A radio frequency identification (RFID)-detect ranking system and method of operating the same. In one embodiment, the RFID-detect ranking system includes a matrix subsystem configured to construct a matrix of experiments based on product information, RFID reader information and RFID tag information. The RFID-detect ranking system also includes a data collection subsystem configured to facilitate an experiment and collect data to fill in results for each category of the matrix of experiments. The RFID-detect ranking system still further includes a ranking subsystem configured to assign an index based on the results for each category of the matrix of experiments, thereby providing a likelihood of success of reading an RFID tag located on a product with an RFID reader.