June 7, 2007
Editor’s Note
Karstadt's Apparel Hangtag Trial
Karstadt is launching a six-month pilot designed to improve the efficiency of its internal operations. The German retailer is attaching RFID hangtags to 20,000 pairs of jeans and sportswear items, for sale in a retail setting to be determined; another 30,000 will be tested later in the trial. Each hangtag contains an EPC Gen 2 RFID inlay.
The company has decided to deploy RFID after deliberately holding back. "Now that UHF Gen 2 is on the market," says Jilke Rainer, Karstadt's RFID project leader, "we've got technology we can use." EPC Gen 2 tags, Rainer explains, will provide the retailer with the 100 percent read rates it requires.
Karstadt partnered with ADT and RF-IT Solutions for the pilot. ADT is testing hardware and will recommend which tags and interrogators should be used, while RF-IT Solutions is customizing its You-R-OPEN middleware platform to support Karstadt's operations. Karstadt plans to implement RFID in three processes: tracking goods from arrival at a store to the point of sale, performing and managing inventory, and locating goods to facilitate price changes.
The retailer currently makes price-reduction decisions centrally, providing each store a list of items to pull off the floor and mark down by hand. Once garments are tagged, workers should be able to quickly locate items using interrogators. In addition, Karstadt performs an annual stock inventory, requiring employees to cordon off departments to count items manually. RFID should make the task less time-consuming and labor-intensive, saving money and reducing errors.
In time, as Karstadt determines which processes it can improve with RFID, it hopes to roll out the technology with more items and at additional stores. Read the full story here.
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Top News
Karstadt Readies for RFID
After years of sitting on the sidelines, Germany's largest fashion retailer has decided to launch a six-month pilot involving the tagging of 50,000 items.
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RFID News Roundup
Brooks Automation announces compact HF reader; Calif. Senate passes bill to keep RFID out of state IDs; Xterprise offers comprehensive RTI tracking; Diagraph's new midrange print-encode-apply system; VAI supports VeriFone's RFID-enabled payment terminal.
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Opinion
In Search of Excellence
By Mark Roberti
The seminal management book In Search of Excellence explains why companies such as Wal-Mart, Metro and Kimberly-Clark are pushing ahead with RFID plans.
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Expert View
RFID Shelf-life Monitoring Helps Resolve Disputes
By Terry Myers
By attaching RFID-enabled sensors to shipments of perishable goods, producers and retail buyers can identify spoilage, and its causes.
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