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Singapore-based health club True Group officially launchedRFIDSystem for managing towels in the gym. This solution is provided by EPC and used for the first time on True Taiwan Yoga Studio. The company will also deploy the system in other gyms in the future.
The True Group has a total of 35 fitness clubs and 200,000 members in Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand and China. Towel management was a major challenge for the company. Each member can borrow a towel from the club and return it when leaving the premises. Next, the staff will wash the towels and recycle them. However, True Group found that many towels were often lost, and many members took them home.
As a result, the company installed an Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) system in its gyms that warns when towels are taken out of the club. EPC president TH Liu said the system could only issue warnings but not record towel ID numbers and membership information. Therefore, True does not remind the bringer to return the towel.
Towels will be shipped to the laundromat for laundering, and counting the number of towels is also a challenge for the club. The company hopes that the RFID system will reduce labor costs and know who is bringing the towels.
EPC provides L30 UHFlaundry labeland sew it on the edge of the towel. The tag has a unique ID number. EPC has also installed an Alien ALR-9900+ UHF reader in the club lobby, which members need to pass through when leaving. In addition, EPC installed an Alien ALR-9650 stationary reader inside the towel holder.
When arriving at the health club, members need to present their membership card at the front desk. Next, the staff needs to swipe the card to collect the member ID number, then lend two towels to the member and use the EPC SME-101 desktop reader to read the towel ID number.
After the exercise, the member needs to place the wet towels in a 55*39-inch recycling bin. A reader built into the case automatically reads the tag ID number and updates this information to the software. To achieve this, EPC installed Flexant wired antennas inside the box.
When the number of towels in the box reaches 200, the system sends a text message to staff telling them that the box is full. Likewise, the system will issue a warning when the box is empty.
If a member forgets to return a towel and takes it out of the gym, the gate reader automatically reads the towel ID number and triggers an audible alarm. Since the member information on the software is bound to the towel information, the company can also contact the member later.
After the used wet towels are returned to the towel box, the laundry staff will use the Atid AT880 handheld reader to read the towel tags. Once cleaned and returned, True Yoga’s staff will also read the tags to confirm nothing is missing. The company says this step, which used to take about an hour and a half, now only takes three minutes.
“Most importantly, this system saves us and our laundry staff labor hours,” said Patrick Wee, president of True Group.
In addition, the system helps improve hygiene as the company also uses the system to track the status of towel washes.
Based on this solution, EPC is also developing a mobile towel dispenser, which can be used in health clubs, hotels, swimming pools and other companies that have a towel loan business. The machine has a built-in RFID reader. The company plans to release a prototype of the machine in April 2015.
(The exclusive manuscript of rfid world network, please indicate the source author for reprinting!)
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