For the last three years, Sainsburys has been carrying out advanced
product tracking and tracing trials using 'smart labels' based on radio
frequency identification (RFID) technology. Illa Scopel reports on the
progress so far
Sainsburys is currently carrying out product tracking trials using radio
frequency identification tagging ('smart labels') at its regional
distribution centre in Allington, Kent and at its Sittingbourne store,
also in Kent. The trial is focused on its range of chilled foods as these
have a short shelf life and need to be transferred from manufacturer to
consumer rapidly and efficiently. Information contained on the tag
includes a department commodity number, the contents of the crate and
use-by date. On arrival at the store's warehouse, information is read
from the tag using specially developed portal antennae and logged to the
regional distribution computer. Storage position within the warehouse is
automatically uploaded along with the contents of the crate and use-by
date, and this is used by the computer to indicate which crates to pick
in order to achieve correct product rotation.
Sainsbury's project manager in the trials, Mark Gillott said, This is a
level of control that is simply impossible to achieve with bar codes,
manual data entry or any other system. And even better is the fact that
it is totally automatic, enabling more efficient use of labour
resources. The turnaround time of stock coming into warehouses reduces
dramatically using RFID tags. Manual turnaround of stock involves
checking items as they are unloaded from lorries, which could take
anything up to two and a half hours compared to an average of 10 minutes
with the RFID tagging. Once the contents of storage crates have been
logged into the computer, products are easily located in the warehouse
area. The computer will also indicate if an item is taken to the shop
floor out of rotation, thus ensuring that the stock never exceeds its
sell-by date.
The trials were carried out in conjunction with Omron Europe, who had
developed smart labels based on the open ICODE chip from Philips
Semiconductors. At the beginning of the trial, Sainsbury used a 2.4GHz
system but found this unsuitable for its needs, so approached Omron who
had just developed a 13.5MHz system. This frequency is set to become the
industry operating standard for RFID.
Smart labels are still relatively expensive, ranging from 70 pence for
the basic high volume tag to several pounds for tags with special
packaging. Omron is convinced that once they are manufactured in large
numbers economies of scale will reduce their price to pennies. This cost
reduction step is inevitable, says Steve Coffey, Omron's RFID marketing
manager for Europe. All the operating and production technology exists,
it is now simply a matter of managing the uptake of the system by user
industries.