Metro keeps momentum going on supply chain RFID

Metro Group, one of the world’s largest retailers, has selected Intermec to provide RFID (radio frequency identification) inventory tracking systems for its Innovation Centre in Neuss, Germany. The Innovation Centre will give Metro suppliers access to live RFID demonstrations, systems and products, and Intermec is supplying RFID forklift, conveyor and dock door readers for the centre, as well as RFID-enabled mobile computers and printers. The partnership builds on Intermec’ RFID participation in Metro’s Future Store in Rheinberg, Germany, which demonstrated how emerging technologies benefit retailing operations from inventory to point of sale. Intermec provided RFID case and pallet-level tracking capabilities to the Future Store. Dr Gerd Wolfram, executive project manager of the Metro Group Future Store Initiative, says: “Verifying the business advantages of new technologies … has vividly illustrated how retailers can increase system-wide efficiency and inventory accuracy while at the same time increasing profits.” Intermec cites reduced shrinkage, reduced out of stock conditions, more efficient transportation and logistics, less inventory and lower labour costs in receiving as key benefits. The firm sees RFID as a complement to industry’s current bar code-based tracking systems, allowing companies to automatically track inventory throughout an entire supply chain. It points out that advantages include the fact that information from RFID-tagged cases on a pallet can be read automatically using fixed, mobile or handheld readers rather than requiring individual bar code scanning.