RFID technology for the beverage retail industry

During the Salt Lake City Winter Games in 2002, the organizer affixed 5,500 athletes Coke packaging to RFID tags and installed RFID readers on beverage vending machines, which are by far the most well-known in the beverage industry for RFID technology Once applied. In recent years, some of the major US retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target and Albertson's have started to require their suppliers, including beverage suppliers, to deploy RFID technology at the pallet level. And for the future, people are also planning applications for RFID technology, such as Smart Shelf, which completes the program when consumers push shopping carts full of RFID-tagged goods across a supermarket exit, Extractor will read the identification information on the goods in a flash, people no longer have to queue to checkout. However, the most typical application of RFID technology focuses on inventory management: that is, it is used to track the storage and transportation of goods, and at the same time, to check the status and location of the products during transportation.

Everything has contributed to the development of RFID technology and its application in all walks of life, and the beverage retail industry as fast moving consumer goods is certainly no exception.

1, RFID technology will bring many benefits to the beverage retail industry

In the eyes of beverage manufacturers, RFID identification and scanning is meaningless for maintaining indoor inventory. But in the retail arena, RFID technology can increase the supply chain supply efficiency, which is why retailers are keen to set up RFID systems.

Solve the problem of merchandise out of stock

Maximizing the supply chain transparency is an important goal for retailers. Matt Ream, senior manager of RFID systems at Zebra Technologies International, said: "One of the biggest problems retailers have is that when the consumer wants to buy a product the product is out of stock and if the consumer Who want to buy something they did not buy, most of the time he will go elsewhere to buy retailers not only lose the opportunity to sell this product, but also lose the consumer in their own store to buy other The possibility of goods Wal-Mart once pointed out: Wal-Mart will be able to get an additional $ 2.5 billion in sales if it can solve the 1% out-of-stock problem, and to do this, the retailer checks to see why it is out of stock - - are retailers unaware of out-of-stock items, do they not know they have stock in their warehouses, or are they shipping from factories to supermarkets? RFID can give retailers the transparency they want and tell them they now have What, and where you have it. "

Reduce the number of safety stock

"If you have a sufficiently transparent stock, in theory you can reduce the amount of safe stock you have to keep, thus reducing the inventory of all your goods and saving you a lot of money," Ream added.

Reduce labor costs

Some people argue that barcodes that RFID technology can do can be done, but barcodes require more physical scanning, which usually leads to more human operation. Ream said: "Barcode scanning is a labor-intensive work that is manual and RFID is a more automated technology that can improve read speed and supply chain transparency without adding extra labor costs. "

2. RFID technology will bring many benefits to beverage manufacturers

Ream said: "The benefits that RFID brings to the beverage manufacturing industry are inter-related, and many of the features it has are not available in other technologies.Many companies initially used RFID technology just for one reason, slowly They began to discover other powerful capabilities of RFID technology. "

What benefits can beverage makers receive from RFID technology? These benefits are gradually realized step by step. The first is to meet the retailer's RFID compliance requirements and maintain a good trade relationship with retailers; then, as Wal-Mart recently said, Wal-Mart will post inventories online to anyone 30 minutes after first reading the RFID tag of the goods Can check. This helps beverage manufacturers track product offerings in the supply chain, and as RFID technology continues to grow and as systems for suppliers and partners and customers begin to consolidate, other benefits emerge, including Higher levels of warehouse management automation and faster supply chain response due to increased communications, lower inventories and more. "

3. RFID technology in the beverage industry monomer packaging applications also face some difficulties

Now, in the field of beverages and other liquid goods, the application of RFID is only limited to the pallet and the outer box level. In theory, the RFID tag should also be applied to the individual package, but can accurately read the individual package RFID Labeling technology is not yet mature, and these labels are more susceptible to packaging materials, product types, and marking the location of the paste. While RFID labeling individual packages is not perfect, experts say the dream will come true in the near future.

technical problem

Nowadays, metal containers and liquid filling containers are the two biggest problems that make the placement of RFID tags crucial. "One of the major limitations of RFID technology is that radio waves emitted by some standard organizations such as the EPCglobal UHF logo can be absorbed by the water and metal containers can reflect the waves back." Markem Corp. "said Michael Putnam, Product Sales Manager for RFID and Artificial Intelligence." This makes it very difficult to label beverage products, especially those packaged in aluminum cans. Today, Box or pallets on the dead zone, or the establishment of partitions in the pallet to enhance the identity of the reaction.

Cost problem

Cost is another factor that plays a decisive role. Companies that boycott the use of RFID wonder if they can reap the full rewards if they invest in this technology. Nick Infelise, RFID Product Sales Manager at Omron Electronics LLC, Japan, said: "Many retailers, with the exception of Wal-Mart, are starting or soon to begin requiring their suppliers to meet RFID compliance requirements, which will surely result in manufacturers buying more Of the RFID logo, which will lead to the price tag down, making their investments get paid. "

Another cost-related issue is the cost of labeling a single beverage container. Typical RFID signatures are typically 25 to 50 cents each. Putnam, of Marken, said: "Most manufacturers agree that they will not consider marking a single beverage container until the cost of a single label drops below 5 cents, and some experts believe that in early 2008 The idea will be fulfilled, while others think that the price of the RFID logo will gradually slow down

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