Smart Dummies
The owner of Mannequin Madness, a home-based business, wants to use RFID to better service her customers and improve her company's productivity.
By Mary Catherine O'Connor
Aug. 1, 2006—Looking at Judi Henderson-Townsend's stately home on a quiet, tree-lined street in Oakland, Calif., you'd never guess that her basement, backyard and garage are strewn with torsos, legs and arms. She even rented a warehouse to store more body parts. But it's all perfectly legal. Henderson-Townsend owns Mannequin Madness, a name that now reflects how her home-based business has grown out of control.
Last summer, Henderson-Townsend entered a contest sponsored by Intel and the Small Business Technology Institute (SBTI) in San Jose. Her Internet strategist suggested that if she won the first-place $100,000 prize, she should use part of the funds to deploy an RFID system to keep track of her ever-changing inventory of roughly 1,500 mannequins and mannequin parts.
"When he told me all the advantages that RFID has to offer-saving time, increased efficiency, ease in use, ability to capture more data than bar codes-I was immediately hooked," says Henderson-Townsend, who was notified in March that she'd won the award. Now she would like to deploy an RFID system to make it easier to find the items requested by her customers.
Aug. 1, 2006—Looking at Judi Henderson-Townsend's stately home on a quiet, tree-lined street in Oakland, Calif., you'd never guess that her basement, backyard and garage are strewn with torsos, legs and arms. She even rented a warehouse to store more body parts. But it's all perfectly legal. Henderson-Townsend owns Mannequin Madness, a name that now reflects how her home-based business has grown out of control.
Last summer, Henderson-Townsend entered a contest sponsored by Intel and the Small Business Technology Institute (SBTI) in San Jose. Her Internet strategist suggested that if she won the first-place $100,000 prize, she should use part of the funds to deploy an RFID system to keep track of her ever-changing inventory of roughly 1,500 mannequins and mannequin parts.
|
| "I'm excited," says Judi Henderson-Townsend, "but I'm also frustrated about not being able to find an RFID vendor who can help me because I am a small business." |
"When he told me all the advantages that RFID has to offer-saving time, increased efficiency, ease in use, ability to capture more data than bar codes-I was immediately hooked," says Henderson-Townsend, who was notified in March that she'd won the award. Now she would like to deploy an RFID system to make it easier to find the items requested by her customers.
To continue reading this article, please log in or choose a purchase option.
Option 1: Become a Premium Member.
| One-year subscription, unlimited access to Premium Content: $189 |
Option 2: Purchase this article.
| Pages: 1 | Word Count: 388 | Purchase Price: $19.99 |
