Thursday, December 25, 2008
Introduction
The METRO Future Sotre Initiative in Rheinberg was found as a cooperation project between METRO Group, SAP, OAT systems, Oracle, Intel and IBM as well as other partner companies from the inormation technology and consumer goods industries. They all aim at promoting innovations in retailing on a national and international level. In the the long run the initiative sets the stage for creating or implementing existing standards for retailing that can be implemented on an international scale.
The technologies that the METRO Group Future Sotre Initiative used a test sotre were aimed at making shopping more convenient for consumers through better service and at improving processes in retailing that can be implemented on an international scale. Different combinations of RFID applications were tested in which a completely integrated system was implemented for inventory management, information management, and check out.
We will focus on inventory management.
Inventory Management
The Future Sotre Initiative focuses on the development of new processes in inventory management using RFID technology. Merchandise goods can be tracked at various location as they move from one end of the supply chain to another in the central warehouse and for the delivery and storage of goods and shelf filing. Using the data captured from the RFID tags, goods can be re-ordered according to demand and inventory safety checks.
All goods are sorted on RFID-tagged pallets in a central warehouse before they are delivered to the Future Sore. Data captured from RFID tags are transferred to an electronic RFID merchandies management system, allowing the goods to be registered with the respective inormation in the system. Once registered, the locations of goods can be tracked throughout the entire logistics chain.
When ready, the loaded pallets are moved to the exit zone of the central warehosue, where an electronic gate is installed with an RFID reading device. When passignt his gate, the data in the chips of the tags affixed to the cartons and pallets is transmitted to the merchandise management system.
When goods are received at the Future Store, employees transport the pallets from the truck through an RFID gate at the backsotre entrance. The data of chips of the chips on each pallet and crate are read. Once the merchandise management system is updated, the supermarket employees can compare the received goods with the order to determine if the order was met or if the items were over-shipped, under-shipped or missing.
After the goods are delivered for storage in the back room of the Future Sotre, each storage position is affixed with an RFID tag. When storing the goods, the employees use handheld scanner to read this tag into the system.
When taking goods to the sales room to refill the shelves, the employees pass an RFID gate at the exit of the backstore area, where the data on the RFID chips affixed to the cartons is captured for transmission to the merchandise management system. Cartons that could not be emptied due to a lack of shelf space are returned to the backstore area. As they pass the gate, tag data is updated and then transferred to the system. When the merchandise is emptied from the carton, the RFID tags are deactivated.
