Norwegian clothing company uses RFID technology to improve inventory accuracy
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Nordic clothing company MoN recently deployed RFID technology in 13 stores to better manage inventory. The six-month pilot project in two stores has boosted store sales (not just labeled products). This technology will also be deployed in the 14th store later this year.
thisRFIDThe pilot system includes tags attached to men’s shirts and suits and convenient readers installed on the store floor. The system can provide 98%-99% inventory accuracy, and also reduces the time spent on manual inventory. MoN supply chain manager Hans Petter Hübert said that this result encouraged the company’s management, and now the company wants to expand the use of the system to other areas. The company is testing an electronic anti-theft system (fixed readers installed at the exit) in a store and plans to install a fixed reader in the warehouse.
Hübert said that he had heard of the application of RFID technology in retail store inventory management a long time ago. At the GS1 conference held in Oslo last year, he had a conversation with the Dutch company Nedap. He said that MoN’s use of RFID is a matter of course, and the company needs to quickly replenish store items and ensure the accuracy of inventory. If the replenishment is not timely, customers will not be able to see the items they need, which will cause revenue decline.
The company also hopes to provide online customers with store pickup services. Currently, online buyers of MoN are unable to pick up goods from nearby stores, partly because the company has not yet found a solution to ensure sufficient inventory. The company believes that the current inventory accuracy is only 75%-80%, so the company cannot guarantee that the customer will have the goods when they need it. Hübert said that the current industry average inventory accuracy is less than 70%, and he believes that MoN has done better than most companies.
In January of this year, MoN began testing the solution provided by Nedap, which includes a handheld reader, an iPod Touch with Nedap software, and a data analysis software stored in the cloud. Infratek, Nedap’s Norwegian partner, was responsible for the installation of the system.
MoN chose two stores in Oslo and Sterling as pilot stores. The company marked two types of products: boys’ shirts and suits.Labels are attached to the inside of the clothes, on the store floorReaderThe information of these tags will be captured.
During the pilot period, employees used! D handheld readers and iPods for in-store inventory counting twice a week. Danny Haak, Nedap RFID product manager, the reader is easy to use and replaces traditional bulky handheld readers. The !D reader includes a button, and at the same time employees read the tag, the data will be automatically transferred to the iPod. Hübert claims that ease of use is the biggest selling point of the reader. He added that most of the sales staff in the store are young people who are very familiar with iPod and Bluetooth, so the entire operation process is not too difficult.
Before the pilot project, these two stores would take 30-40 hours to conduct inventory. Now, the entire inventory time has been reduced to 15 minutes.
In early July, MoN intends to expand this system to 11 other stores. According to the company, the entire deployment took several weeks, and 13 stores are currently using RFID technology for inventory counting. Hübert said that in most cases, the accuracy of the inventory is high, and employees only need to review it twice a month.
At the same time, the company also expanded the use of RFID to a third category of clothing: men’s pants. In 2015, MoN also intends to apply the technology to children’s clothing, sportswear, women’s clothing and footwear products.
In the next step, MoN intends to integrate RFID software with the company’s ERP system so that inventory data will be automatically transmitted to the company’s back-end software.
In addition, MoN plans to use the system to record the movement of clothing from warehouse to store to ensure the accuracy of warehouse inventory. Haak said that in order to achieve this, Nedap will provide a top-wall reader to record clothing movements.
Currently, at the exit of a store, MoN is testing! D 8.2 MHz EAS and passive UHF RFID reading devices. In this way, after UHF reads the ID number of the item taken away from the store, it will automatically send a request for replenishment of inventory.
Hübert said that due to the use of RFID technology, the company has achieved double-digit sales growth of marked goods. He attributed this to the increase in employee happiness. He said, “I hope to see this result in other stores.”
Hübert added: “The company hopes that employees can do less non-value-added activities. We use RFID to liberate employees, and employees will do what they love to do: provide an excellent customer experience.”
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