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Belgian clothing retailer JBC has deployed large-scale stores in 144 stores in Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany.RFIDsystem. The system uses EPC Gen 2 UHF RFID tags to track clothing at manufacturing locations, distribution centers and store shelves. The retailer hopes to use RFID technology at the cash register in April 2016.
Using RFID technology provided by Checkpoint, JBC gained visibility of 17 million items (1.5 million hanging and 15.5 million flat-packed garments) from 100 different suppliers.
(Every item sold in JBC stores is attached with an RFID tag provided by the Checkpoint system)
JBC is headquartered in Houthalen-Helchteren, Belgium, with 270 employees, and is the country’s leading clothing retailer. Fred Tielens, JBC logistics manager, said: “The company has spent a lot of time researching RFID technology and hopes to launch solutions throughout the supply chain to maximize benefits. The company calls this project Source to Store/Shopper (Source to Store/Shopper). )project.”
In 2013, the technology began to be piloted in 2 stores. At that time, the company began to understand the working principle of the technology, and focused on inventory tracking and cashier aspects.
Tielens explained: “The main purpose is to save time by reducing manual QR code scanning operations. In addition, the company also hopes to use this technology to improve inventory accuracy. In this way, staff can spend less time searching for clothing and provide Better service.”
In February 2015, the company began to install Checkpoint RFID readers and software for data management. The installation of the project was completed in June.
JBC uses Checknet’s Checknet software platform to order RFID tags. Approximately 90% of the labels are labels that can be sewn into clothing, while the remaining 10% are affixed to clothing tags. The company uses 4 different types of RFID tags: Whirl, Champion, High-Kick and Butterfly.
The supplier sews or affixes the label to the clothing product and binds the label’s unique ID number and SKU information to each other. At the Houthalen-Helchteren distribution center, the goods marked with these tags will be read through the Checkpoint RFID tunnel. After reading the tag, the tag ID number will be transmitted to the Checkpoint OAT enterprise software running in the JBC database, and the product status will be updated to received. When transporting to the store, the clothing also needs to go through the same process.
After the store receives the goods, the staff will place them as needed. Now, employees do not need to read tags, and in the future, the company plans to let employees use Nordic ID Merlin Cross Dipole handheld readers to read. At present, employees need to use handheld readers to carry out inventory inventory on shelves.
In the past, the frequency of inventory counts for store employees was once a year. Now, inventory counts are more frequent. Tielens said: “We will increase the frequency of inventory counts, but we are not yet ready for once a week.”
At the cashier, employees will use the Counterpoint iD Dual (CpiD-Dual) POS device to read the tags again. Consumers only need to place the clothing at the checkout counter, and the device can read the item ID number and transmit this information to the OAT enterprise software. Currently, JBC is still integrating CpiD-Dual, OAT software and POS system. The company’s system will be integrated before April 2016. At that time, when the POS software sells items, the OAT software can update the information.
Tielens said that although the company did not calculate cost savings and sales increase, there are signs that the system has saved a lot of time.
JBC system, by obtaining accurate inventory data of each store, the company can deliver goods from the nearest store to online shopping customers, thereby providing a better online shopping experience.
(Exclusive manuscript of rfid world network, please indicate the source author for reprinting!)
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