Item-level RFID tagging at last?
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Manufacturing News, Source : The Manufacturer US
Published : 02 May 2006 13:31
UHF RFID is no longer for case and pallet tagging – Dutch book chain Boekhandels Groep Nederland (BGN) has tagged 38,000 books at its Selexyz Scheltema book store, with UHF Gen 2 RFID tags.
"The key to our success is our ability to deliver an outstanding customer experience when a customer enters one of our stores," said Jan Vink, IT Director for Boekhandels Groep Nederland. BGN is counting on the convenience as a market differentiator, and Vink expects that “This pioneering set of applications will go far to enhance the strength of the BGN brand with book buyers."
The customer’s experience is to use a kiosk in the store, with advanced search, navigation and online merchandising functionality. The Dutch-language interface enables both shoppers and staff to search store inventory, identify book locations by section or shelf, and order books not in stock. Upon ordering, a shopper can decide whether to be contacted by SMS message or email when a book is available or arrange for the book to be delivered to their home. Or if a shopper searches for a book at a kiosk and finds that it is out of stock but available at another store, the customer can arrange for it to be delivered to him or her, or transferred as a 'special' to the local store. Those same functionalities are available on the store’s e-commerce site.
That functionality, of course, calls for an elaborate and tightly integrated system, which Vink details as consisting of Rafsec tags; Progress® EasyAsk as a “natural language” customer interface; being Progress® OpenEdge® as the platform for processing transactions; Apama® ESP for processing RFID data; and Sonic ESB® as the integration backbone.
Item-level tagging is not brand new – it has been used in both apparel and pharmaceuticals, chiefly - but more typically involves the lower-cost, higher-speed HF tags, in apparel and pharmaceuticals.
BGN’s goal is to generate dramatic labor savings, reduce inventory reconciliation costs, improve stock control, enhance visibility into supply chain operations, increase shopper 'basket size' and enrich shopper experience.
Boekhandels plans to use item-level tagging across its 42 stores in the Netherlands.
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