Conair uses autonomous RFID blocking to speed up single product labeling and shipments
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Conair, a US manufacturer and seller of health and beauty products and kitchen appliances, is now further adopting RFID to track its sales from factory to store. The company’s subsidiary RFID company United Security Applications ID (USA ID) is developing an RFID reader that will be used in Conair’s factories in Costa Rica and China to encode product labels. Once the equipment is installed-scheduled for the first quarter of 2010-USA ID expects Conair to label all manufactured products, said Paul Arguin, Conair/USA ID’s director of technology and engineering.
Conair is committed to using RFID technology to improve supply chain visibility for companies, customs agencies, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Conair-one of the top 50 largest importers in the United States-has developed RFID container blockade and applied it to some containers destined for the United States. The electronic blockade allows Conair, logistics companies, customs and DHS to confirm the contents of the container to ensure that they have not been passively manipulated. It also allows Conair to locate the container and its contents. According to Arguin, the new version of the blockade-a plug with a passive UHF EPC Gen 2 RFID tag, is lower in cost and looks similar to non-RFID cartridge locks on the market-once it has obtained ISO/PAS 17712 (Safety Standard for Mechanical Blocking) certification ( Expected this month), will be used for international freight.
Conair’s first-generation container blockade
In 2002, Conair began labeling products sent to Wal-Mart to comply with the retailer’s RFID policy. The company established USA ID to develop an RFID solution, not only to provide Wal-Mart with valuable information about the provenance of the product, but also to provide Conair with visibility into the company’s supply chain. USA ID also cooperated with DHS in the same year to jointly improve the safety of cargo shipped to US ports from other countries. With the promotion of both parties, USA ID has developed an RFID container blockade with EPC Gen 2 passive UHF tags to ensure that the container is not opened and provide an electronic inventory of goods for customs or DHS. Since USA ID developed the EPC Gen 2 container blockade, several other companies such as Secura Shield have also developed their own RFID blockade version.
This year, Conair launched a pilot project to test whether RFID technology can reduce shortages. The company applies item-level labeling to goods shipped to Sam’s Club distribution centers and stores across the country. Conair attaches EPC Gen 2 RFID tags produced by USA ID to Cuisinart and Waring products, and other high-end personal care items. The product was tagged and read when it left the company’s warehouse in South Haven, Mississippi, and then read again at the Sam’s Club distribution center and store. The software designed by USA ID then uploads the tag information obtained by the RFID reader so that Conair can receive the updated information of the item’s location in real time. Using these data, Conair has better reduced out-of-stocks and ensured that the store has enough items for sale, thereby increasing sales.
Conair only labels the main box, not the packaging of individual products in the main box. For example, when the hair dryer product arrives at the Conair distribution center, the equipment manufacturer in Costa Rica or China has already stacked a single box in the main box. If you want to label a single item, the staff must open the box. Some products You even have to take out the goods one by one for labeling.
Conair’s goal is to allow manufacturers to label products directly before shipment, Arguin says, which reduces the number of labeling steps in the South Haven warehouse. To this end, USA ID is cooperating with Adasa to develop a new encoding machine, which will modify the company’s mobile RFID reader to meet Conair’s needs. The new RFID reader is designed with wheels so that it can be pushed to the area that needs to be encoded.
The new encoder is easier to carry than similar readers in the market. It is battery-powered and includes a touch screen; it is low-cost and can be connected via wired, wireless, or Bluetooth. The encoder can encode label rolls up to 2 feet in diameter.
Conair’s third-party manufacturer uses a trolley reader to encode an EPC code on the label and label the product. The staff first scans the barcode UPC product code and touches the device to encode an RFID tag. When the product flows down the assembly line, the label is attached to the product packaging box by hand or machine. In this way, the labeling is completed before the product is sent to the US warehouse. The new coding machine is manufactured in Costa Rica and is expected to be tested at the Conair manufacturing plant in the country in the first quarter of 2010.
For container labeling, USA ID was the first to develop a container blockade containing UHF Gen 2 RFID tags. The tag contains a unique ID code and has a memory of 96 bytes, which corresponds to the electronic list stored by the USA ID server. The lock includes a 4-inch-long steel pin that can be inserted into the RFID door buckle of the container. Once the latch is combined with the RFID buckle, a fixed or hand-held RFID reader reads the ID code of the blocking tag. Blockade can also integrate an external GPS receiver.
Conair second-generation container blockade
In addition, an internal GPS receiver can be placed in the container to track its location. Whether it is external or internal GPS receiver, the unique ID code of the tag is sent via GPRS or SMS connection. A handheld reader can then send the tag ID code to the USA ID server via Wi-Fi, GPRS, or an Ethernet cable into a PC. The information is stored in the server and can be viewed by authorized users. The GPS data of the same container corresponds to the ID code on the server.
At present, Conair has developed a shorter RFID container seal model, which looks more similar to other container seals on the market. The second-generation lead seal contains a pin less than 3 inches in length, which can be inserted into a buckle that is about 1 inch long, wide, and high. The plug contains an EPC Gen 2 RFID tag with 525 bytes of memory. The new version of the blockade is less expensive than the first generation, Arguin said,-the cost of the non-RFID plug seal is about the same. The first-generation blockade had a reading distance of 30 feet, and the new version-awaiting ISO approval-has a reading distance of 10-15 feet.
The same as the old version of the workflow, the RFID reader scans the new version of the container seal to obtain the electronic list (512 bytes of tag user memory is enough to store the electronic list), thereby speeding up the container inspection process.
Conair expects to complete the labeling of all products by the third quarter of 2010.
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