Serge Blanco, a famous French clothing company, finds a return on RFID investment
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Serge Blanco, a well-known French high-end clothing manufacturer, now uses EPC Gen 2 RFID tags to receive goods in its Toulouse distribution center. The app was officially launched in the middle of this year, allowing company employees to spend more time checking the quality of goods received, according to Mathieu Pradier, director of corporate finance and IT.
When Serge Blanco places an order for clothing from a supplier, the company prints barcodes on the corresponding number of RFID tags, and then sends these tags to the clothing production factory. At the factory, workers attach paper hang tags to garments and transport them to Serge Blanco’s distribution center. Most labeled clothing is folded in boxes, and some, such as tops and coats, are hung on hangers. The company estimates that 1 million RFID tags are used every year.
When the labeled clothing is packed and shipped to the center, employees move them through an aisle reader to read the tags and identify the clothing. The computer system compares the contents of the box with an electronic shipping order. If everything is in line, the system lights up green; if it does not, the employee must find the reason.
The staff then moved the labeled goods to a sorting area in the distribution center-6 RFID readers were installed under the desktop. The employee removes the goods from the box and divides them into small packages (delivered to the retailer). Serge Blanco has approximately 320 retail stores in France. The reader under the desk reads the label of the box underwear, and the system confirms the correctness of the sorting. The package is then shipped to various customers.
Serge Blanco uses Toshiba printer coding machine to generate RFID tag
The calculation process for hanging clothes is similar. The employee uses a wireless handheld RFID reader-Pradier says it is similar to a tennis ball-walking around the box to read the labeled items in the hanging box. Similarly, the garments are then sorted and shipped to retail stores.
Tagsys provides all readers of the Serge Blanco RFID system and RFID tags embedded in paper tags. Serge Blanco uses Toshiba RFID printer coding machine to produce hang tags. If the clothing received from the supplier is not labeled, Serge Blanco must label it himself, but most of the goods are already labeled when they arrive.
The channel reader can process 18,000 items per hour, and Tagsys claims that the reading accuracy rate can reach 99%. According to Pradier, the system saves a lot of time. “Before, we had to open the boxes one by one and read the barcodes of the goods one by one. We needed 10 workers to receive 20,000 pieces of clothing. Now, only 2 people are required to read 35,000 pieces of clothing.” This allows more people to be responsible for quality control.
Pradier estimates that the system will cost US$225,000. The company’s business goal is to recover system costs within three years, and Pradier believes that Serge Blanco’s cost recovery time will be shorter than this period.
Currently, Serge Blanco has not yet identified the shipped products at the shipping port. In 2011, the company plans to add this feature, while also reading the RFID tags of clothing in stores to improve the inventory process.
Serge Blanco was unable to inform shop customers about the clothing RFID tags because the clerk would remove the tag at the cashier. The store will keep the label for one month in case the clothing is returned.
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