Hampton Unlocks ROI From RFID
A supplier of locks and lighting to Wal-Mart deploys RFID "at minimal cost" and achieves benefits, including faster invoice payment and the ability to know which goods are lost or stolen.
By Jonathan Collins
Apr. 11, 2005—While Wal-Mart called on its top 100 suppliers to start RFID tagging of shipments to the retailer’s Sanger, Texas, distribution center beginning in January, another 37 smaller companies were so eager to get a jump start on using RFID that they volunteered to join the program. Hampton Products International was one of those suppliers. A privately held manufacturer of padlocks, door locks and outdoor lighting fixtures, Hampton counts Wal-Mart as its largest customer. By being among the first group, Hampton believes it will not only move ahead of its competitors in deploying and benefiting from RFID, but it will also have time to better understand the technology and how to best implement it before the company faces a deadline from customers such as Wal-Mart and competitive pressure from rivals that have adopted RFID.
“We want to own the technology,” says Brian Millsap, vice president and CIO at Hampton Products, which is based in Foothill Ranch, Calif. That strategy has meant that, rather than turn to a systems integrator or a single RFID package, the company used its own IT department to deploy its RFID system by working with a handful of technology providers. It has also meant that Hampton’s IT staff have been engaged in putting the tags on the cases, loading the tagged cases onto a pallet and then encoding and applying the pallet tag so the staff could learn how to use the technology.
“This was a team effort. We did it with in-house expertise and the help of our partners,” says Millsap.
Hampton Products worked with Avery Dennison Retail Information Services (RIS) to determine and deliver the specific RFID labels and label encoder-printers it would need. The company also deployed two readers from RFID equipment maker Matrics (now owned by Symbol Technologies) to help it assemble cases for orders for shipment to Wal-Mart as well as ensure each RFID tagged shipment is correctly assembled and shipped. To manage the RFID workflow, including tagging and verifying cases and pallets and linking its RFID network to its existing Exact Software WMS system, Hampton Products turned to RFID middleware specialist ConnecTerra and implemented ConnecTerra’s Compliance Jump Start (CJS) solution.
Apr. 11, 2005—While Wal-Mart called on its top 100 suppliers to start RFID tagging of shipments to the retailer’s Sanger, Texas, distribution center beginning in January, another 37 smaller companies were so eager to get a jump start on using RFID that they volunteered to join the program. Hampton Products International was one of those suppliers. A privately held manufacturer of padlocks, door locks and outdoor lighting fixtures, Hampton counts Wal-Mart as its largest customer. By being among the first group, Hampton believes it will not only move ahead of its competitors in deploying and benefiting from RFID, but it will also have time to better understand the technology and how to best implement it before the company faces a deadline from customers such as Wal-Mart and competitive pressure from rivals that have adopted RFID.
“We want to own the technology,” says Brian Millsap, vice president and CIO at Hampton Products, which is based in Foothill Ranch, Calif. That strategy has meant that, rather than turn to a systems integrator or a single RFID package, the company used its own IT department to deploy its RFID system by working with a handful of technology providers. It has also meant that Hampton’s IT staff have been engaged in putting the tags on the cases, loading the tagged cases onto a pallet and then encoding and applying the pallet tag so the staff could learn how to use the technology.
“This was a team effort. We did it with in-house expertise and the help of our partners,” says Millsap.
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| Hampton Products headquarters and distribution center |
Hampton Products worked with Avery Dennison Retail Information Services (RIS) to determine and deliver the specific RFID labels and label encoder-printers it would need. The company also deployed two readers from RFID equipment maker Matrics (now owned by Symbol Technologies) to help it assemble cases for orders for shipment to Wal-Mart as well as ensure each RFID tagged shipment is correctly assembled and shipped. To manage the RFID workflow, including tagging and verifying cases and pallets and linking its RFID network to its existing Exact Software WMS system, Hampton Products turned to RFID middleware specialist ConnecTerra and implemented ConnecTerra’s Compliance Jump Start (CJS) solution.
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