Kimberly-Clark Gets an Early Win

Taking RFID to the Edge
The solution was tested extensively in K-C's RFID lab to make sure the connectivity between the laptop and the portable devices was effective and to ensure that people in the field wouldn't run into issues. The system was deployed in mid-2006.

K-C runs a regular promotion for its Depend and Poise incontinence products with Wal-Mart every month. K-C ships pallet-size displays made up of stacked cardboard trays full of different types of the products. These displays usually sit at the end of an aisle in a high-traffic area of the store. K-C decided to track these promotions because they are ongoing, and it could use the RFID data to correct issues in the supply chain and improve the execution of in-store promotions. And that is exactly what it has done.

K-C's Robin Krisher worked with OATSystems to create and test a version of the OATxpress software that could be preconfigured with information about the facility at which it would be used.

About two weeks before a promotion starts, K-C flags the customer orders in a legacy business system, and the orders flow to Axiom as orders to be RFID-labeled. Each laptop—K-C has three Portable Edge solutions—is configured for the location where the displays will be shipped from, and all the details of that order are downloaded to the laptop. The laptop, handheld and wearable encoder are shipped to the location (it can be either a K-C facility without an RFID tagging system or a third-party location).

When employees at the location where the displays will be tagged bring up the Xpress software on the laptop, they see all the promotional displays that are part of that order. The software generates one tag for each display. Workers apply the tags and use the handheld to record and associate the tags with the promotional displays in the order. When the laptop is connected to the Internet, all the read data is uploaded to Axiom and transferred to the retailer in an ASN.

When Wal-Mart receives the displays, it reads the tags and passes the information back to K-C via an AS2 data feed. The RFID data is in an XML format that includes information about where each tag was read (which store, at the back of the store or as it was moving to the retail floor). K-C then uses Axiom to analyze the read data from the hundreds of RFID-enabled stores and measures execution.

Axiom has reporting tools that show, for instance, that of 87 tagged displays shipped to arrive at stores by Feb. 1, 85 were received. The software also shows that 60 displays are on the sales floor and 25 are in the back room. "We start running this from the time we ship the displays to the customer through the end of the promotion," says Polzin. "We get a quick picture of execution."