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The European retail and food group Rewe Group has completed an RFID test using a real-time location system to track returnable transport items (RTIS) at the gates of the Buttenheim distribution center in southern Germany. The company now plans to integrate this RFID system into the warehouse management system in order to carry out a pilot project to gradually expand this RFID application.
Rewe is the third largest food retail store in Europe and the second largest in Germany. Its fiscal revenue in 2008 reached 72 billion U.S. dollars. The company has 29 distribution centers and 10,305 stores in Germany, and operates another 4,409 in 14 other European countries. Retail stores. The company’s German supply chain operates 36 million pallets and roller containers each year. Rewe has tested RFID labeling pallets at the Norderstedt distribution center in southern Germany. The application involves RFID receiving doors, forklift readers, and handheld readers that read pallet EPC Gen 2 passive UHF tags.
Rewe is the third largest food retail store in Europe and the second largest in Germany
Rewe has installed a system at a distribution center that handles dry and perishable items in Buttenheim to read and label RTIS at 105 entry and exit gates. Once the system integration is completed, the company plans to use this system to improve RTIS management. By identifying items one by one, instead of tracking items in bulk, Rewe can avoid RTIS losses, improve the inventory process, and save money.
Rewe considered using a traditional EPC Gen 2 RFID reader, but finally decided to use the Mojix STAR system, the latter’s real-time positioning function can remotely identify passive EPC Gen 2 tags. The system can also judge the position of the label in different depths. Rewe Standards and Project Department staff Sven Jürgens said that this function was the key to the company’s choice of Mojix.
“Especially in the shipping area” Jürgens said, “We need to know which RTIS are loaded on the truck and which are also stacked in the access gates.” After proofreading and adjustment, the Mojix system can accurately distinguish the two.
Rewe is working hard to improve the visibility of shipping containers. Jürgens said that the bar is an important part of the container management process, but Rewe believes that taking into account the convenience of technology and recognition speed, RFID is an integral part of RTIS’s effective management plan. In addition, he said that RFID has also improved the security of the RTI tracking process and eliminated the inherent errors of bar scanning.
Testing of Mojix hardware began in February 2009 and involved thousands of different types of labeled RTI items, including pallets, roller containers, and frozen food containers (metal or plastic).
The test used UPM Raflatac’s DogBone tag, embedded in a polycarbonate shell. Rewe is currently evaluating the pressure tolerance of labels and enclosures. When Rewe fully implements and expands this application, the company may require RTIS suppliers to label the goods.
Once the RFID system is fully integrated into Rewe’s warehouse management system, Rewe can automatically compare the actual RTIS number of a truck with the expected number. When entering the distribution center, the driver is directed to a specific gate to load the goods. When the driver puts a labelled RTI from the loading area on the truck, the RFID system recognizes it and sends out a visually identifiable signal-a red or green light-to let the driver know whether the correct item is moved to the vehicle.
Rewe can also use this system to generate RTIS store distribution reports.Currently, when each RTI arrives at the store or is sent back to the distribution center, employees scan the barcode label, register it or exit the asset management system
In the future, when the RTI returns to the distribution center, the RFID tags will be read, allowing Rewe to know the number of RTIs on site and confirm that the items were indeed returned. If the system is expanded to a single store in the future, Jürgens said, stores can also use RFID to identify RTI. But for now, he said, Rewe focuses on the implementation of the RFID project of the Buttenheim distribution center, which is expected to start in October.
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