Mart stores have RFID readers installed in receiving bays to keep track of shipments and in so-called transition areas to monitor products as they move from the storage room to the store floor, where workers use handheld readers.