SUPPLY
© Inditex Group
sending of garments from the distribution centres to the stores. At the PoS, Tyco’s Sensormatic dual technology RFID/Acousto-Magnetic (RFID/AM) hard tags and detachers are in use, with Tyco also managing Inditex’s tag recirculation program. Italian women’s fashion brand Sandro Ferrone
has also turned to RFID to support the delivery of over two million garments a year to the PoS. A fast-fashion model of five yearly collections instead of two means that Sandro Ferrone needs to control its inventory levels and minimise out-of-stock and unsold items. The brand has deployed a solution from Tageos across its supply chain, starting with its suppliers printing, encoding and applying a Tageos EPC Gen2 passive UHF RFID label to manufactured items. Tag information from products arriving at or exiting the distribution centre is then scanned by RFID readers placed at the gates and recorded in the retailer’s system database. The software part of the system was developed by Zucchetti. During order preparation, the RFID system
and the ability to easily read Tageos labels on items stacked in the warehouse has reduced item identification and tracking from 10 minutes to six or seven seconds while reaching an inventory accuracy of 99%. The number of employees required to pick and prepare items for shipping has also reduced from 18 to six. “We are planning to open a new distribution
centre in Bologna to meet the demands of the Northern-centre area of Italy: the RFID traceability will be extended to the new location,” explained Sandro Ferrone’s marketing manager Danilo Athanasius. In the UK, furniture and accessories retailer
Neptune has implemented the Empirica warehouse management system (WMS) from Chess to gain control over inventory at its new consolidated facility in Swindon. In addition to managing conventional warehouse operations, the homewares retailer has integrated Empirica with a number of other applications to support other processes, such as bespoke product and refinish, as well as functions
36 Autumn 2014
Zara: the garment’s ID is recorded on a chip inside the security alarm
including an onsite retail outlet and a growing e-commerce operation. Neptune sells direct to customers through its
website and design centres in the UK and overseas. It also sells through selected retail partners and independent interior designers. The company progressed rapidly in recent years to develop an ‘edited design’ concept, comprising a complete range for the home that includes kitchens, bathrooms, furniture and accessories. “We were experiencing double-digit growth
and couldn’t run the business on spreadsheets any longer,” explained Matthew Talbot, head of operations at Neptune. “We saw that a warehouse management system working with RF devices and barcodes would be useful in various parts of the business.” Many of Neptune’s supply chain processes relied on effective inventory management. Beyond stock control and order picking, these included quality control inspections, product refinishing to remedy minor quality issues, rework to prepare bespoke items for customers, deliveries and returns, supporting e-commerce and the onsite retail outlet and enabling stock visibility for partners. These processes were managed by various
applications, including a dedicated enterprise resource planning (ERP) system developed by the company’s in-house programming team. But there was little integration between the applications and many relied on paper-based controls. All on-site stock movements are now managed by Empirica, in conjunction with RF devices and barcodes. Information is passed automatically between Neptune’s various supply chain applications to provide complete visibility of an item, including its status and location. Items arriving from the company’s own factories
or manufacturing partners are scanned to verify information previously received. Neptune checks over 10% of incoming stock as part of its quality control process. Items are available for sale once they have passed the initial inspection or completed any refinishing. Neptune offers a high degree of
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