RFID Cooks Up Tray Visibility for Chicago Bakery

In the future, the company may opt to install portals at some of the distribution depots, in order to provide automated data regarding when trays were received by the depots or shipped to customers—as well as to which route, in the case of trays broken down from their original pallets. For trouble spots along certain routes, Alpha might find it necessary to provide drivers with handheld readers, so that they can read the trays' tag IDs as they are delivered and retrieved from customers.

"We believe there is a return on investment," McGuire says, though his company has yet to calculate the amount of return that it has achieved. The firm is continuing to examine how it can best utilize the system's data, he says, noting that the solution "will only be as good as what we do with the data."

Patrick Kennedy

The solution that Orbis developed with The Kennedy Group for Alpha will now also be marketed to the reusable tray company's other customers, Klimko says. "We found many of our customers were having problems with asset loss," he states, "so instead of just ignoring the problem, we decided to get together with The Kennedy Group for the RFID technology."

"Our long-term plan," Klimko adds, "is to roll it out for the industry," with The Kennedy Group providing the RFID hardware, ePReusable software and integration and installation services, just as it did for Alpha Baking Co.

A measurable sign of the baking company's successful use of the system, Klimko notes, occurred on Labor Day—a holiday on which bakeries typically receive extra orders, and must thus order larger stock of trays. For the first time, Klimko says, "We didn't have any orders from Alpha."