Is it difficult to manage the amount of debris?Refer to the RFID application experience of the laundry industry
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The Supply Chain Digest website pointed out that RFID (Radio Frequency Identification System) will eventually replace barcodes and become the most common supply chain application, but the process may take a long time. After all, for many applications, the return on investment in RFID is still quite uncertain. , Especially to replace the bar code system.
However, in some situations, the nature of automated RFID reading can solve the insurmountable problem of barcodes. The situation of the British laundry laundry industry Berendsen is the best portrayal. The company handles towels, tablecloths and bed sheets and other supplies from hotels, restaurants, hospitals and other customers across the Nordic region. It handles millions of pieces every day. Managing inventory and washing processes is the same A huge challenge.
Director Berendsen revealed that due to the complexity of the business, millions of items handled by the company are missing every year. IT department director Duncan Machmillan pointed out that Brendsen usually influxes 1 million items every day, and must know the progress, speed and time of the entire process, but in fact cannot control every detail.
Since millions of items are handled every day, it is impossible to track each item by scanning the barcode, but if RFID tags are embedded in the fabric, the movement of the items can be automatically grasped in large quantities, and Berendsen will know whether they are in the hands of the customer. Or it has been returned to the company’s inventory, and whether it has been washed and delivered to the customer.
In fact, Berendsen has been conducting RFID experiments for many years, but the results have been limited because it is a difficult challenge to find washable and pressure resistant materials that can withstand countless repeated washing and dehydration. Fortunately, Berendsen found American supplier Tagsys products that met the above conditions. Machmillan said that although Tagsys tags may still show some damage, most of them have a longer life than fabric.
Now Berendsen can scan a large number of items, up to 1,000 pieces at a time, and can quickly grasp their dynamics and flow at any time, such as when the entire batch is delivered to the customer, whether the number of sheets is correct. Not only that, Berendsen can also use this process to know when customers must return what items.
Berendsen is now using Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform to process and manage RFID data. In addition to improving the inventory management process, Berendsen also believes that the data obtained from RFID tracking can help the company to predict the future earlier. trend.
The convenience and forward-looking nature of RFID is that barcodes are far behind. After all, the latter relies too much on manual processes and is quite difficult to manage. Berendsen inventory management is still quite rare in the corporate world. However, other companies that use barcode tracking may be right. Because of the problems that Berendsen has encountered in the past, RFID technology may benefit them a lot.
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