RFID and RTLS feasibility study: what one should actually contain.
A feasibility study exists to answer one question before you spend money: will this work here, at this scale, for a cost that makes sense. Most of what gets sold under the name is a supplier pilot with a report attached.
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What a feasibility study is for
It is a decision document, not a technology demonstration. It should be capable of concluding no, or yes but not the way you were planning, and it should reach that conclusion before capital is committed.
Three questions define it:
- Is it physically possible in this building? Radio behaviour depends on steel, concrete, racking, liquid, ceiling height and what your product is made of.
- Does the operation change if it works? A system that produces accurate data nobody acts on has failed, however well it performs.
- Is the cost proportionate to the benefit? Including tags, infrastructure, integration, and the years after year one.
A study that cannot fail is not a study. If the output was always going to be a recommendation to proceed, you paid for a sales proposal.
The mistake that makes most studies worthless
Asking a supplier to assess the feasibility of their own product.
This is not about bad faith. A supplier genuinely knows their technology best, and they will design a study their technology passes, because that is the technology they understand. The awkward findings (that choke points would be enough, that half the assets do not need tagging, that the existing barcode process is fine) reduce their revenue and rarely surface.
If a supplier must run it, at minimum define the success criteria yourself, in writing, before they start.
What it should contain
1. Physical assessment. Construction, racking material and density, ceiling height, obstructions, liquid and metal near the tagged items, hazardous area classification, temperature range, and the electrical noise environment. This determines which technologies are viable before any of them are compared.
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What it does not need
A full RF site survey. That is a design activity and it belongs after the technology decision, not before, surveying for a technology you then reject is wasted money.
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How long and how much
For a single site with a defined scope, two to four weeks of effort is usually right. Less than that and the physical assessment is guesswork. Much more and it is drifting into design.
Whatever it costs, judge it against the programme it protects: the study exists to stop you spending the larger number badly.
If it is being offered free by a supplier, it is a sales activity. That may still be useful, but price it as what it is.
Questions that reveal a weak study
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How we run them
Advice first. We also supply, lease and integrate if you choose. A study that concludes "do less than you planned" costs us nothing. When the evidence points that way, it is usually the most valuable outcome.
Related: readiness assessment, pilot success criteria, RF site survey checklist, TCO model.
Next step: RFID guidance: feasibility, tag and reader selection, read-rate survey and install cost
Sources
This guide sets out a method based on general engineering and procurement practice; it quotes no supplier figures, standards data or statistics, so there are no external sources to list. Checked on 25 September 2026.
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Last updated: 5 October 2026