At Manor, RFID Keeps Food From Spoiling

Starting this month, Manor is using IP01's monitoring services overnight, and on weekends. After one year, it plans to assess the extended use to determine if it is economically feasible and should be continued.

In addition, Manor intends to work with dairy producer Emmi to expand the system further up the supply chain. Emmi will likely install and test the system by mid-2008. The company ships goods to three Manor distribution centers, and will place an IP01 temperature-sensing tag in one box of yogurt cups stacked with others on a pallet. The tag will not be affixed, but rather placed in a large housing, about the size of a shoebox, so it can be easily located and reused.

A gateway reader installed at Emmi's manufacturing plant will interrogate the tag as the pallet leaves the factory, and the system will note the time of departure. During transport to the distribution center, temperature recordings will be taken, and a gateway reader will interrogate the tag upon arrival at the DC. Workers will collect the tags and return them to Emmi at a designated time. Only one tag will be used per delivery—no matter how many pallets are shipped—to keep costs down.

When pallets of yogurt boxes are reassembled at the DC to be shipped out to Manor stores, workers will place a different tag in a single box. Upon departure from the DC, the tag will be read again. The tags will then be interrogated upon arrival at the store, and once more upon placement in freezers or refrigerators. Each store has a slightly different layout; some have one gateway to cover tags on the sales floor and at the dock door, while at others, Manor has installed what it calls a "repeater" to make sure all tags can be read. "The repeater is an echo device," Riem-Vis says, "and it is used in some buildings with thick walls or a metallic environment."

The tags enable operators to monitor temperatures while goods are being stocked on the shelves, and to calculate how long it took for store employees to put those goods on the shelves. "The critical part is the time between delivery and placement in refrigerators or freezers," Riem-Vis says. Workers at the receiving store will remove the tag after placing the goods on the shelves, then return it to the DC.

According to Riem-Vis, Manor is reluctant to reveal any financial information, such as ROI or the amount of money it lost annually before installing the system currently in use at the 30 stores. Riem-Vis says the company spent about €100 ($148) per tag, bringing the total cost of tags to about €180,000 ($267,000). In addition, it purchased the gateways used in stores, and pays yearly for the system's operation. Manor invested roughly €7,500 ($11,100) in equipment per store. The pilot to expand the system to Manor's DC and a supplier will cost roughly €15,000 ($22,244).

If all goes well, and if the company is pleased with the results of the upcoming pilot involving its distribution centers and Emmi, Manor says it may instruct its other suppliers to implement the RFID system as well.