METRO Group DC achieves 99-percent tag-read rate using Intermec solutions
Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 3/1/2005 12:00:00 AM
The world's third-largest retailer—Duesseldorf-based Metro Group—and bar-code and RFID technologies supplier Intermec Technologies have achieved 99-percent tag read-rate accuracy on more than 50,000 pallets going through Metro's largest distribution center (DC) in Unna, Germany. The installation also is fully compliant with European Telecommunications Standards Institute radio standards.
Metro, like Wal-Mart in the U.S., requires its suppliers to apply RFID tags to products delivered to its warehouses and DCs.
The RFID deployment has its roots in Metro's Innovation Center, part of the company's "Future Store Initiative." The Future Store is a remodeled Metro facility that serves as a proving ground for cutting-edge technologies for retailing. Using Intermec technology, Metro initially installed an RFID reader portal at the receiving door of Future Store to read and check products as they were received. The technology's success there led to its installation at the Unna DC and other Metro facilities, explains Scott Medford, Intermec's VP of RFID.
The full-scale rollout of RFID technology at Metro began in November 2004. Now Intermec readers, printers, handheld terminals, and RFID reader-enabled forklifts are in place at the Unna facility.
"The goal is to get RFID in at all of Metro's distribution centers," says Medford. "As fast as the technology proves itself cost-effective, Metro will be expanding the operation and moving it to other areas besides groceries, such as clothing and its department stores."
