GAO RFID Sporting Goods Store Inventory Management System

Description

What It Does

The GAO Sports Store Inventory Management System utilizes RFID technology to modernize the inventory management of shoes, clothing, sports equipment and accessories, fitness equipment, fanwear and other equipment and accessories of particular brands. Inventory management is done simply by an employee holding a handheld PC such as a PDA, tablet, pistol grip handheld computer, or an EDA and walking through the store, dramatically improving accuracy and efficiency over conventional methods. Unlike barcode systems, it does not require the manual scanning of each item.

 

Challenges/Issues

There are several problems regarding traditional management systems in the sports retailing industry because most of those systems are using barcode-based technologies or manually operated. These systems require the retailers to pre-print barcode numbers on a sticker, then manually place it on every single sports equipment and accessory. This often causes misreading and scanning failure if the stickers on sports items get dirty or damaged because of being kept in storage for a long period of time or displaced from shelves. Additionally, in order to read the barcode properly, the employees must put the handheld scanner close to the stickers that require the employee to identify each sports item visually. Scanning all sports equipment and accessories manually and repeatedly may lead to error-prone, ineffective inventory management processes, as well as extra labor costs.

How It Works

To address these issues, GAO has developed the GAO Sports Stores Inventory Management System based on the latest UHF Gen 2 RFID technology. It consists of:

(1) One or multiple handheld PCs, such as tablet PCs, PDAs (personal digital assistant), EDAs (enterprise digital assistant) or pistol grip intelligent terminals
(2) An RFID object tag for each sports item
(3) An RFID location tag for each shelf or area where the item is located

The handheld PC is preinstalled with both an RFID reader and the GAO Sports Store Inventory Management Software. It also normally has built-in Wi-Fi capability to communicate with a server via a local Wi-Fi network for data transferring, an optional barcode scanner and a high-definition camera.

An RFID object tag is attached to each sports store items for its identification. A suitable tag can be chosen from GAO’s wide selection of tags to fit the specific properties of all sports items. There are RFID location tags for all surface types including metal, plastic, fabric and even for specific items such as glass.  An employee can then walk through the aisles of the sports store with the handheld PC in their hand, automatically taking the inventory by walking within range of the store. The RFID reader has a further range than a conventional barcode scanner, automatically tracking the location and inventory of each item simply by walking within the range. Therefore, no manual scanning of each item is needed. This dramatically improves accuracy and efficiency over conventional methods and reduces damage as the sports store do not need to be handled by the employee to scan them.

Features

• No system installation is required since tags are simply placed on sports items and shelves or something indicating locations, and each handheld PC has been preinstalled with an RFID reader and GAO Sports Store Inventory Management Software.

• GAO Sports Store Inventory Management System utilizes RFID technology and dramatically improves productivity and accuracy. It has addressed the issues of the barcode-based conventional systems such as a line of sight requirement and reading errors due to barcode damage.

• Suitable for sports items of all types
• Suitable for sports stores of any size

Technical Specifications

• One or multiple handheld PCs from GAO, which will be preinstalled with a UHF Gen 2 RFID reader and GAO Sports Store Inventory Management Software
• A UHF RFID object tag for each inventory item and accessories
• UHF RFID location tags indicating which shelf each item is located

Applications

GAO Sports Store Inventory Management System can be effectively used to manage inventories of all kinds of sports equipment and accessories such as racquets, bags, balls, bottles, caps wearable devices and other items.